Unlimited VOIP Phone Numbers?

Question

Sorry, by VOIP confirmation server, I mean a VOIP PBX server that provides a verbal confirmation service to people; The script will branch based on ANI and DNIS information to an automated setup. That was horrible wording on my part.

I am looking to set up a completely automated VOIP confirmation server. There will be no representatives, thus no phone lines needed except for the one going to the pbx server.

Will I need a real phone number for each virtual conversation?

Another note is that I am using a VPL (Visual Programming Language) setup with a horrible VOIP service provider. They provide a shared 'PBX' system and I would really like to setup a local dedicated PBX system.

Answer 1

Anytime you dealing with the PSTN outside of a simple POTS line, the phone number and line are separate. For instance, at my work we have 23 "lines" provided by a VoIP-PRI, and almost 90 phone numbers on that. It can go the other way as well, you could have thousands of lines and only a single number. You need one 'line' per conversation.

Answer 2

The root of the question appears to be "How many DIDs (numbers) do I need to purchase for my solutions?" The basic purpose of the PBX is to allow a mismatch between the amount of numbers accessible on a PSTN, and the number of phones/extensions which you provide internally.

You could have one number, then route by ANI, DNIS, or any other things once the call lands on your PBX. This happens all the time. You may need to confirm number of concurrent calls on that single trunk to allow more then one call to come in at a time on the same number.