The technology used earlier is premise based. Built on PBX equipments hosted and owned by the call centers. Feature and function side this technology offers automated call distribution, IVR and skill based routing etc. One drawback is that the operator needs to do the maintenance on his own and so would be the software upgrades.

Virtual call center technology stays ahead in every aspect and also it cuts the need for the operator to do the back end works or other maintenance. What happens here is the call centers never own or need to own or to host the equipment, but this is done by a vendor and for the service the call centers take, they pay an amount monthly or annually. Call centers connect to the provider by making use of public switched telephone network or VoIP, the rest procedures are done from the vendor end.

Its a good choice to make an upgrade and run things smooth and more efficient as it should always be. Could be a much of a problem going for an upgrade, just the simple reason that you can find lot vendors offering virtual call center software. What you need to is chose a provider that offers virtual call center services cheap and the same time exceptional services.

Fully featured software would deliver you maximum productivity on the floor and the same time perfect customer service. Running things low cost is one main concern for any enterprise and so would be efficiency. So its really required that you stick to a provider that got for you prompt, impeccable service delivery and the charges levied light.

These are few of the other features you can expect from a good provider other than getting you high quality calls cheap. Call campaigns with voice broadcasting, provisions for your executives to work off the office or work from anywhere options, multiple dialing programs, inbound calls auto process features, online reports and admin facilities, easy use CRM with advanced management capabilities. Few of the providers got their own patented software to run things smooth and easy as you could ever imagine, but the cost to feature ratio is what one need to really weight before choosing to stick with any.

Apart from these, every consultant at Apps is Digium certified- the creator and the sponsor to open source, free-ware Asterisk. All them went through hands-on training and after the completion, they were required to build and configure an actual PBX system, and on successful completion to gain a dCAP certificate. A written exam was also required, to scale the knowledge on Asterisk and other related VoIP technologies. Apps Communications certification covers the most current, stable version of Asterisk. Every dCAP certified personnels have priority access to Digium technical support, in addition to numerous other benefits. Unlike many other “paper” certifications, the dCAP provides members with valuable services, while providing customers with assurance that their Asterisk consultant is fully qualified.

An Apps Communications Asterisk consultant can help you out with the following services:

• Configuring an Asterisk telephone system
• Maintain an existing Asterisk telephone system
• Implementing new or custom Asterisk telephone features
• Enhance existing Asterisk features to fit your needs
• Integrate an Asterisk telephone system with third party applications, such as a CRM application

Asterisk In The Call Center

Asterisk is deployed and made use by multitudes of call centers round the globe. The software is very flexible and gives easy options for both call center and contact center developers to built complete ACD systems based on Asterisk. The Asterisk has also added a new life to every existing call center solutions by providing remote IP agent capabilities, predictive and bulk dialing, advanced skills-based routing, and many more. The Asterisk Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) helps create call centers to handle thousands of simultaneous calls, and routing them to agents based on caller input, dialed number, load and other factors. The ACD systems typically cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and require specialized training to install and operate. Asterisk makes it possible for you to build a powerful ACD with no additional cost other than server hardware and phones.

What Does Asterisk Do?

Asterisk can be considered just like an erector set or a box of Legos for everyone who want to create communications applications.Its for the same same reason, we refer to it as a “tool-kit” or “development platform”. Now, the Asterisk bundles every required building blocks and tools that are necessary to create a PBX system, an IVR system or virtually any other kind of communications solution. For you to setup things accordingly, Asterisk provides the following:

• Drivers for various VoIP protocols.
• Drivers for PSTN interface cards and devices.
• Routing and call handling for incoming calls.
• Outbound call generation and routing.
• Media management functions (record, play, generate tone, etc.).
• Call detail recording for accounting and billing.
• Transcoding (conversion from one media format to another).
• Protocol conversion (conversion from one protocol to another).
• Database integration for accessing information on relational databases.
• Web services integration for accessing data using standard internet protocols.
• LDAP integration for accessing corporate directory systems.
• Single and mult-party call bridging.
• Call recording and monitoring functions.
• Integrated “Dialplan” scripting language for call processing.
• External call management in any programming or scripting language through Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)
• Event notification and CTI integration via the Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI).
• Speech synthesis (aka “text-to-speech”) in various languages and dialects using third party engines.
• Speech recognition in various languages using third party recognition engines.

This situation leaves many 21^st century organisations in a bit of a quandary. Companies that stretch across the globe are used to bringing their best minds together to create ideal solutions. But in a world that moves faster and faster by the day, it is no longer possible for people to meet face to face. For example, if a company with offices in London and New York needs to meet urgently there is no time for an executive to hop on a plane. By the time he or she arrives at a meeting the opportunity could have already passed.

If technology has created this problem it has also created the answer: conference calls. Conference calls allow people to hold instant meetings. Great sound quality removes any distraction and allows colleagues to get straight to important matters. With this innovation meetings can be conducted at the new pace of business. Many companies already use conference calls to increase their efficiency, and as the world moves faster and faster, many more are sure to join them.

India On is an initiative led by Qualcomm to bring together leaders of Indian industries to envision and create a wireless India like never before, where wireless technologies are deeply integrated with our everyday lives.

Please visit http://www.qualcommindiaon.com for details of the conference agenda, the list of distinguished speakers, topics of discussion and more related information.

Check out blog posts at http://qualcommindiaon.blogspot.com/ by top level Qualcomm executives, sharing their opinion on different aspects of the wireless industry.

