Pause Inbound Calling Based on User Availability on MS Teams

Overview

PBX Users using Microsoft Teams now have the ability to disable incoming calls when they are unavailable on MS Teams.

When this Pause Inbound Calling Based on Teams Presence feature is activated, incoming queue calls will not ring through to unavailable users to avoid the call being answered by such users’ Teams voicemail, and thereby allowing the call to reach other users in the queue.

With ConnecttoTeams version 2.13 onwards, the system enables an Enterprise to set up their PBX platform to activate the Pause Inbound Calling based on Teams Presence feature for users in their system. Additionally, individual users also have the option to manage this feature using the configuration page of the ConnecttoTeams PBX App on MS Teams.

Configuring the Pause Inbound Calling Feature

The Pause Inbound Calling based on Teams Presence feature can be enabled right away when adding new PBX. See the PBX Configuration Guide article for information on adding PBXs.

On the other hand, existing PBXs can be edited to enable this feature. The instruction below is for editing an existing PBX.

1. In the Enterprise Portal, from the Enterprise Admin Menu, go to PBX.

2. On the Configured PBXs page, select the relevant PBX record and click … then the Edit option.
   

   

3. On the PBX Settings page, mark the Pause Inbound Calling based on Teams Presence checkbox.
   
   When enabled it prompts for the Method to pause the inbound calling.
   
   
   

4. Choose the Method to pause. There are 3 options:
   

   1. SIP 480 - this option will cause the system to send a SIP 480 message for any call to a user that is unavailable on MS Teams.

      
      If this method is chosen, set the Interval in Minutes with the desired time interval the call should be blocked after a presence unavailability event. See more about this in the next section below.
      

   2. NS As-Feature Event - this option, supported by Netsapiens v44.1 and higher, will cause the Netsapiens system to see the ConnecttoTeams device as busy when the user is unavailable in MS Teams.
      

   3. BS As-Feature-Event - this option will set the PBX user to "DND" when the user is unavailable in Teams.  The PBX must support Presence Event package as defined in RFC 6665.
      

5. Click Save Settings. Review the displayed confirmation prompt.
   

   

6. If decided to proceed to apply the change, click Save Settings.

Result: The setting is saved. This setting will apply to all Teams users associated with the PBX unless a specific user has overridden this setting.

More About SIP 480 Method and Interval in Minutes

When SIP 480 is selected as a method for pausing inbound calls, any INVITE attempt from PBX to an unavailable Teams User would be responded with a 480 Temporarily Unavailable error and the value in Interval in Minutes is given to the PBX as a Retry-After header. When a user switches to an unavailable status, incoming calls are allowed until the user returns to an available status or until the specified expiry time elapses.

If the configured Interval in Minutes is set to 0, the expiry is turned off.

The pause on inbound calls would be deactivated once the Teams user status returns to Available.

Next Step

Inform your end users to utilize the Pause Inbound Calling feature with the guide of the Pause Inbound Calling User Guide.