Bulk voice calls fail for four reasons: nobody answered, the line was busy, the number was invalid, or the network refused the call before it rang. The first three are about the contact and need ordinary retries. The fourth is a network problem, and it can wipe out hundreds of calls in a few minutes. Edesy retries those refused calls on its own after about 1, 3, 10, 20 and 30 minutes, without using your retry attempts.
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The four kinds of failed call
Open the results of any large broadcast and the "not connected" pile looks like one number. It is really four different problems.
| Outcome | What happened | Whose problem | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| No answer | The phone rang out | The contact | A later retry at a better time |
| Busy | The contact was on another call or rejected it | The contact | A retry after a gap |
| Invalid or unreachable | Wrong, disconnected or switched-off number | Your list | Cleaning the list |
| Network refusal | The network turned the call away before it rang | The route | Waiting, then retrying; or a backup caller ID |
The first two are normal. On any list, a share of people will not pick up the first time. That is what the retry attempts setting in a campaign is for: you choose how many times (0 to 5) and how far apart.
The third is a data problem. No retry fixes a wrong number; cleaning the list does.
The fourth is the dangerous one, because it does not look different in a plain report. A call the network refuses ends in a second or two, with a server-side error instead of a ring.
Why network refusals hurt most
A network refusal is not about one contact. When a route has trouble, every call on it fails the same way, very quickly.
Picture a broadcast dialing 20 calls at a time with two retry attempts per contact. A ten-minute outage on the route means each call fails in about a second. The campaign moves on to the next contacts, which fail too, then retries the first ones, which fail again. By the time the route recovers, hundreds of contacts can be marked "failed" with every attempt used up, and none of their phones ever rang.
For a payment reminder or a service alert, that is the worst result: the message did not land, and the report says you tried.
How Edesy handles a refused call
Edesy voice campaigns treat a network refusal differently from a contact not answering.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. The call is refused | Edesy sees a fast failure from the network, not a ring |
| 2. The attempt is given back | The refusal does not count against the contact's retry attempts |
| 3. The contact waits | It is marked retrying and called again after about 1, 3, 10, 20 and 30 minutes on successive refusals |
| 4. A backup takes over | With a backup caller ID on a different network, calls move to it and keep going |
| 5. Or the campaign pauses | After 10 refusals in a row with no working backup, the campaign pauses itself |
| 6. It resumes on its own | 5 minutes later it tries again |
The waits get longer on purpose. A route that refuses a call usually refuses the next one seconds later too, so retrying straight away only spends the contact's chances. Spacing the retries out gives the network time to come back.
Each contact gets up to 5 network retries. If the route is still down after that, the contact ends as failed, so the campaign can finish instead of looping forever. You can then call those contacts again later (see below).
Full details are on the automatic retries feature page and in the docs: Retries, Test Calls and Run Again.
For the list-hygiene side of failed calls (DND, bad numbers, calling hours), see why half your campaign calls fail.
Your retry attempts: set them for people, not networks
Because network failures are handled separately, the retry attempts you set only need to cover people.
| Campaign type | Suggested attempts | Gap between them |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional broadcast | 1 | A few hours, or the next day |
| Payment or EMI reminder | 2 | 30 to 60 minutes |
| Appointment reminder | 2 | 30 minutes |
| Urgent alert | 3 | 10 to 15 minutes |
Keep everything inside the dialing window. Edesy campaigns dial 09:00 to 21:00 by default, and contacts not reached when the window closes wait for the next day.
What it costs
Failed calls are free. Only answered calls are billed:
| Item | Price (excl. 18% GST) |
|---|---|
| Answered campaign minute | Rs 0.70 (Rs 0.50 call + Rs 0.20 campaign fee), 60-second pulse |
| Unanswered, busy or refused call | Free |
| Network retry | Free unless it is answered |
| Recorded message | No text-to-speech charge |
The campaign wizard shows the campaign fee in its cost estimate before you launch. See voice broadcasting pricing for the full price list.
After the campaign: call the people you missed
Some contacts will still be unreached at the end: no answer, busy, or out of network retries. Use Run again on the finished campaign and choose Only those not reached. You get a copy with the same message and settings, holding only the contacts who were not reached, checked against your Do Not Call list again. The full method is in Re-Run a Voice Campaign to Only the People Who Didn't Answer.
A short checklist before a big broadcast
- Set a backup caller ID on a different network.
- Set retry attempts for people (table above), not for outages.
- Press Call me to hear the message on your own phone.
- Check the cost estimate against your wallet.
- After the run, use Run again for the unreached.
FAQ
Why do so many bulk voice calls fail?
Most failed calls fall into four groups: no answer, busy, invalid or switched-off numbers, and calls the network refused before they rang. The first three are about the contact. The last one is a network problem, and it is the one that automatic retries recover.
What is a network refusal?
The phone network turns the call away within a second or two, before the contact's phone rings, often because of an outage or because the route is over capacity. Every call on that route fails the same way until it recovers.
Do automatic network retries use my retry attempts?
No. On Edesy, calls the network refused are retried after about 1, 3, 10, 20 and 30 minutes, separately from the retry attempts you set for unanswered or busy calls.
Why does my campaign pause on its own?
After 10 refused calls in a row with no working backup caller ID, an Edesy campaign pauses so the outage doesn't fail the whole list. It resumes by itself after 5 minutes.
Am I charged for failed calls?
No. Only answered calls are billed, at Rs 0.70 per minute on Edesy voice campaigns, plus 18% GST. Refused, unanswered and busy calls are free.