Follow the website for updates on the significant announcements that will be made at the conference by several of the leading companies present at the event. Watch online videos of some revolutionary new innovations in the wireless space. Post your comments online and join related threads of discussion on Twitter.

Unstructured supplementary service data  is a capability associated with GSM based mobile phones with the ability to process real time data. Messages sent via USSD cannot be stored and sent later or manupulated. This implies that it is session oriented.  Messages can be sent from the cell phone screen page directly. Response times of applications using USSD is less compared to other SMS since USSD is session oriented. USSD allows for virtual home network where the commands sent via USSD are routed back to Home Location Register of the home mobiles network. Sim application toolkit and the wireless application protocol complies with USSD.  This concept is the same as that while roaming. USSD is basically a trigger rather than some application and it can be used to sent text between the user and various applications. Basically it enables other applications to function based on USSD. USSD is something like telnet while on the other hand SMS is like a regualr mail.

When we deal with bulk outbound calls sometime there is a chance to miss calls if you are using call file as a mechanism for auto dial out. This is called asterisk choking. when too many files are moved simultaneously into the outgoing directory. Therefore it may be advisable to move them step-by-step with a slight delay.

Solutions to overcome this Asterisk choking

1) Using Manager API is a solution

2) Feed the outgoing folder with less number of calls simultaneously.

3) Find the cause and fix it in the source code.

4) Find out apt time delay between copying of call files.

There are certain prerequisites to make the application works.

1) Internet connection enabled asterisk server for pulling information from 4INFO.

2) Ceptral voice synthesizer for asterisk

Add a SIP user with an that points to the context “hotspot” with extension 9434 which is actually WiFi on the keypad of the softphone or mobile phone.

Add dialplan for the context hotspot in extension.conf.

[hotspot]

exten => 9434,1,Answer
exten => 9434,2,Wait(1)
exten => 9434,3,Set(TIMEOUT(digit)=7)
exten => 9434,4,Set(TIMEOUT(response)=10)
exten => 9434,5,Flite(“At the beep enter the zip code for the Why Fye Hot Spots list to retrieve.”)
exten => 9434,6,Read(ZIPCODE,beep,5)
exten => 9434,7,Flite(“Please hold a moment while we contact Four Info dot Net for your report.”)
exten => 9434,8,AGI(nv-wifi.php|${ZIPCODE})
exten => 9434,9,NoOp(Wave file: ${TMPWAVE})
exten => 9434,10,Playback(${TMPWAVE})
exten => 9434,11,Hangup

Log on to the server as root and navigate the folder “/var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin” using the terminal.

cd /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin
wget http://nerdvittles.com/wp-content/nv-wifi.zip
mv nv-wifi.php nv-wifi.old.php
unzip nv-wifi.zip
rm -f nv-wifi.zip
chmod 775 nv-wifi.php
chown asterisk:asterisk nv-wifi.php

vim /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/bv-wifi.php

Update this variables.

$paywifi = 1 ;
$freewifi = 1 ;

$ttspick=1;

We have to create a tts directory which is the place where sound files created during the execution of AGI.

Log on to the server as root and navigate the folder “/var/lib/asterisk/sounds” using the terminal.

cd /var/lib/asterisk/sounds
mkdir tts
chmod 775 tts
chown asterisk:asterisk tts

Done with configurations. You have to clean the tts folder on a periodic basis, use some crontab for that. If you are not doing this some kind of issue may pop-up which destabilize the asterisk sever with signal and sound issues.

How it operate with a phone?

1) Dial 9434

2) It will prompt you to enter a 5 digit zip code in US.

Now you can hear hear the report, if you are not hearing anything, that means no hot spot available.

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk is an open source software PBX (Private Branch Exchange). It provides all the functionality of high-end business telephone systems, and more over its the most extensible and flexible telephone system. In layman’s terms its the software version of a telephone exchange. Install it on your linux machine and with some configuration you can have a VOIP telephone exchange in your home PC.

Is it Complicated?
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It is just like any other linux open source project. You have some configuration files, edit it and you are up and running. Some knowledge of Linux commands can be helpful, even if you don’t know it you can always refer some ebook or the man pages. Setting up a VOIP telephone exchange and making calls via software phones wont take more than an hour. See how simple it is.

Whats in it for my Academic Project?

You can create your own IVRs (Interactive voice response) systems, answering machines, caller identification systems, call routing systems and your own private secure internet telephone exchange. Once you get into it, its your imagination that limits the opportunities.

Will it Help me Find a Job?
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Asterisk is your ticket to the telecom domain. There is no other easy DIY means to get into the telecom industry and the technologies that it uses. Asterisk experts are paid 50$ to 100$ per hour in foriegn countries. All the hardware PBX machines will be replaced with Asterisk machines in a few years time.

Oh This Sound Cool. But Where do I Begin

These links will help you get started.

• http://www.asterisk.org/
• http://www.asteriskdocs.org/
• http://www.the-asterisk-book.com/unstable/

Hold on, like all other providers, Skype also have some hidden things in the unlimited plan. It is not actually unlimited, restricted around to 10000 minutes. I think its more than enough for international calls for a month. Actually the cost is $12.25/month, but if you purchase a package for 3 or 12 months you will offered a 33% discount. The offer is valid till June 1′st 2008. So hurry up and grab this offer.

Skype already merchandised their products all over US and Canada. How ever still lagging very much behind in Indian markets, where the real tech geeks and internet enthusiast resides. Yes this plan is not applicable for Indians .