Phone Numbers (Admin Center)

Usage and Types of Phone Numbers---
- Phone Numbers VS Phone Lines
- Direct and Main Numbers
Existing Phone Numbers
Adding New Numbers
- Buying New Phone Numbers
- Porting Phone Numbers
Phone Numbers Settings ---
Routing and Forwarding---

Usage and Types of Phone Numbers

The phone numbers available here are standard ten-digit long (including the area code). They can be used as caller IDs for outbound calls or as direct numbers for inbound callers to reach users and departments faster and more conveniently. Phone numbers can also be assigned to fax and SMS lines.

You can select one of these numbers as the main number for your company or organization. You will assign it to an IVR menu to greet callers and help them navigate your phone system. See more about IVR here.

Phone Numbers VS Phone Lines

Telebroad's phone system is a cloud-based PBX, meaning users are initially only assigned internal phone lines or extensions that are 3-7 digits long for calling each other.

A user's phone lines can be created and managed by selecting the user in Admin Center Menu>Users & Phones and expanding the Lines & Devices options.

Outside callers need to dial the company's main number and enter users' lines of associated extensions. They can also use the dial-by-name feature to reach users.

You can, however, assign ten-digit phone numbers to users so they can be called directly. This is called DID – Direct Inbound Dialing.

Direct and Main Numbers

There are two types of phone numbers:

Direct Number: These are numbers assigned to users as DID numbers so outside callers can call them directly without having to navigate the phone system menus.

A user's direct numbers can be managed by selecting the user in Admin Center Menu>Users & Phones and selecting Direct Numbers.
Main Number: These are numbers assigned to any other phone system destinations.

You define the phone number in the General Settings>User by selecting either a user (Direct Number) or No Owner (Main Number).

Existing Phone Numbers

Access your list of existing phone numbers from Admin Center Menu>Phone Numbers.

Numbers are listed under the Phone Number, Description (optional), Type (direct or main number), SMS Enabled indication, and Default Destination (see Default Calling Route) columns. Clicking on the Starred column will add a phone number to the home page Starred Features panel for fast access.

You can download a CSV file of existing numbers with the button. The file shows the Number, Description, a User ID to whom the number is assigned (0 if the number is not assigned to any user), Usage type (call, fax, or both), SMS Enabled status (true or false value), Destination Type (phone line for user or any other destination for main numbers), and the Destination Number (this can also be a system ID for the destination).

Select to search the numbers list by number, description, or destination. You can also search by values from the CSV file.

Being Cautious About Deleting Phone Numbers

You can delete phone numbers from your account by checking them and clicking , but be aware that removed phone numbers can be assigned to another customer at any time and you might never be able to recover them.

To prevent accidental deletion you will be asked to enter your account password.

Adding New Numbers

When you open a Telebroad account we will set up the Admin Center with phone numbers you own or have bought from us. But unlike internal lines that can be generated in the Admin Center, the ownership of additional ten-digit numbers requires you to buy new numbers or port over your existing numbers from other providers.

Buying New Phone Numbers

Order a new phone number by clicking ADD PHONE NUMBER and selecting Buy New Phone Number. You can search for available numbers by area code or state. Select your new number, click CHECKOUT, and click ADD NUMBER to complete the purchase process and provision the number to your account.

The cost of the new numbers depends on your subscription. You may be billed for it if you are already using all the numbers included in the subscription.

Since the availability of a number is not guaranteed you should not advertise or provide it to your customers until provisioning is complete and tested.

You can enable the new number for SMS/MMS messages in the General Settings, but please contact our support team if you want to use it for e-fax.

Porting Phone Numbers

Before porting numbers, you may want to review this article explaining what porting is and this one for required documents and an overview.

A porting process can take up to 30 business days. Telebroad cannot guarantee the success of the process, but we will work with you to resolve any issues that may delay it.

Porting numbers from the Admin Center is faster and more efficient, but should you prefer, it can also be done by submitting an LOA (Letter of Authorization) and supporting documents to our customer support team. The LOA gives us the legal authority to port your numbers to Telebroad.

