Outgoing call permissions for Webex Calling locations

Outgoing call permissions

Outgoing call permissions refer to the specific privileges granted for initiating outbound calls. These permissions maintain security, prevent misuse, and ensure compliance with company policies. Use this feature to manage the behavior of the outgoing calls to different destinations.

You can set the outgoing call permissions at various entity levels, such as:

Locations
Users
Workspace
Virtual Lines

You can modify the call permissions, granting the option to either allow or block outgoing calls for a location. These permissions are available for users, workspaces, and virtual lines in a location. These defaults also apply to features within the location. Custom settings are also available for users, workspaces, and virtual lines. For user, workspace, and virtual line outgoing call permission configurations, see Configure-calling-permissions-in-Control-Hub

You can manage the outgoing calls with the following permissions:

Permissions by Call Type: You can define outgoing call permissions to allow or block calls by call types such as international, national, toll-free, and others. For example, you can use the calling permission Block to keep users from making National calls from the San Jose location.
Permissions by Digit Patterns: You have the flexibility to define digit patterns to allow or block matching numbers. This includes the ability to allow calls to specific countries, allow or block calls to a range of numbers, restrict users to dial only a few approved external numbers, or block a specific range of premium numbers. It's important to note that the defined digit patterns have precedence over permissions by call type.
You can control outbound call types or digit patterns with the following:
- Allow—Callers at this location can make these types of calls.
- Block—Callers at this location can’t make these types of calls.
- Require Authorization Code—Callers must enter a valid authorization code before placing these types of calls. You can configure up to 1000 authorization codes per location and 1000 for each user or workspace or virtual line for an outbound calling plan.
- Auto-transfer to number 1, 2, or 3—If you select this, then these types of calls are transferred automatically to the number you choose.
  
  Set the authorization codes and transfer numbers before you can apply them.
The following precedence rules apply to outgoing calls:
- If your organization does not have the Cisco calling plan, only internal calls are allowed and all other call types are blocked.
- For location and custom settings, custom digit patterns for user, workspace, or virtual lines are applied first. If no configurations match, the system defaults to applying the location settings.
- The digit pattern configurations take precedence over permissions by call type.

The Verify Call Routing feature in the Control Hub allows you to test and to verify outgoing call permissions. For more information, see Verify call routing.

The following allows you to navigate to the respective outgoing call permission pages:

Sign in to Control Hub.
Go to Management and select Locations.
Select the location that you want to update the calling permissions for.
Select Calling, and then scroll down to Call Handling. Click to expand Outgoing Call Permissions.
Click the permissions type and navigate to the respective configuration page.

Permissions by call type

The following is a list of different outbound call types available for Webex Calling in the Control Hub:

Internal Calls—are calls within your own company. It includes calls to others within your own site and to other locations as well.
Toll Free Calls—are calls to a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls instead of incurring charges to the originating caller, it is free of charge from a landline.
National Calls—are calls within your country of origin, both within and outside of your local area code.
International Calls—are calls to locations outside of your country that require an international calling code before the number is dialed. Calls between the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico are an exception as calls among these countries aren’t treated as international currently.
Operator Assistance Calls—are any calls starting requiring Operator Assistance.
Chargeable Directory Assistance Calls—are calls to Directory Assistant companies that require a charge to connect the call.
Special Services I and Special Services II—are calls to carrier-specific number assignments to special services or destinations.
Premium Services I and Premium Services II—provides information or entertainment for a fee charged directly to the caller.

For each of the call types, you can choose to Allow, Block, require an Authorization Code, or Auto-transfer to the first, second, or third number.

Allow transfer/ forwards determines if you’re allowed to transfer or forward a specific outgoing call type.

Use the following steps to configure outgoing call permissions as per call type:

Go to Management and select Locations. Select the location to update the Calling permissions.

Select Calling, and then scroll down to Call Handling. Click to expand Outgoing Call Permissions. Outbound call permissions page

Click the right arrow against the Permissions by type option to expand and choose the Call Type that you want to update.

