Configuring Ringback in Lync Response Groups

When setting up Response Groups in Lync, you might want your callers to hear ringing rather than some sort of hold music (either the default provided by MS or custom).  I've seen people looking for a solution in the forums without much success.

What I did in this situation was to download a .WAV file of a ringtone (known as "ringback" in telephony lingo) and set that as the hold music for the hunt group.  Lync will play back the file continuously, so an audio sample of a single ring will suffice.  The ringtone I downloaded had no pause in it, which meant the caller would hear a constant ring without a pause. That was fixed by inserting a silent stretch into the .WAV file.  Remember to save it as an 8 or 16 kHz, mono 16-bit WAV file.  Here's a sample for North America (right-click and Save-As for best results).

File this under "So-simple-and-why-didn't-I-think-of-that".

Dialing Rule Optimizer Goes International

Since the Dialing Rule Optimizer was extended to create a total end-to-end Powershell script for North American users, it was relatively trivial to add similar functionality for other countries.

Now, the Dialing Rule Optimizer can provide a Powershell script that will create all the rules necessary for an Enterprise Voice deployment for users in Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom with more on the way.  I've even attempted to convert English to German (thanks to Google Translate...so any blame on translation accuracy can be pushed that way). 

Having never dialed a phone in the UK or Germany, I've had to make some assumptions:

• any local phone number dialed from within a given area code does not have to include the area code
• phone numbers outside the local area code must start with 0, followed by the area code, then the local number
• international numbers must be preceded by 00 then the country code/area code/local number

Because of those assumptions, I didn't have to perform any of the complex calculations necessary for North American numbers.  Since the dialing rules aren't expected to change over time, you can't enter an email address for non-North American rule updates.  Also, since this is designed as a Lync-only feature, you can't (nor should you need to) create rulesets for the Dialogic or Audiocodes gateways.

Please let me know if my assumptions are incorrect, or if you can offer corrections to my German translations. 

If the demand is there, I will create dialing rules for other countries as long as someone can help me understand the local dialing rules and can help with language translation.  Things I would need to know:

• Local number format
• National number format
• International number format
• Service number format
• Premium-rate number format

For anyone interested in helping with language translation, here is a list of words/phrases I would need translating:

"Internal"
"Local"
"National"
"International"
"Service"
"Invalid site ID"
" number normalization for "
" routing for "
"Normalization rules for "
"Enter the Site ID to apply the dialing rules for "
"Multiple application pools found. Please select the application pool to apply call block/park"
"No default PSTN gateway found. You must define a PSTN gateway in your topology and assign it to this site before running this script."
"Removes"
"Adds"
"and"
"for"
"country/area code"
"country code"
"calls from"
"The number you have dialed is prohibited due to corporate policy. If you need to reach this number, please notify your manager."