Making Free Directory-Assistance Calls

Several new companies have cropped up to allow free directory-assistance calls. These are usually prefaced by a short advertisement that we have to listen to. However, it is difficult to make all our employees remember to dial some other phone number for directory assistance. The easier way is to make Asterisk and FreePBX to route calls placed to 411 or 5551212 to one of these free services.

Note

Directory Assistance

These numbers are used for directory assistance in the US. These may again differ depending on our telecommunications provider or country. For example, in the UK these are the 118 numbers, such as 118118 or 118247.

From FreePBX main screen, click Setup | Trunks | Add Custom Trunk.

We would then configure it as shown in the screenshot overleaf for setting up the ability to call 411-METRO.

Note that we need to specify the technology (SIP, IAX2, ZAP), the Trunk name (FWD), and the phone number to dial. In the case of FWD, we need to add...