Classes of Service

Classes of Service can be found under Features - Classes of Service.

This feature allows you to bar Telephone Lines from being able to call certain numbers or numbers starting with a particular area code. This helps reduce costs with expensive calls and can stop outbound call abuse. There are a number of dialling codes, such as national numbers starting with 01 and 02. There are also Non-Geographic numbers that replaced 0845 and this is the 03 range of numbers. Most mobiles start with 07 but there are some personal numbers that are more expensive to call. The 08 number range has a mixed charging method so this needs to be broken down. The 09 range is very expensive, finally, numbers starting 00 are international numbers so these would normally be barred to reduce costs.

To make things easier we have automatically generated a Class of Service and we apply this to any new Extension that is created on the system. This is to try and help with phone abuse or if a telephone Extension is hacked, it is limited to UK calls only.

You should see under Classes of Service this default Class of Service. Click on it and it will take you into these default settings.

There are already a certain number prefixes that are set as ‘Forbid’ and others that are set to ‘Allow’. If you want to make changes, we suggest making a copy of this Class of Service using the ‘make copy’ option at the bottom of the page. You can then apply this new Class of Service with your changes to the Telephone Lines.

This is how you create a new Class of Service from scratch.

Click ‘New’ on the bottom right-hand side of the page.

New Class of Service

Name
Give the Class of Service a name that will help you when selecting it under each Telephone Line. In this example, we will put ‘No International except USA office.’
Description
You can put some more detail here but this isn’t required.
Default for internal calls
This is set to Allow by default but you could change this to Forbid. This will block any internal calls. Keep in mind you will not be able to transfer calls etc. This would only be used if you had a cold calling team ringing out and you didn’t want them to talk to each other internally for example.
Default for external calls
This is set to Allow by default but you could change this to Forbid. This will block any external calls. This could be a good option if you had a handset in a reception where you wanted someone to simply dial an internal number.
Forward forbidden calls to
If this is left empty the caller will hear a message. You could forward these calls to the managers extension or a Feature Code and play another message so the caller can be warned for making calls they shouldn’t be.

 

Once you have clicked save, you can now select the new Class of Service and start to add your call barring Numbers or Number Prefixes.

 

External Exceptions
Click ‘New’ and you can start to create your call bar.

You can create one for each destination prefix you want to bar.

Call direction
You can also amend this option to bar particular internal numbers. This would normally be left to external so you can add external barring.
Number or prefix
Enter the number or prefix here. In our example, we are barring 00 for international calls.
Allow calls
Default is set to Allow but you need to change this to enable the barring of the prefix.

 

The USA office number has been entered but set to ‘Allow,’ even though it starts with the prefix we barred above. The system works out that this call can still be made.

To enable this on a Telephone Line (handset) you need to go to Features- Telephone Lines and click on each telephone you wish to have the new Class of Service enabled on. Alternatively, you can use the bulk change option at the bottom of the Telephone Line page. The Class of Service tab on the Telephone Line will only appear if there are Classes of Service created.

Other Options for this Class of Service
Make copy
Allows for a duplication of the Class of Service you are currently editing.
Notes
You can add notes under this section if you would like to store more information about this Class of Service.