With the Call Forwarding Override capability, you can call, or transfer a call to a user who has the Call Forwarding feature active. Only the user who answers the forwarded call can use the Call Forwarding Override capability to transfer the call back to the called extension. For example, user A designates user B as the destination for forwarded calls. User B answers a call forwarded from the extension of user A, and uses the Call Forwarding Override capability to transfer the call back to user A.

If you enable the Call Forwarding Override capability on your system, the capability is available for all users.

Users cannot use the Call Forwarding Override capability to override a call when the system forwards a call from a data user or from a hunt group.

In Communication Manager 4.0 and earlier releases, Call Forward Override did not work if the forwarded-to party was not on the same Communication Manager server as the forwarding party. Starting in Communication Manager 5.0, this is now possible, as long as the call from the forwarded-to party provides the calling number in a format that Communication Manager can match with the forwarded-to number entered by the forwarding party. Trunk groups that can do this include ISDN-PRI, ISDN-BRI, H.323, and SIP.

Example 1: Ivan forwards his calls using UDP to extension 2346. An incoming QSIG call for Ivan arrives with the Calling Number 2346. The call is not forwarded, but rings Ivan's phone.

Example 2: Sylvia in Germany forwards her calls to a public network number in Frankfurt using ARS to 0-069-5354341. (The leading '0' is the ARS FAC, and the second '0' is National CPN Prefix.) An incoming call for Sylvia arrives with the Calling Number 49695354341. The 49 is recognized as the local country code and is skipped. Likewise, the ARS FAC and National CPN Prefix are recognized and skipped in the forwarded-to number. The remaining digits match, so the call is not forwarded, but rings Sylvia's phone.

Example 3: Mike in the U.S. forwards his calls to a private-network number at the Chicago office using AAR to 8-231-8592. (The leading '8' is the AAR FAC.) An incoming call for Mike arrives with the Calling Number 231-8592. The AAR FAC is recognized and skipped in the forwarded-to number. The remaining digits match, so the call is not forwarded, but rings Mike's phone.

If the Call Forward Override feature is turned on, and a call terminates at an already visited station for that call as a part of the call forward chain, the call is not forwarded. Instead, the call continuously rings at that station to avoid loops while traversing the chained call forward path.

For example, Station A has activated call forward feature to Station B, Station B to Station C, and Station C to Station D. In this case, if Station A gets an incoming call and forwards the call to Station B, then Station B forwards the call to Station C, and Station C forwards the call to Station D. Eventually the call is answered by Station D, which transfers the call to Station A. The call continuously rings at Station A and is not forwarded to Station B.