How To: Set up Advantage Voice call blocking

Advantage Voice call blocking services stop unwanted callers from getting through.

• Group administrators can use Selective Call Acceptance to block callers from reaching a Hunt Group.

Blocked callers will be told “The party you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time.”

The Selective Call Acceptance feature is an option that can be used to block unwanted calls from coming into your business. This feature must be set up by Group administrations. Selective Call Acceptance is configured by adding rules for incoming calls.

First, you must create a rule that all calls should be accepted:

1. Go to smartvoice.shawbusiness.ca.
2. Log in using your group administrator credentials.
3. Click the Group Services tab.
4. Click Site Services and select Hunt Group.
5. Under Hunt Group, select a phone number from the dropdown list.
6. Click the Calling Features tab.
7. Under Incoming Calls, click Edit next to Selective Call Acceptance.
8. Click Add Rule.
9. Set Description to “Accept calls”.
10. Set Time Schedule to Every Day All Day.
11. Set Holiday Schedule to None.
12. Set Calls from to Any phone number.
13. Click Save.

Repeat steps 7-12 again to add rules for accepting or blocking calls with different time, date, and caller parameters.

If you don’t see "Selective Call Acceptance" in step 6 above, contact your support team at business.shaw.ca/contact-us to have the feature added.

To avoid solicitation calls, register all of your phone numbers with the Government of Canada's National Do Not Call List.

• Some fraudulent callers will keep changing the number in the incoming call display. These may prove harder to block.

• You can use “wild cards” — a few numbers with a trailing asterix (✱) to block callers by calling area. For example, blocking 555✱ would block all calls from the 555 area code. Blocking 555619✱ would block all numbers that begin with “555-619” in the standard 10-digit format (XXX-XXX-XXXX).

• Additional blocks will automatically be created by the system when you report calls as malicious using the ✱57 Call Trace service.