If you are porting a toll-free number we might need to send you an additional form to be filled.

To port phone numbers click ADD PHONE NUMBER, select Port Phone Number, complete the porting request LOA, and click Submit.

The LOA form has four parts:

1)Existing service information.

Your company name: Self-explanatory.
First Name, Last Name, Email Address: Use the details of the person responsible for managing the phone number account. This can be yourself, your IT/Phone system administrator, accounting manager, etc.
Current Billing Address (Address line 2, City, State, Zip): The billing address for the ported phone number that you have on file with your current provider (which may be identical or different from your Telebroard billing address).

2)Phone numbers to be ported.

You can port multiple numbers with the same porting request if they share the same existing service information. Use the + button to add additional numbers to the porting request.

Phone number: When you enter the phone number the system will check and show the name of the service provider it is registered with. Verify this is the correct provider to avoid porting delays.
Billing Phone Number: The billing phone number for the ported phone number that you have on file with your current provider (which may be identical or different from your Telebroard billing number).
Account PIN: A short number that protects your account from unauthorized porting. It is usually provided with your initial phone number registration. If you forgot your PIN see if it's available by logging into your account with your current provider. Otherwise, contact your current provider and request it.
A copy of your recent phone bill. Drag and drop a PDF or image file over the box or click it to navigate to the file. The copy of the bill allows us to compare and confirm the details you provided.

3)Terms and conditions.

Check the confirmation box to acknowledge you read and agree with the terms and conditions of the porting process, and that your phone numbers are active and appear on your latest provider invoice, with no open orders, no DSL/Broadband or additional telephone services associated with them, and that you possess the most recent bill listing all the numbers you wish to port. You also confirm that you are the authorized person to sign the LOA form.

PIC freeze (Preferred Carrier Freeze) is a security measure, in addition to the account PIN, to prevent unauthorized switching of service. If you have a PIC freeze in place you need to ask your current provider to remove it. If you don't, the process will be delayed and no FOC date (Firm Order Commitment – the porting date) will be provided. If we encounter a PIC freeze while processing a porting request, we will contact you to ask you to remove it.

4)Your name and signature.

Fill in your name and use your mouse or touch screen to draw your signature in the signature box.

Phone Numbers Settings

Select any number to show its settings page with three expandable settings categories.

When making changes you need to make sure to SAVE each category separately.

On the top-right, you can use the arrows to select the next or previous phone number without having to go back to the phone numbers list.

General Settings

The greyed-out fields are still under development.

Description: This is optional, but can help you remember the function of the number.
Usage: Select if the number can be used as a caller ID in the TeleConsole for calling, outgoing fax, or both.
Caller ID Access: Select which users can use this phone number as a caller ID for outbound calls or faxes. The checkbox next to the search box lets you select or unselect all users.

Note that there is a general account setting that either allows or prevents all users from being able to change caller ID for calling or faxing. Find it under Account>Account Profile>Restrict Caller ID changes for users.
User: Selecting a user defines the number as a direct number. Selecting a No Owner defines it as a main number.
Enable SMS: Toglle on this option to enable selected users to send and receive SMS/MMS messages on the number.
SMS Users (grayed out if "Enable SMS" is disabled): Select the users who can use the number to send and receive SMS/MMS messages. Checking the box next to the search field will select or deselect all users.

If you select several users you essentially create an SMS group where the users can all view and reply to the SMS messages sent to the number. To help decide who is responsible for particular messages, users in the group can assign them as tasks as explained here.
SMS Notification Emails: Provide email addresses of users or anyone else you would like to receive notifications about SMS/MMS messages. The notification emails include the name/number of the sender and the text of the message. Images or other files sent with the message are attached to the email.

You can enter multiple addresses using the space bar or by pressing enter.
Fax Users: This and the Fax Notification Email option only shows if the number is configured by our support team to receive faxes.

Select the users who can use the number to receive faxes. Checking the box next to the search field will select or deselect all users.

