Topic: How to Divert from Exchange - Australia

[NetDreamer]

I have been trying to allow an immediate diversion form the local telephone exchange in Australia - to do this you would normally dial (on a PSTN line)  *21telephoneNumber#  however when i enter this dial asterisk informs me there is no such extension. The problem seems to be that SAIL exchanges the # for a %23


Asterisk CLI output.
Call from '5003' to extension '*210439711499%23' rejected because extension not found.

when entered from Asterisk CLI call goes through and calls are diverted at exchange. 
Also in Australia to undivert we need to dial #21# so the hash symbol causes problems again.

I have read that lines & extensions can be diverted in asterisk with *21*Number but this is a different issue.

How do I get around this problem?

[NetDreamer]

Have now found a workaround - by creating a custom app

custom_app name DivertCalls

code
; *21Number# for immediate divert at telephone exchange
; #21#  to cancel divert at exchange
;
exten => 2100,1,Dial(Zap/3-1/#21#)
exten => 2101,1,Dial(Zap/3-1/*21YourPhoneNumber#)

this at least will allow access to Australian exchange codes, I will work on expanding the app to include user specified divert number later.

[SARK devs]

Hello Netdreamer

Your workaround is the recommended way of sending control characters to an upstream carrier.  SAIL actively stops */# sequences being sent to the PSTN as part of a dial (it will of course allow them as in-call DTMF to an upstream IVR).  This is to avoid conflict with internal asterisk and sail control sequences.  We can't predict/forsee control sequences for each and every telco around the world, and even if we could, there is likely to be conflict.    So... the recomended way is to create an arbitrary extension which you can then use in a custom app to indirectly send the control sequence.  We would normally suggest that you may want to protect/secure the sequence by using "Authenticate" in your custom app.

Kind Regards

S