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As telephones generally do not have built-in intelligence in terms of establishing connection to a call participant, with the help of the dial plan, the telephone network or the telephone system itself analyses and recognises the dialled number and generates the proper connection request. ### Decisions taken by the dial plan Depending on the telephone network or the telephone system, the dial plan can be extremely comprehensive and complex, and it ensures that a whole range of decisions regarding connection establishment can be made. It defines, among other things, to which terminal is the caller transferred, what needs to be done if the call is not answered or the line is busy, and, if necessary, which answering machine has to be informed. In addition, the dial plan basically defines as to what information may be entered by which call participant. It can e.g. prohibit the use of "0" for specific call participants and thus allow only local or internal calls. It is also possible to block chargeable call numbers with the help of dial plan. In this case, the dial plan can prevent the dialling of numbers beginning with 090, 032 or other numerical sequences and instead forward the call participant to a standard call message. ### Dial plan and its syntax Dial plan has a specifically defined syntax depending on the type of telephone network or the telephone system model. In certain areas, Asterix has been established as a kind of standard syntax for free telephone system softwares. Asterisk can be run on various computer platforms and supports the [Voice over internet protocol (VoIP)](/gb/get-started/cloud-telephony/lexicon/knowledge-base-detail/voice-over-ip). The syntax is similar to a script, which is divided into various sections and defines the default specifications for the dial plan using precisely defined strings. ### Related Articles ### Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) **What is VoIP?** The **Voice over Internet Protocol,** also called IP telephony, is a method of communication for making calls over a broadband Internet connection as an alternative to regular calls made over an analogue phone using the [PSTN](/gb/get-started/cloud-telephony/lexicon/knowledge-base-detail/pstn). These VoIP calls can happen entirely over the Internet but where required, gateways also link to the PSTN. This means that VoIP users can still connect to anyone with a telephone number including local, mobile, and international numbers. VoIP services can be accessed from a computer with a so-called [softphone,](/gb/get-started/cloud-telephony/lexicon/knowledge-base-detail/softphones) from an IP phone, from a smartphone or from a conventional landline phone that is connected to a VoIP adapter. 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