If you select several users you essentially create a fax group where the users can all view faxes sent to the number. To help decide who is responsible for particular faxes, users in the group can assign them as tasks as explained here.
Fax Notification Emails: Provide email addresses of users or anyone else you would like to receive notifications about SMS/MMS messages. The notification emails include the name/number of the sender and an attachment of the fax.

You can enter multiple addresses using the space bar or by pressing enter.
Enable call recording: When enabled, only incoming calls will be recorded by default. If you wish to record outgoing calls as well, you will need to enable call recordings on each individual phone line by selecting the user in Admin Center Menu>Users & Phones and then selecting Lines & Devices, edit the relevant line ( ), and select General Info>Enable call recordings.
Email to Fax Settings: Click this button to see and add records to a list of authorized users who can send faxes from the phone number using the email-to-fax feature.

Make sure that the usage option for the number includes faxing. Users can then fax documents simply by emailing them to [faxnumber]@fax.telebroad.com.

In the Authorized Email Address field, you can enter the user's account email address or any other email address. This address will be used in the fax history to show the sender.

To actually authorize the user, select him from the User drop-down list and click .

You can edit the details of users you have already added to the list and click to save the changes. Select to remove a user from the list.

Advanced Settings

The first three options allow you modify how caller IDs of incoming calls to the phone number are registered and shown in the Admin Center. Modifying these affects only future calls (records of existing calls are not modified).

Caller Tag Name: The caller tag is an additional text that gets added or replaces the name part of the caller ID for incoming calls received by the phone number. The tag, together with the number of the caller and their name, shows up in relevant pages and records of the admin center, such as the Call History Report, as the full identity of the caller.
Caller Tag behavior: If you added a Caller Tag name select if you want it to Replace the name part of the caller ID or have it displayed before or after it (Append or Prepend).
Force caller ID: Use this option to replace the number part of the caller ID for incoming calls received by the phone number. The number you select here, together with the caller's name and tag, shows up on relevant records of the admin center, such as the Call History Report, as the full identity of the caller.

Selecting Original will keep the caller's original number.

Call Screening: Call screening gives the user an idea about the identity of a caller so they can decide if to accept the call or not.

Enable the feature by selecting:
- Yes, and play caller ID: The system will play the caller ID of the caller to the user before they decide to take the call.
- Yes, and ask caller to record (his) name: The system will prompt the caller to record their name and play it to the user before they decide to take the call.
- Play file: The system asks the caller to record their name using the user's Call Screening Message and plays the caller's name to the user before they decide to take the call.
- Play file and caller ID: The system asks the caller to record their name using the user's Call Screening Message and plays the caller's name and caller ID to the user before they decide to take the call.
- No: to disable call screening. Note that this may override routing. If you don't want to override use...
- Unchanged (defaults to): Disables call screening without affecting any routing.
Request special ring tone: Select a special tone that callers will hear while their call is ringing. Select None to keep the standard ringtone.

Force hangup after: Use this option to limit the duration of active calls, for example when you don't want call center agents to spend too much time on each call. Select from 1-1000 minutes time limit or No limit.

PIN/Confirm PIN: Enter and confirm a PIN to permit user to remotely update the phone number's default calling route and "Play announcement before routing" message. Leave these empty to prevent updating the phone number.

For this to work you need to create an extension with a default calling route of the "Number menu" (found under the Predefined features destinations). When a user calls that extension, they can enter their phone number and PIN. The system will then prompt him to "Set the destination" or "Work with the message".

Allow to enter this number in IVR menus: When this is toggled on, callers can dial the phone number from an IVR menu to reach the user/phone line it is associated with as a direct number. If this is toggled off, the caller will get an error message when trying to dial the number.

Include in directory: Toggle this on to include the number in the Dial by Name menu. The number will be listed under the user who is selected in the number's General Settings.

Phone Number Music/Audio Selection

You can select or change the music or audio files callers hear when they get placed on hold, being routed from the phone number, or if the call screening feature is enabled.

