#Dialing USA from UK
4 messages in this thread
Marisa,
I'm currently in the UK and need to be able to call home to CA. I subscribe to
a call-back service which allows me to connect into the USA domestic phone
network so I pay cheaper rates. It's a real money saver but the connection
sequence is unusual, I haven't been able to get Dialer set up to handle things
correctly, and I'm wearing out my fingers with all these numbers! I need
Dialer (4.0c) to work as follows:
1. Dial a local UK number;
2. Wait for a tone, then dial my card number followed by *;
3. Wait for a second tone, then dial 1 (US country code) followed by area code
followed by phone number followed by * (note: no need to dial int'l access
number).
I've tried using the calling card option in combination with setting the phone
number in Address Book to a dialing format of ",,,1<tel>*". I can get the
access number and the card number to dial correctly but I can't get Dialer to
wait for the second tone before dialing the phone number. Any suggestions?
Also, FYI: I've hard-coded a "1" for the US country code in the dialing format
because when I tried using "<country>" instead and set the country field in
Dialer's setup to "1", Dialer wouldn't dial the country code at all.
Thanks for your help.
–Sue
Dear Sue:
You were on the right track with Calling Card. Set up a Calling card with the
ACCESS PHONE as the LOCAL UK number, and the DOMESTIC NUMBER as:
<CARD>*,,,,1<TEL> with enough commas to wait for the second tone. That should
work. Do you have your modem setup to recognize commas as a pause.
Also, you can change the lenght of the pause in the initialization string –
maybe it is set to 1 second.
The <COUNTRY> field is the country code field you have entered for the
individual record in the Edit/Business… screen. The Country field in the
File/Setup/Dialer… window is your own country code (44 – for UK).
Sincerely, Tracy McKenna Okna TEch Support
Tracy,
Thanks for the prompt response. I find all the options in Dialer and the phone
book re: phone numbers somewhat confusing especially since I'm traveling
(relatively) light and left the DTS manual at home. I do understand everything
you've said and have made the changes but I have some questions generated from
your answer (isn't that always the case?):
1. The "Calling Card" setup window has three fields listed at the bottom:
Access, Domestic and International. Doesn't the difference in the country code
specified in the address book entry and that specified in the Dialer setup
window tell Dialer to dial a phone number as "International" vs. "Domestic"
when using the calling card? If so, why did you tell me to set up "Domestic"
and not "International" with the dialing sequence necessary to call the US from
the UK?
2. What format in the "Phones and Dialing Format" dialog window do I set my US
home phone number to since "Domestic" isn't a choice? I've tried specifing the
name of the calling card as the format and I get some poor, confused soul here
in the UK on the other end of the line. BTW, what is the format which has the
calling card name, i.e. MCI/AT&T/Sprint, used for?
3. The "Dialing Format" setup window denotes one format as "Abroad". Is this
the format applied if you choose "International" in the "Phones and Dialing
Format" dialog window?
4. Do I set up the "International" format in the Calling Card setup
differently from the "Abroad" format in the "Dialing Format" setup?
My modem supposedly recognizes commas as a pause as a default. However, the
manual (and I use the word lightly) doesn't tell me how to change the pause
length. It says it uses the Hayes AT command set but I don't know the correct
command. I'll just have to experiment to find the proper number of commas to
include.
Thanks again for your help. I hope we can solve this problem so I don't keep
waking up the good people of England with erronerous phone calls!
–Sue
Dear Sue:
1) Yes, you are right. I had forgotten about that little nuance. Simply enter
what I told you to last time except place whatever I told you to put in
Domestic, put it in International. 2) You want to select the name of the
calling card (MCI, AT&T, or Sprint – whichever calling card you are using to
setup this format) 3) Yes, but you were on the right track with the Calling
Cards. 4) Yes – set it up as I previously suggested you set up the "Domestic"
field.
I looked up the command in my manual – S8=2 would set the pause time to 2
seconds.