Call Origination

Call Origination, also known as voice origination, refers to the collecting of the calls initiated by a calling party on a telephone exchange of the PSTN, and handing off the calls to a VoIP endpoint or to another exchange or telephone company for completion to a called party.

In the VoIP world, the opposite of call origination is call termination, where a call initiated as a VoIP call is terminated to the PSTN.

The term is often used in referring to a VoIP trunking service that provides the ability for calls to originate on the PSTN and be delivered to a customer's VoIP endpoint. It is often referred to as "DID" (for Direct Inward Dialing) which more properly refers to a service entirely within the PSTN where individual PSTN numbers can terminate on a customer's PBX.

Famous quotes containing the word call:

    At length he would call to let us know where he was waiting for us with his canoe, when, on account of the windings of the stream, we did not know where the shore was, but he did not call often enough, forgetting that we were not Indians.... This was not because he was unaccommodating, but a proof of superior manners. Indians like to get along with the least possible communication and ado. He was really paying us a great compliment all the while, thinking that we preferred a hint to a kick.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)