TESTCALL System Monitor

“TESTCALL” is the proper name for our system.  A “test call” or “call” is an telephone call placed by TestCall to your PBX.

TESTCALL Target You load our 1004HZ tone into your PBX and make it accessible through a hidden menu option OR directly via a dedicated DID.

TESTCALL Job We create a “job” to make a test call to your PBX usually every minute for anywhere from 8hrs to 24 hrs a day.

The Job Runs We call from carrier A having outbound ANI of 804-xxx-aaaa. If the call is not successful, we make a second call over carrier B having outbound ANI of 804-xxx-bbbb.

Answer & Record You PBX answers the call and plays the stored 1004 Hz test tone. This is an industry standard frequency used for such tests on voice lines. It exists in the middle of the 300hz to 3000hz voice audio band.

Record Audio The call (tone) is recorded for 10 seconds and then the system hangs up.

Analyze the Audio The recorded audio is sampled about 50 times and checks whether each sample is a 1004hz tone.

Score the Call The TESTCALL system updates the call detail records (CDR) with a final line quality score based on the percentage of samples that are a clean 1004hz tone / total samples taken.

Pass or Fail the Call – Each test call made is passed or failed by comparing the score against a preset threshold. Example settings could be:

80% threshold – you wish to detect VoIP QOS settings or an overloaded CPU on your PBX.

A 50% threshold – You simply want to know that your PBX is up and answering calls. You accept the occasional bad line quality.

Report the Result The result is logged and stored in the system CDR to including the time of call, carrier used (by ANI), quality score and a recording of any failed calls for your review.

Alert on Failures If a test call fails 3 or more times, the TESTCALL system sends an email alert to the designated contact so the issue can be investigated promptly.