Why is calls with less than 7-digit number charged?

[Belinda Frick]

Overview:

When a phone is picked up and numbers entered to make a phone
call, this data is sent to the PABX unit.

If the call is ended after for example 1 second, before the receiver
picked up, the call will reflect a one second duration.
If an invalid number was entered, for example 123 as the phone
number and the phone is put down after a second, it will reflect
a duration of one second to telephone number 123.
Therefore in both cases a telephone call will be registered by
the PABX unit.

Service Provider: Telkom

Telkom knows when the user answers the phone (connection made)
and when the called party puts the phone down (connection ended).

The PABX unit:

The PABX unit receives information when the number was dialed or
received on the phone and when that phone is put down. Therefore
it registered the time from when you entered the telephone number,
while waiting for the dialed party to pick-up and the conversation
time untill the phone is put down as part of the call duration.

Suggestion:

To discard calls with less than 7-digit numbers you can configure
PABX3:

Right-click on PABX3, choose "SHOW".
Select [OPTIONS -> GENERAL], "discard calls where the number is less
than ? digits". Enter the digit length of the calls you want to
discard.
Take the following into account:
Extensions can be 3 or 4 digits long.
When dialing from one extension to another the phone
number is the extension number. If you set PABX3 to
discard 3 digit numbers you will not see internal
calls (providing that your PABX unit supports internal
calls).
Enquiry numbers can be 4 digits long (some countries use
3 digits). In South-Africa the Telkom enquiry number
is 4 digits long and is charged at local rates.