FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) from MTS and Beeline

Over the past year, I had to face the FMC service twice, first from MTS, and then from Beeline, so I’ll describe what and how I had to configure the PBX subscribers to be “converted” with their mobile phones. Perhaps someone will be interested in such a service.

FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) is a combination of fixed and mobile communications.
To learn more about what FMC is, you can read the review on PCWeek.

FMC from MTS

Connection

The office had a PBX Panasonic TDA200 to provide internal communication between employees. Access to the urban telephone network is carried out through the digital flow switch MP-8 (it was purchased to allocate part of the numbers for additional equipment).

Firstly, we have become a corporate client of MTS. And they signed a contract for the provision of communication services, and a special supplementary agreement for the provision of FMC.
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After that, to connect to the MTS mobile network from the nearest base station near the office building, the E1 stream was forwarded. Alarm PRI EDSS. We connected it to the digital switch MP-8.

Customization

First, on the side of the MTS. MTS gives us the login-password for managing the corporate office of the FMC service. In the web interface, you can configure the correspondence of the mobile and internal subscriber, as well as the temporary modes of receiving calls.

All mobile numbers of employees must be at the corporate rate and added to the closed group of phones of the corporate client (if the employee is already an MTS subscriber and also wants to connect to the corporate FMC, then his own circle program can also be added to the corporate group at the corporate rate).

All mobile numbers in a closed group can already call short numbers registered in the FMC office to each other. This is already convenient, because we are used to each other in the office to call short numbers, but here it is the same, only on mobiles.

The 3-digit numbering system of internal subscribers was configured on the PBX. We made the correspondence of internal numbers on PBXs, short numbers and mobile numbers in the federal format (see table). Compliance (2) and (3) is configured in the FMC corporate office. And compliance (1) and (2) is administrative, so to speak.

Internal to PBX (1)	FMC short number (2)	Federal number (3)
101	101	89131111111
102	102	89139876543

etc.

At the PBX, we set up a prefix for the FMC stream for calls to mobile employees.

Those. Now the situation for an internal subscriber who needs to call his colleague:
first makes a call to an internal subscriber, and if he does not answer on the spot, then you can dial the prefix and internal number - then the call will go to the mobile via the FMC channel.

A colleague on the mobile, by the way, will display not the local telephone number of the company, but the number of the internal subscriber. To which, if the same call is missed, you can call back and ask about the reason for the call. For some clarification, look at the scheme.



After the launch of the FMC stream, another chip appears for those who are “forever on the mobile”. In the corporate office, you can configure the mode of receiving a call on a short number: parallel (landline and mobile) or sequentially (landline -> mobile or mobile -> landline). Then calls from a mobile to a short number will arrive according to the rule on a short number.

When dialing a short number, which is not in the table of correspondence between short and federal numbers, the call goes directly to the PBX via a stream. Which is also convenient, because You can dial in to the office colleagues.

I want to immediately note that the presence of the MP-8 switch is optional, since all the same could be done immediately on the Panasonic TDA200. But to connect the stream, you would have to buy an additional PRI interface board. And so was the switch, and did it through it :)

You can read about the service on the MTS website here .

In general, the impression of use is positive. Although there are shoals that still cause inconvenience: for example, the extension number is sometimes not completely determined.

FMC from Beeline

Another PBX is at another company - Avaya Definity. Telecom operator "Golden Telecom", which is part of the Beeline group. There is also an E1 stream.

Here everything was somewhat simpler, because additional flow did not have to organize. And the settings are easier, because Initially, for incoming calls, the operator gave 3 characters from the telephone number that corresponded to the internal PBX numbers. At the same time, all corporate SIM cards were issued in a large package.

It remains only to prescribe some semblance of speed dialing. Those. correspondence of short numbers and federal numbers was carried out by means of ATS.

But, due to this simplification, there is almost no flexibility for the mode of incoming calls to internal numbers.

Moreover, there was no hard link “internal number = short number”, for a call from mobile to short mobile is one 3-digit number, and from mobile to landline is another 3-digit number. Which, of course, is more information to remember.

Since most of the integration was carried out by the office PBX, the special impression or awareness of the steepness of the implemented system did not arise.