Ring Groups

Overview

A Ring Group is a list of extensions that VeloPBX rings together — or in a chosen order — when an incoming call is delivered to the group’s extension number. A typical use case is a “Sales” Ring Group with five sales reps inside it: a single inbound call rings all five (or hunts through them one by one) until someone answers.

Each Ring Group has its own internal extension number, which can be dialed directly by other extensions or referenced by an Inbound Rule, an IVR menu key, or a Call Queue overflow target.

In the Web Portal, go to Call Manager → Advanced Services → Ring Groups:

https://pbx.fortis-tele.com:8887

Creating a Ring Group

Step 1 — Add a new Ring Group

1. Call Manager → Advanced Services → Ring Groups
2. Click Add

Step 2 — General settings

Step 3 — Choose a Ring Strategy

Step 4 — Add members

Open the Group Members tab and select the extensions that belong to the group. You can add and remove members at any time.

Step 5 — Destination if no answer

Configure what should happen when nobody picks up before Ring Time elapses for everyone:

Step 6 — Office Hours

Use the Office Hours tab to choose:

• Use Default Global Office Hours — follow the tenant’s schedule
• Use Specific Office Hours — define a custom schedule for this group

You can also set a Destination for Night Mode so that when the tenant is in Night Mode the group sends calls somewhere else (for example, an after-hours answering service).

Step 7 — Outbound Caller ID

If the group’s “no answer” destination is an external PSTN number routed via a SIP trunk, the Ring Group’s Outbound Caller ID is presented on that outbound leg.

Step 8 — Save

Click Save.

Linking a Ring Group to an Inbound Rule

1. Call Manager → Inbound Rules
2. Open or create the Inbound Rule.
3. Set Forward to Number to the Ring Group’s extension number (e.g. 5000).
4. Click Save.

The Ring Group can also be referenced from an IVR menu key (Forward to Number → 5000) or as a Call Queue overflow destination.

Editing a Ring Group

Paging and Intercom

Setting the Ring Strategy to Paging / Intercom turns the group into a one-way announcement group:

• Every member’s phone auto-answers.
• Audio plays through the phone speaker.
• Members do not need to pick up the handset.
• The caller is heard by the members; the members are not heard back.

Use this for office-wide announcements (e.g. “Visitors at reception”).

For two-way intercom you have two options:

Method 1 — Ring Group Intercom. Members in a Paging/Intercom group can press * to start talking and # to stop. The caller still hears the speaking member.

Method 2 — Direct Extension Intercom. Use the Intercom Feature Access Code (default 46). Dialing 46101 from extension 100 makes extension 101 auto-answer with two-way audio. Confirm the FAC under Advanced → Feature Access Codes.

Ring Group vs Call Queue — when to use which

For anything contact-center-shaped, use a Call Queue.

Paging / Intercom

Paging is a one-way audio broadcast from a single caller to many phones at once. The receiving phones answer automatically, switch to speakerphone, and play the caller’s voice — recipients do not pick up the handset, and they do not speak back. A page is the right tool when one person needs to be heard immediately by everyone in earshot of an office phone: “Will the owner of vehicle please move it from the loading dock,” “We are closing in five minutes,” fire-drill announcements, all-staff briefings, and so on.

This is fundamentally different from how a normal Ring Group behaves and worth keeping straight.

Most organizations end up using both: a Paging Ring Group for site-wide announcements, and the Intercom FAC for one-to-one auto-answer between extensions.

How VeloPBX implements paging

VeloPBX exposes paging as a Ring Strategy on a normal Ring Group. When the strategy is set to Paging / Intercom, calls into that group’s extension number trigger an auto-answer broadcast to all members instead of ringing them. Behind the scenes VeloPBX adds an auto-answer indication to the SIP INVITE so compatible phones answer hands-free on the speaker.

Configuring a Paging Group

1. Go to Call Manager → Advanced Services → Ring Groups → Add.
2. Give it a Ring Group Number that is free in your numbering plan — e.g. 9000 for paging — and a clear Ring Group Name like All-Office Paging.
3. Set Ring Strategy to Paging / Intercom.
4. In the Group Members tab, add every extension that should auto-answer the page.
5. Click Save. The Ring Group’s number is now the paging trigger.

Tip: It is common to keep one paging group per zone (e.g. 9000 warehouse, 9001 reception, 9002 all-office) so an announcement only interrupts the people who need to hear it.

Triggering a page

Two ways to start a page from a registered extension:

• Dial the paging Ring Group number directly. Picking up any phone and dialing 9000 (or whatever number you assigned) immediately broadcasts to every member.
• Use the Intercom Feature Access Code 46. Prefixing the destination with 46 forces auto-answer on the target. Dialing 46 triggers the page; dialing 46 opens a one-to-one intercom call to a single phone.

The default Intercom FAC is *46. Confirm or change it under Advanced → Feature Access Codes.

Note: The two intercom flavors are deliberately different. A Ring Group with strategy Paging / Intercom is one-way: the caller is heard by all members and any single member can press to talk back and # to stop. The 46 direct intercom is two-way from the start — both sides can speak immediately.

Phone requirements

Auto-answer is a phone-side feature. Most modern desk phones (Yealink, Fanvil, Snom, Polycom/Poly, Grandstream) honor the auto-answer SIP header out of the box, but a small number of devices require it to be turned on in the device template or web UI. If a member’s phone keeps ringing instead of auto-answering, check:

• The device’s Auto Answer / Intercom setting under SIP account or call features.
• That the phone is registered to VeloPBX (an unregistered phone cannot be paged).
• That the user is not in Do Not Disturb — DND blocks paging on most phones.

Important: Paging does not preempt active calls. If a member is already on a call when the page starts, their phone will not interrupt them — only idle phones auto-answer. Plan your zones with that in mind.

Limitations and good practice

Paging is best for groups of roughly 20-30 phones or fewer. Beyond that, every page opens that many simultaneous SIP/RTP streams from the PBX, which is wasteful and can introduce noticeable lag between the first and last phones receiving audio. For very large sites — schools, factories, retail chains — multicast paging (where the PBX sends one stream that all phones subscribe to on the LAN) is the right pattern; that is an advanced network-side topic and out of scope for this guide.

A few field-tested habits:

• Keep pages short. Under 30 seconds is plenty for most announcements.
• Pre-write recurring pages (closing, lunch, drill) so the wording stays consistent.
• Consider muting non-essential phones (kitchens, restrooms, conference rooms) during peak hours so a stray page does not disrupt a meeting.
• Test the paging group from a member’s own desk after every membership change — it is the fastest way to catch a phone that has lost its auto-answer setting.

For two-way collaboration between two people, prefer the direct *46 intercom over a single-member paging group — the audio path is simpler and the experience is more natural.

Next Step

→ Call Queues

Last updated: 2026-05-01