Configuring Voice Policies

Voice policies in Lync Server 2010 are a way of controlling features and calling abilities of users. Voice policies are assigned to user accounts through a global, site, or direct method. The following options are available when a voice policy is being created:

• Enable Call Forwarding—Enables users to forward calls to other users or devices.

• Enable Delegation—Enables users to specify other users to answer and place calls on their behalf, or schedule Online Meetings for another user.

• Enable Call Transfer—Enables users to transfer calls to another user.

• Enable Call Park—Enables users to place a call on hold and pick it up from another phone or location by dialing a call park orbit number.

• Enable Simultaneous Ringing of Phones—Enables users to simultaneously ring another user or phone number such as a mobile phone.

• Enable Team Call—Enables users to answer calls on behalf of another team member.

• Enable PSTN Reroute—Enables users to place calls to be rerouted to the PSTN network when the wide area network (WAN) is congested or unavailable.

• Enable Bandwidth Policy Override—Enables users to avoid limitations imposed by Call Admission Control policies. This applies only for inbound calls to a user.

• Enable Malicious Call Tracing—Enables users to report malicious calls, which are viewable in the Lync monitoring reports.

• Associated PSTN Usages—Allows specific PSTN usage to be accessed by users assigned to this voice policy.

• Call Forwarding and Simultaneous Ringing PSTN Usages—Defines which PSTN usages can be accessed during a call-forwarding or simultaneous-ringing situation. Administrators can enforce calls only to internal users, or a custom set of PSTN usages.

To create a new voice policy, complete the following steps:

1. Open the Lync Server 2013 Control Panel.

2. Click Voice Routing.

3. Click Voice Policy.

4. A voice policy can be scoped to apply at the site level or pool level. Click New and then select either Site Policy or User Policy.

5. Enter a Name and Description for the policy.

6. Select or deselect the various Calling Features discussed previously.

7. Click Select to choose any PSTN usages that should be associated with the voice policy. Highlight any desired PSTN usages and click OK.

8. In the Call Forwarding and Simultaneous Ringing PSTN Usages selection, either leave the default option to use the voice policy’s PSTN usages, or else choose to route to internal Lync users only, or Route using custom PSTN usages. After selecting Route Using Custom PSTN Usages, click Select again to choose any PSTN usages that should be associated with the voice policy for forwarding. Highlight any desired PSTN usages and click OK.

9. Click OK to save the voice policy. Figure 18.3 shows an example of a voice policy.

Figure 18.3. Voice policy options.

Alternatively, the Lync Server Management Shell can be used to create a new voice policy through the New-CsVoicePolicy cmdlet. Several parameters are not available in the Lync Server Control Panel Interface:

• EnableVoicemailEscapeTimer—Has a true or false value that helps ensure that calls to a mobile device that is turned off or out of cellular service do not end up in the mobile device’s voice mail.

• PSTNVoicemailEscapeTimer—Specifies the amount of time in milliseconds that a call was answered too quickly and is assumed to be the mobile device voice mail.

• PreventPSTNTollBypass—Forces calls between branch sites to leverage the PSTN network instead of WAN connections.

• VoiceDeploymentMode—Indicates that the voice policy is for OnPrem, Online, OnlineBasic, or OnPremOnlineHybrid.