Manage Public Numbers

This page contains instructions on how to add public phone numbers to a channel and how to manage them.

Overview

VoipNow allows you to add two types of public numbers to a channel: exclusive and stacked numbers.

Exclusive phone numbers are Direct Inward Dialing numbers (DIDs) that must be assigned by the administrator to the service providers that will be using them for their organizations, users, and extensions. For instance, if the administrator defines three exclusive numbers, but does not assign any of them to the service providers, then none of the service providers will ever be able to use them for their child accounts.

Stacked phone numbers are Direct Inward Dialing numbers (DIDs) available to all the service providers in the system without having to specifically assign them. If a service provider assigns a DID number to one of its organization accounts, that number will no longer be available to the other service providers. For instance, let us assume that the administrator defines three stacked numbers for a channel: 123, 79 and 456. If a service provider assigns 123 to one of its organizations, then the other service providers can only assign 79 and 456 to their organizations. These DID numbers can only be used by service providers for their organizations, users, and extensions if their See stacked phone numbers permission is enabled.

VoipNow provides two different methods that allow you to set up a new public phone number that will be used by the channel:

• upload a .csv file containing a group of public phone numbers
• manually add the numbers using the interface

No matter which method you use for adding a new number, go to Channels in the side menu. The Channel Management page displays a table with all the channels added to the system.

All public phone numbers added to the system are listed in the Public Phone Numbers Report, which you can access from Channels → Public Phone Numbers.

Import a number

To add a public phone number:

1. Click a channel in the table.
2. Select the Add Phone Numbers icon.
3. Select the Import phone numbers from file checkbox.
4. Use the Browse button or the Upload phone numbers text box to locate the file containing the desired public phone numbers.
5. Set field separator. This is the character used to separate the values from the .csv file. The default field separator is ',' (comma).

Manually add a number

You must not add more public numbers than the channel supports because that will lead to call routing problems.

To manually set up a public phone number:

1. Click a channel in the table.
2. Select the Add Phone Numbers icon.
3. Fill in the following details.
4. If the channel supports it, you may add several phone numbers to the same channel using the +/- buttons:
   
   • Public phone number: Specify the public phone number associated with the channel, in the form you want to present it to your organization. This is the number that must be called from the public network in order to access a user on the server.
   • DID (Direct Inward Dialing) number: The number sent by the provider to the server when the public phone number is contacted. By default, the two numbers are identical. The field gets automatically filled in with the same number as the public phone number. You can, however, specify a different number.
   • Location: Specify the location of the public phone number (e.g. a country, a city, another network, etc.)
   • Monthly amount paid to provider: The fee associated with the use of the DID number. This is for information purposes only, it is not used in the charging process.
   • Incoming calls cost <x> <currency> every <y> seconds: The fee <x> applied to all incoming calls routed through this channel every <y> seconds. The <currency> is the system default one, set up from the Unified Communications → Settings → Zero Priority → Charging page.
   • Assignation method: There are two types of phone numbers you can choose from: exclusive or stacked. Default value: Exclusive.
5. Click OK to add the new public phone number to the channel or Cancel to go back to the previous page without adding anything.

Assign number

Public phone numbers can be assigned to an account (service provider, organization, user) or extension directly from the Public Phone Numbers Report page.

1. Choose the public phone numbers you want to assign to an account by selecting their corresponding checkboxes.
   
2. Click the Assign to Entity link above the table. The Assign Public Phone Numbers page opens.
3. From the Assign public phone numbers to account, choose the account type or the extension you want to assign the number(s) to:
   
   • Extension
   • User
   • Organization
   • Service Provider
4. Click the corresponding account icon displayed in the Name of the new assignee field. A pop-up window will be displayed listing all the entities available in the system for the account type you have chosen in the previous step. The table also contains some additional information about each entity like, extension type, extension label, account status or account email. You can search for a specific account and navigate through the list using the available controls.
5. Click the name of the account you wish to assign the public phone number(s) to.
6. Click OK to confirm your settings and assign the public phone number(s) to the selected account.

Unassign a number

In the Public Phone Numbers table, click the button to remove a number from an account's Assigned public phone numbers pool. The number will be removed from the account's children's pools as well (e.g. If you remove the number from the organization's pool, the number will be removed from the organization's users and extension pools as well).

Move numbers

Public phone numbers can be moved from a channel to another whenever necessary:

1. Choose the public phone numbers you want to move by selecting their corresponding checkboxes.
   
2. Click the Move to channel link above the table. The Move Public Phone Numbers page opens.
3. Select the Agree to move public phone numbers to channel checkbox if you agree with the transfer.
4. Choose the new channel using the drop-down list. All available channels are displayed.
5. Click OK to finalize the transfer.

Search for a number

When the public phone numbers list is too long and you are searching for a specific number, you can use the controls displayed below.

Where:

• <number>: The public phone number you are looking for.
  
• <account_type>: The account type or extension the public phone number you are looking for is assigned to.
• <account_name>: The name of the account or the label of the extension whose public phone numbers you want to see.
• <channel_name>: The name of the channel the public numbers belong to.

Export public number

You can export the public phone numbers report to a Microsoft Excel file or a .csv format file using the Export to Excel or Export to CSV options.

Remove number

Please note that if a public phone number is assigned to an extension, it cannot be deleted. Therefore, the checkbox that would allow you to select it for removal will be disabled.

To remove a certain phone number:

1. Click a channel in the table.
2. Select the phone number's corresponding checkbox.
3. Click the Remove selected link.
4. Select the Confirm removal checkbox and click OK. Click Cancel if you want to return to the previous page without deleting these records.
   

The removal operation is permanent and once it is complete the channel cannot be restored.