Following are the call types and the default values:

Call type	Default setting	Transfers/ Forwards Enabled
Internal	Allow	Yes
National	Allow	Yes
Toll Free	Allow	Yes
International	Block	No
Operator Assistance	Allow	Yes
Chargeable Directory Assistance	Allow	Yes
Special Services I	Allow	Yes
Special Services II	Allow	Yes
Premium Services I	Block	No
Premium Services II	Block	No

You can control each of the call types with the following permissions:

Allow—Callers at this location can make these types of calls.
Block—Callers at this location can’t make these types of calls.
Require Authorization Code—Callers must enter a valid authorization code before making these types of calls. You can set up to 1000 authorization codes for each location, and can assign an additional 1000 codes individually to each user, workspace, or virtual line within an outbound Calling plan.
Auto-transfer to number 1, 2, or 3— If you select this option, to transfer these types of calls automatically to the number you choose.

(Optional) Check Allow transfer/ forwards to redirect the outbound calls.

You can redirect the outbound calls with Allow transfer/ forwards, which determines if you’re allowed to transfer or forward a specific outgoing call type.

(Optional) Click Reset All to restore initial default settings.

Permissions by digit pattern

Pattern match

The system matches the outbound dial number with the configured pattern and selects the best match to process the call further.

Following are the pattern expansion algorithm for weighting the pattern choice:

Exact digit = 1
Digit range = number of digits in the range
X wildcard = 10
! = 10 for each digit after the prefix match

For example, if the dial number is 123456, then based on the pattern expansion criteria, the expansion for the pattern 12X[0-5]! is 6000 (1 * 1 * 10 * 6 * 10^2). If there are no other patterns with lesser expansion weight than 6000, then 12X[0-5]! is selected as the matching pattern.

For multiple matches, the best matching pattern is determined based on the following rules:

Selects the pattern with the lesser number of possible expansions.

For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: XXXX and P2: 123!, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 10*10*10*10= 10^4 and P2: 1*1*1*10=10. The number of possible expansions for P2 is lesser than P1. Based on the rule, P2 is selected as the best pattern.
If the number of possible expansions for a pattern are the same, then a wildcard precedence of the pattern is compared with a precedence order of exact digit, digit range, 'X' wildcard, and '!' wildcard.

For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: 123X and P2: X234, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 1*1*1*10 = 10 and P2: 10*1*1*1 = 10. The number of possible expansions for both P1 and P2 are the same. But P1 has an exact digit match at digit position 1 while P2 has wildcard X. Based on the rule, P1 is selected as the best pattern.
If the number of possible expansions and wildcard precedence is the same, then the string in the patterns compared and the lexicographically lesser pattern is selected.

For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: 1[0-5]3X and P2: 1[1-6]3X, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 1*6*1*10 = 60 and P2: 1*1*6*10 = 60. The number of possible expansions and wildcard precedence is the same, but P1 is lexicographically lesser than P2. Based on the rule, P1 is selected as the best pattern.

Add digit pattern

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Management and select Locations. Select the location to update the Calling permissions.
3	Select Calling, and then scroll down to Call Handling. Click to expand Outgoing Call Permissions.
4	Click on the right arrow against the Permissions by digit pattern field. The Permissions by digit pattern page displays.
5	Click Add digit pattern to add a new digit pattern. Enter a unique Name for the pattern. Follow the constraints while adding a pattern name: Allows up to 50 characters Must be unique within its entity (location/user/workspace/virtual line).
6	Enter a unique Pattern. Follow the constraints while adding the digit pattern: Allows up to 50 characters Allows 0–9, *, #, + characters If present, '+' must be the first character Allows following wildcard characters: 'X', 'x'—Matches a single digit (0–9). Webex Calling converts lowercase 'x' to uppercase 'X'. '!'—Matches one or more digits (0–9). Must be the last character in the entered string. '[]'—Matches the specified range of digits (0–9). Digits entered within brackets must be in increasing order. For example, [089] matches 0, 8, or 9. '-'—Identifies a consecutive set of digits within a [] range of digits. It must have a leading and trailing digit where the trailing digit is greater than a leading digit. For example, [02-589] matches 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9. Must be unique within its entity (location/user/workspace/virtual line)
7	From the Permission drop-down, choose the type of permission. Supported permissions are—Allow, Block, Requires authorization code, and Autotransfer to number 1, 2, or 3.
8	(Optional) Check Allow transfers/forwards for the defined digit pattern. You can redirect the outbound calls with Allow transfer/ forwards, which determines if you are allowed to transfer or forward a specific outgoing call type.
9	Click Add.

