Configure Distinctive Ringtones for Mitel IP Phone

Distinctive ringtones let a Mitel IP phone play a different sound depending on the kind of call coming in, so a user can tell an internal call from an outside call, or a queue call from a ring group call, without looking at the display. Cloud Voice signals the call type by attaching an Alert-Info header, and the phone matches that header to a ringtone you have chosen for it. Setting this up takes two passes: first you tag each call type with an Alert-Info keyword on the platform, then you map those keywords to specific ringtones on the phone. The steps below use a Mitel 6867i (firmware 5.0.0.1018) as the example.

Supported models and firmware

Distinctive ringtones work on the Mitel models listed below once both the phone firmware and Cloud Voice meet the minimum versions.

Model	Phone firmware	Cloud Voice version
6863i	R5.1.0SP6 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6865i	R5.1.0SP6 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6867i	R5.1.0SP6 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6869i	R5.1.0SP6 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6873i	R5.1.0SP6 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6905	6.3 SP3 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6910	6.3 SP3 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6915	6.3 SP3 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6920	6.3.1 SP1 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6930	6.3.1 SP1 or later	84.23.0.83 or later
6940	6.3.1 SP1 or later	84.23.0.83 or later

Before you begin

Provision the Mitel IP phone with Cloud Voice first. See Auto Provision a Mitel IP Phone.

Step 1: Tag each call type with an Alert-Info keyword

Decide which call types you want to distinguish, then set an Alert-Info keyword for each one in the management portal. A Mitel phone only understands a fixed set of keywords, so you must choose from the list below.

Note

Mitel IP phones recognize only these Alert-Info keywords: alert-acd, alert-internal, alert-external, alert-community-1, alert-community-2, alert-community-3, alert-community-4, alert-emergency, alert-group, and alert-priority. (alert-acd covers ACD, or Automatic Call Distribution, the mechanism that routes incoming calls to available agents in a call center.)

The keyword lives in a different place for each call type. Configure the ones you need and remember which keyword you assigned to each, you will reuse them in Step 2.

Internal calls

1. Sign in to the management portal and go to PBX Settings > SIP Settings > Advanced. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the signaling standard Cloud Voice uses to set up calls, and the Alert-Info header rides along inside it.

2. In the SIP Request Header section, enter a keyword in the Internal Alert Info field. This keyword triggers the ringtone whenever an internal (extension to extension) call arrives. This example uses alert-internal.

   

3. Click Save, then Apply.

Note

The internal keyword is set once here and applies to every internal call across the system. The other call types below are tagged per route, queue, ring group, or IVR, so you set those keywords on each object individually.

External calls

1. Go to Call Control > Inbound Route and edit the inbound route you want to tag.

2. In the General section, enter a keyword in the Inbound Alert Info field. This keyword triggers the ringtone for outside calls that arrive through this route. This example uses alert-external.

   

3. Click Save, then Apply.

Queue calls

1. Go to Call Features > Queue and edit the queue you want to tag.

2. Open the Preferences tab.

3. In the Basic section, enter a keyword in the Queue Alert Info field. This keyword triggers the ringtone for calls delivered through this queue. This example uses alert-community-1.

   

4. Click Save, then Apply.

Ring group calls

1. Go to Call Features > Ring Group and edit the ring group you want to tag.

2. In the Ring Group Alert Info field, enter a keyword. This keyword triggers the ringtone for calls delivered through this ring group. This example uses alert-group.

   

3. Click Save, then Apply.

IVR calls

An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is the automated menu that answers a call and lets the caller pick an option, for example “press 1 for sales.”

1. Go to Call Features > IVR and edit the IVR you want to tag.

2. In the IVR Alert Info field, enter a keyword. This keyword triggers the ringtone for calls that come through this IVR. This example uses alert-community-3.

   

3. Click Save, then Apply.

Step 2: Map the keywords to ringtones on the phone

With your Alert-Info keywords in place, assign a ringtone to each one in the phone’s provisioning settings.

1. Go to Auto Provisioning > Phones and click the settings icon next to the Mitel IP phone.

   

2. Scroll to the Distinctive Ringtone section and add an entry for each call type you want to distinguish.

   

   1. Click Add.

   2. In the Alert Info field, enter the mapping text for the keyword you set in Step 1.

      Caution

      This field expects the mapping text (for example alert internal), not the Alert-Info keyword itself (alert-internal). The mapping text uses spaces in place of hyphens. If it does not match the table below exactly, the phone will not recognize the call type and falls back to its default ringtone.

      Alert-Info keyword	Mapping text
      alert-acd	alert auto call distribution
      alert-internal	alert internal
      alert-external	alert external
      alert-community-1	alert community 1
      alert-community-2	alert community 2
      alert-community-3	alert community 3
      alert-community-4	alert community 4
      alert-emergency	alert emergency
      alert-group	alert group
      alert-priority	alert priority

   3. From the Ringtone drop-down list, select the ringtone to play for this Alert-Info.

      Note

      The ringtones available in the list depend on the phone model.

   4. To cover more call types, repeat steps a through c for each one.

3. Click Save. The portal returns you to the phone list.

4. Click the reprovision icon next to the Mitel IP phone to push the new configuration to it.

   Caution

   Reprovisioning re-applies the phone’s full configuration and can briefly reboot or reset it. Do this when the phone is idle or during a maintenance window, since a phone that reprovisions mid-call can drop the call.

Result

The phone pulls the ringtone configuration during reprovisioning and, from then on, plays the matching ringtone based on the Alert-Info header carried by each call. For instance, an internal call arrives with the alert-internal keyword, which the phone maps to alert internal and answers with the ringtone you assigned, in the example setup, Bellcore-2.wav.