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9bx user guide

PBX & Call Center

Trunks and rate decks

Connect your phone provider (trunk) and record what each provider charges (rate decks) so the cheapest route can be used.

Contents

What it is for

A trunk is the connection between your phone system and your provider (IPTSP) or a GSM gateway. All calls in and out of your inbound routes go through trunks. A rate deck is the provider's price list for one trunk.

Who can use it

Administrators with the Trunks permission. Rate decks use the same permission. If your organisation has no phone server yet, you can still save trunks; they are sent to the server once one is assigned.

Where to find it

  • Phone → Setup → Trunks
  • Phone → Advanced → Rate decks

Trunks

The trunk list with registration status.

Each trunk card shows Host, Port, Transport, Auth, Channels, Numbers (inbound routes using it) and a Status:

Status Meaning
Registered / Reachable Working.
Syncing Being sent to the phone server.
Registration failed / Unreachable Provider not accepting or not answering.
Disabled Not used for any call.
Sync failed The change could not reach the phone server.
Gateway not registered A GSM gateway has not signed in.
PBX not configured No phone server assigned yet.

Buttons: Add trunk, Sync now, Check status, Edit, Delete (blocked while inbound routes still use it).

Add trunk wizard

Four steps: Provider, Details, Connect & test, Done. Choose a provider from Bangladesh or Global, or GSM gateway or Set up by hand. Starting values are filled in; providers marked Verify with provider need you to compare values with your welcome letter.

Field Meaning
Trunk name Display name, for example "Provider A main".
Server address (Host), Port, Transport From your provider.
How the provider knows you Registration (username and password), IP auth (the provider trusts your server's IP) or GSM gateway.
Username, Password The password is stored encrypted and never shown again.
Registration interval 60 to 3600 seconds.
Default caller ID Optional. The number shown on outside calls when a route does not set one. Leave it empty: it is filled from the first inbound route you add on this trunk (never replaced once set). The trunk list shows the inbound numbers on each trunk, and a warning "Add an inbound number or caller ID — outside calls will fail" while there is none.
Max channels Concurrent calls your provider allows.
Strip digits / Prepend Digits removed or added in front before sending.
Codecs In order of preference; PCMA is standard in Bangladesh.
DTMF mode How key presses are sent.

After saving, 9bx signs in and shows Connected, Could not connect, Still waiting or Saved, phone system not set up yet. The final screen offers Outbound routes and Rate deck as next steps.

Rate decks

A rate deck with prices per prefix.

A deck holds Currency, Connect fee (once per answered call), Billing increments (minimum seconds, then step; 60/60 bills whole minutes, 1/1 by the second) and a list of Prefix, Destination and Rate per minute. One deck per trunk.

Buttons: New rate deck, Edit deck, Export CSV, import a provider CSV, add prefixes by hand, Delete.

When an outbound route uses the routing mode Least cost, the cheapest trunk for each dialled number is tried first from your decks and the rest stay as backup. The Call costs report uses decks to estimate spend.

Tasks

Connect a provider by registration

  1. Open Phone setup → Trunks and press Add trunk.
  2. Choose your provider, then Continue.
  3. Enter host, username and password from the welcome letter.
  4. Press Connect & test. Wait for Connected.
  5. Press Outbound routes to send calls through it.

Use the cheapest trunk

  1. Open Advanced → Rate decks and press New rate deck for each trunk.
  2. Import the provider's price CSV, or add prefixes one by one.
  3. Open your outbound route and set Routing mode to Least cost.
  4. Use Test a number on the route to see the ranking ("1 min ≈ ...").

Example scenario

Padma Net Support has "Provider A" (cheap for mobile) and "Provider B" (cheap for international). They create a deck for each and set the international route to Least cost. Calls to +44 numbers go through Provider B first, and Provider A takes over if B is down.

Tips

  • Keep a second trunk as failover; list it second in the route.
  • Set Max channels to what your provider allows so you never exceed it.
  • If your provider uses IP authentication, ask them to allow your phone server's address.

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Registration failed Check host, username and password. Some providers only accept calls from addresses they know.
Cannot delete a trunk "N inbound route(s) still use this trunk." Move them to another trunk first.
Sync failed Press Sync now. If it repeats, contact support.
Least cost does not pick the cheapest The trunk may have no deck, no rate for that number, a different currency, or be unreachable (tried last).