Notices

Problem:
I have my contacts stored in my n900 in US format for domestic numbers and with a 011 prefix for international numbers. Now here are the problems:
1. If I want to dial domestic number using skype, it tells me that the number should be in international format.
2. Intenational format is 00 prefix for Europe. The reason this matters is because the betamax services I use want a 00 prefix and not a 011 prefix.
3. I run a local asterisk server which has a international calling service though a domestic provider and it wants 011 for international calls.

So what I need is a CRM (call routing manager) which will be intelligent enough to format the contact number to acceptable format depending upon how are you calling skype, sip, cellular.

Additionally, I was thinking if we can tack on an order in which to try to connect the call, like for a international call, try my asterisk server first, if that fails try skype else try cellular. Or maybe configure no international call on cellular network.

Now this feature would be an add-on to each contact so that you can configure these entries for each conact to however you wish and also depending upon what accounts are configured for the contact. Also there would be a system default which would be used if nothing is specified for the contact so that we dont have to do this for EVERY contact, we can configure it only when needed.

Is this doable or am I dreaming here?

My background is linux kernel and driver person. This is my first venture into maemo and I am in the process of setting up a development environment for me. In case it was not clear, I am tasking myself with doing this depending upon the technical feasibility of the idea and input from more knowledgeable folks in the forum than me.

Will this be usable to anyone? Critique welcome!!

I thought you would like to know some of my experience around similar issues:

I am developing the MyContacts application and I had planned to implement some ideas like yours... I wanted my phone to be smart and check the current connection (2G, 3G, WIFI, none), what kind of number I was trying to call (international, local, ...) and some other preferences according to the user (does he have a skype account and is online, ... ) and decide for me how to initiate the call (cell, skype call, skype-to-skype, google voice,...). To make this happen I thought that I would have to standardize all my numbers to the basic international format (+...)... Because the phone numbers are very hard to read on the contacts application (on my opinion) I started working on an auto formatting for the number just to figure out that I will have to create a table with international codes and allow for different number of area codes, prefix and suffix digits.

The main issue that I have still to deal with and you will probably too is how to start calls. Start a "regular" phone call it is quite simple - there is a dbus signal for that. I couldn't find any any way to start any other call (skype-to-skype, skype-phone, ... ). The answer seems to be on telepathy but I haven't tried that yet.

One more idea that I think would be great is being able to start a phone-skype-phone (skypeout) call ... I use it quite often because you don't have to rely on a good data signal and costs the same. This is the worst case for me ... My contact phone number becomes useless and I have to memorize the phone so I can dial it when prompted.

By the way: I don't think you are dreaming but you must be up for a good and long battle...

@activemind - I like the ideas you have for Call Routing. Could you have a look the VICaR project? I think some of ideas are similar in both of these projects.

- VICaR already routes all international calls to a pre-configured number (your local number for asterisk service).

- I am working on the plug-in for contacts application using telepathy. As fcrochik mentioned, it IS an uphill battle.

I never had skype integration in mind, but may be we can join forces and try to achieve these goals? What do you think?