Blocking phone numbers

Administrators at some sites may want to prevent all phone users from dialing certain phone numbers or kinds of numbers under any circumstances, for example, a 900 number with a specific exchange. You can block undesirable phone numbers from all users by creating a classification named Blocked Numbers, for example, and assigning this classification name to all instances of blocked numbers in the Dial Plan. As long as no stations, users, roles, or workgroups are given access to the Blocked Numbers classification (on the Access Control pages), nobody will be able to dial a number in the Blocked Numbers classification. If a blocked number is dialed, caller will hear the prompt, I'm sorry, but you do not have sufficient dialing privileges to dial that number.

To block one or more phone numbers in CIC:

1. On the Classifications page in the Phone Number container, create a phone number classification name Blocked Numbers. This is an example name; you can name it anything you like.

2. On the Input Conversion page, check to see if there is an input pattern that covers the kind of phone number you wish to block. For example, if you wish to block certain 900 numbers, create one or more input conversion objects that standardize the blocked numbers you wish to capture. In the case of 900 numbers with a 976 exchange, create Input Conversion Objects to capture the phone number 900976xxxxZ and standardize it to +1900976xxxx.

3. On the Dial Plan property page, create a Dial Plan object that matches the standardized input captured by the Input Conversion property page. In the case of the 900976 example, the Input Pattern would be +1900976xxxxZ. Select the Dialing Classification for blocking numbers (for example, Blocked Numbers) on this object.

4. Do not assign, or let anyone else assign the Blocked Numbers classification to any user, workgroup, role or station on the Access Control page in any of these configurations.

You do not have to capture the dialed number with a specific instance of each number on the Input Conversion property page because the number is captured with a general pattern on that page. However, you may need to create multiple patterns on the Input Conversion page in order to capture the various ways the number may be dialed, such as with or without the leading 1 (for example, 900976xxxxZ and 1900976xxxxZ).