Website making phone calls. Possible?

[salewit]

I've got an idea I'm working on where I need the website to make a phone call and leave a message when the phone is picked up. I don't know the first about how this would/could work. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

A user will leave a phone number, and a time to be called. The website will then dial the number, wait for a pickup (voice or message machine) and leave a message I set up.

We have a Unix server, but I also run an Apache server on my XP machine which I'm guessing may be easier to run the callings from. We also have Vonage for whatever that's worth.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

[janharders]

It's definetly possible, especially these days with voip (voice over IP), it's very easy to have a computer make automated calls. You'll probably need a voip-provider that will take your datastreams and route them into the "real" phone network. I haven't done the client side, I've only written "answering" programs (those annoying "Please enter your code now ... I understood 1 2 3 4 - is that correct?"-things) based on asterisk. Those were very easy so I'm guessing the client side isn't much harder.

[stajer]

salewit -

There is a company with an api that is easy to implement that just charges by the minute. I have PM'd you the url.

[wheel]

The company I use for SSL certificates makes an automated call to me whenever I register a certificate. It captures my name for validation.

[BradleyT]

I'm also looking for something sort of like this.

What I want is to be able to post lead information to an API and then a computer calls our call center, says the name and number of the lead, and then starts dialing the lead after the call center person presses 1.

We currently found a company that offers this service but it's $10 per connected call which obviously adds up really quickly.

[Corey Bryant]

You might look into Freedom Voice. One of their extras is the web call. And they have an API that might be able to be used in that way as well. They are pretty easy to work with.

[txbakers]

I've been through this and have found what I consider the most useable solution. VoiceShot is the name of the company - they have a fabulous API that you can setup in about 15 minutes.

Their service is top, and the only thing I don't like about them is their pricing model. the actual pricing is OK, I just don't like their plans. It's similar to a cell phone plan - you have to guarantee a certain number of minutes each month and you pay a premium if you go over.

But I've looked at about a dozen of these types of solutions and even tried to setup it up myself in house, and VoiceShot seems to work the best for me.

PM me and I can give you demos, more information, etc. I've very successfully integrated this into my applications.

[the track master]

Hi

I am also looking for this...

What I need is for clients visiting my website to be able to enter a number we can call them back on, only now the web site calls registered members of the site, if the website member accepts the call it plays a message to the member "a client is calling for a quote", the website member can reject or answer the call, if he answers then the website calls the client and connectes the 2 people, otherwise it trys anoter website member in the list until someone answers or the client hangs up.

Needed initially for the UK.

Possible ? Any ideas? Any help on this muchly appreciated.