Delete or delete all digit pattern

1	Go to Permissions by digit pattern page and select an instance from the existing list.
2	Click Delete to delete a specific digit pattern from the list.
3	(Optional) Click Delete All to delete all the patterns from the list.

Bulk manage permissions by digit pattern

With Bulk Manage, you can use CSV files to provision a maximum of 500-digit patterns. You can efficiently add or modify the digit patterns for each entity, such as a location, user, workspace, or virtual line. Each CSV file may contain up to 1000 rows, and every row can include up to 25-digit patterns.

Go to Permissions by digits pattern page and click Bulk Manage.

In the Manage permissions by digit pattern screen, from the drop-down choose the Location. Click Download data and download the current .csv data. Edit the digit patterns in the spreadsheet.

(Optional) Click Download .csv template and download a blank .csv template. Add the digit patterns as required.

Edit the following columns in the CSV template for bulk management of location:

Never remove columns and header from the CSV file. If you don’t wish to modify, then you can clear values from the columns. Blank cells in CSV during import mean "no change."

Table 1. Bulk management CSV template
Columns	Description
Location	Specifies the name of the location for the digit patterns.
Action	Standard bulk management: `ADD`–Add the specified digit patterns for the location `REPLACE`–Replace all current digit patterns for the location with the specified digit patterns `REMOVE`–Remove the specified digit patterns from the location
Name X	Name of the digit pattern
Pattern X	Digit pattern
Permission X	Permission for the digit pattern `Allow` `Block` `Requires Authorization Code` `Auto-Transfer Numbers`
Allow-transfer X	Allow Transfers or Forwards setting for the digit pattern. X–Specifies 1–25 sets of columns

Drag and drop your .csv file or click choose a file to upload the modified .csv file. You can upload the modified .csv file to apply all the changes made to the digit patterns.

Click Upload.

Webex processes your modified CSV file and updates your digit patterns.

Authorization Codes

Add an authorization code

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Management and select Locations. Select the location to update the Calling permissions.
3	Select Calling, and then scroll down to Call Handling. Click to expand Outgoing Call Permissions.
4	Click the right arrow against the Authorization Codes field, and the Authorization Codes page displays. Click on Add code.
5	Enter a description and the code that you want to add. The maximum length for an authorization code is 14 digits. You can configure authorization codes of up to 1000 per location and 1000 for each user or workspace or virtual line.
6	Click Add.

Delete an authorization code

1	Go to Authorization Codes page and select a code from the existing list.
2	Click Delete.
3	(Optional) Click Delete All to delete all the codes from the list.

Bulk manage authorization codes

With the bulk manage, you can add up to 1000 authorization codes at a time.

Go to Authorization codes page and click Bulk Manage.

Select the Location from the dropdown list, and click Download data.

You get a CSV file with all the authorization codes for your location.

(Optional) Click Download .csv template and download a blank .csv template.

Edit the following columns in the CSV template for bulk management of location:

Never remove columns and header from the CSV file when preparing. But, you can clear values from columns you don’t wish to modify and the blank cells in CSV during import means "no change".

Table 2. Bulk Management CSV Template
Columns	Description
Location	The name of the location for the authorization code.
Action	Standard bulk management: `ADD`–Add the specified authorization code for the location `REPLACE`–Replace all current authorization code for the location with the specified digit patterns `REMOVE`–Remove the specified authorization code from the location
Code 1 …..Code 5	Indicates 1 to 50 sets of authorization code columns.
Description	Specifies the descriptions for the authorization codes added.

Drag and drop your .csv file or click choose a file to upload the modified .csv file.

Click Upload.

Auto-transfer number

Add an auto-transfer number

You can add up to three auto-transfer numbers.

1	Go to Auto-transfer numbers page and enter auto-transfer numbers.
2	Enter the transfer numbers 1, 2, 3.
3	Click Save.

Delete an auto-transfer number

1	Go to Auto-transfer numbers page and click x located next to the number.
2	Click Delete and confirm.

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Outgoing call permissions for Webex Calling locations