Music on Hold

Select to listen to the current music or sound callers hear when placed on hold. Change the current music with Select Music or select Use Default to go back to the system's default music.

Each on-hold music selection can contain up to 10 audio files that will play in a sequence. When you select or change the music you can use the arrow buttons to switch back and forth between those files (indicated as 1/3 in the following example.)

On the Edit Music screen you can select Add Music to go to the Voice Features>Audio Files>Music on Hold options. After naming the music you can upload, record, or use text-to-speech to create music on hold sequence. See more about on-hold music and audio files here.

Call Screening Custom Message/Play Announcement Before Routing

Call screening message: If Play file or Play file and caller ID are enabled in the Enable call screening field (see General Settings in the previous section), the audio file selected here will be played to the caller to make them aware of being call-screened and ask them to record their name.

Play announcement before routing: An announcement, music, or sound played to a caller when they get routed to the phone number.

If a message/announcement has not been assigned yet, you will see the option to create one by selecting Add Sound.

Otherwise, an audio player will let you listen to the current message/announcement. Use the mini-menu () on the right of the audio player to Download a WAV file of the audio or change its Playback Speed.

You can Change an existing greeting or Remove it.

Adding or Changing Message/Announcement

When you select to add or change the message/announcement you will see two tabs:

Under the Audio tab you can Upload or Record a new audio file. Select Save Sound to keep the file and assign it to the message/announcement.

You can also select an Existing Sound to pick it from files you already recorded or uploaded.
Don't have a file to upload or prefer not to use your own voice? No problem.

Under the Text to Speech tab you can type the message/announcement and have it generated as an audio file with a voice, pitch, and accent of your choice. You can even select different languages and the text will be automatically generated in the selected language.

Select Generate and Preview to listen to the generated audio. If you are satisfied with it select Save Sound to keep it and assign it to the message/announcement.

Routing and Forwarding

Default Calling Route

This is the destination where the phone number will route calls.

Select the type of destination from the Route To drop-down list. For your company's main number, you would commonly select an IVR menu and the main IVR associated with it. If the number is used as a user's Direct Number, you would select Phone and the user line associated with it.

You can also select any of the Admin Center's routings and features to use the phone number in any manner you wish. If the phone number is not routed to a user's phone line (Direct Number) you should set the User field to No Owner in the General Settings.

Select the actual destination from the Destination drop-down list. Not all destination types will offer this choice because some function as a destination by themselves, for example "Hang up call", "Busy tone", or "Music".

Temporary Forwarding – Override schedules and caller ID routes: You can toggle this on to have calls routed to the Default destination or a Specific number even when schedules or caller ID routings are configured and enabled.

Call Routing Schedules

This allows you to automatically route calls from the phone number based on an assigned schedule. You can assign multiple schedules, each will route calls or perform a different phone system function at different times.

You can create a new schedule as needed by clicking the button and selecting Create New Schedule. Existing schedules can be managed by going to Admin Center Menu>Voice Features>Schedules and are discussed here.

Use to unassign a schedule from the phone number. Doing this will NOT delete the schedule from the system.

Use Add Schedule Route to assign a schedule to a phone number. Select an existing schedule from the Schedule field and a destination or feature for the call in the Route To field.

Call Routing Based on Caller ID

This is essentially a call screening or blocking feature that lets you route calls depending on the caller ID of a caller. Use it to block unwanted callers or automatically route certain callers to the most suitable destination. You can also screen anonymous callers who hide their caller ID.

When routing, you can match a whole number or just the prefix (such as an area code). If more than one caller ID route matches the caller's number, the longest prefix will apply.

Use Add Caller ID Route to create a new routing and provide a whole number or a prefix. If you don't provide anything, the route will match unknown callers with hidden caller ID.

Enter the destination or system feature in the Route To field. The default destination is "Hang up call" which basically blocks unwanted calls. But you can select any destination or feature and route legitimate calls to relevant queues, agents, extensions, IVR menus, etc.

In the example shown in the figure we automatically route all calls from a company with phone numbers starting with 646-799 to the technical support hunt group.

Articles in this folder