provided by Star2Billing S.L.

Hey all,

Is there any way to block certain prefixes from being called...?

i.e.
To allow calls to 1212xxxxxxx
but block all calls to 1646xxxxxxx

Thanks in advance!

Sure - have in your rating table
1212, but not 1646. Of course you can't have 1 as a catchall cause it would pick up on the 1646 numbers.

Another idea might be to have 1646 listed, but then on the ratecard - have a carrier for it that doesn't work so that they'd just get like a fast busy or something.

Yep, I do need that catch all prefix, just need certain areas excluded.

But hmmm interesting solution, i'll give that a shot right now and see how that turns out.. Thanks!

Dont this this is working out unfortunatly,

since i do need '1' to be the catch all, it will pick up the 1646 which is directed to 'no provider' ...

There should really be a away to block certain prefixes even though there is a catch all ...

Create the prefix with a very high "rate initial" charge eg; $5000

you may want to disallow other prefixes like:

311 - Non-Emergency Access.
411 - Local Directory Assistance.
456 - International Inbound.
500 - Personal Communication Services.
600 - Services in Canada.
611 - Repair Services.
700 - IC Services.
710 - U.S. Government.
711 - TRS Access.
880 - Toll Free Calling (Paid 800 Service)***.
881 - Toll Free Calling (Paid 888 Service)***.
882 - Toll Free Calling (Paid 877 Service)***.
883 - Toll Free Calling (Paid 866 Service)***.
900 - Paid Service Calls.
976 - Paid Service Calls.

Double check, could be wrong on some of these.

Here's what I did to block prefixes gracefully:

Create a trunk called "BlackHole" or whatever.
Provider Tech = "LOCAL"
Provider IP = s@invalidprefix/n

Add entries in rate table you want blocked, specifying "BlackHole" for the trunk.

Then in extensions.conf, add this context:
[invalidprefix]
exten => s,1,Playback(prepaid-invalid-digits)
exten => s,2,Hangup

Calls to blocked prefixes get an error message played instead of waiting for a SIP timeout. And as icing on the cake, when it hits the hangup statement it returns to the a2billing script and asks the caller to enter the number again!

Tim