Turn Off FPL Voice Mail

[pitcritter]

Thanks to posts here (Thanks Jake) and some Googling, I've now successfully (mostly ) setup a PBXes account to simultaneously ring one landline, one POTS handset via ATA and two cellphones (one US, one CDN) when someone dials my FPL number. I can now give my friends one number and they can get me wherever I am.

The one thing that seems to be getting in my way is that my FPL v-mail picks up before I have a chance to pick up on another phone.

Is there a way to actually turn off VM on FPL? Are there any settings that I need to change on my ATA (SPA)?

My plan is to turn off VM everywhere except for PBXes itself. That should solve my current issues, I believe.

Once I get that running, I plan on tying in my Google Voice account to PBXes and that would give me one CDN and one US number that would ring all my phones. To me, that would be $5/mo well spent.

One step at a time...

[Jake]

On my PBX here I have set it up to automatically answer the call (via a blank announcement) that automatically forwards it onto the ring groups.

I don't have a paid account at pbxes, but maybe play around with the digital receptionist to see if you make make it answer the call, but forward straight away to the ring groups. This way the call is answered and FPL's voicemail won't kick in.

[pitcritter]

Jake, I believe that the real issue is that my FPL number is one of the extensions in my "ringall" ring group. Once it picks up, the rest stop ringing.

[Jake]

Jake, I believe that the real issue is that my FPL number is one of the extensions in my "ringall" ring group. Once it picks up, the rest stop ringing.

Ah OK, I see. Do you see any option like call confirm? This would mean you have to press a button when you answer the call, but should stop the call being answered by the answer phone.

Failing that, you could try playing around with forwarding your FPL number to another number which might give you a bit more time. Even forward it to the number that the people originally called and see how much of a loop mess you can get yourself into

[TheHardy]

Shove your "rings until voicemail setting" to the maximum in FPL (12) if you have not already done so. Looping the call as Jake suggested also works (I have that with my cellphone) which ends up ringing me TWICE there before FPL voicemail kicks on in ... but beware, you can get yourself not being able to answer a call too, with that kind of a set up ...

[pitcritter]

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. Off to play...

[TheHardy]

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. Off to play...

Do be aware, in case you missed it in other threads, that Fongo does not offer the ability to turn it's VM off completely, as it receives revenue for TERMINATING calls, and therefore wishes all calls to be answered SOMEWHERE (ie: it's vmail) if not elsewhere...

While unable to DISABLE VM, there are things to work around that to a certain extent ...