Quick answer: An SMB phone system distributes live calls across people and devices with five primitives — shared line appearance, call park, ring group (the thing older vendors call a hunt group), paging group, and hot-desking — and Orbit ships a page for each under Voice. The running confusion is vocabulary: "hunt group" and "ring group" are the same distribution model on different PBXs, and "park orbit" is a hold slot, not a routed call. This guide names each primitive, shows how it is configured on Orbit, and lays out the 10-seat worked setup a hybrid SMB actually uses. It also draws the line where a queue takes over — the contact-center upgrade path.
The taxonomy: five primitives, five problems
| Primitive | One-line definition | Orbit surface |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Line Appearance (SLA) | One line rings every member's phone at once; a colleague can grab the answered call onto their own device | Voice → Shared lines |
| Call park | Hold a live caller in a numbered slot; retrieve from any other phone or softphone | Voice → Park (lobby) |
| Ring group | Distribute an inbound call to a destination list by a chosen strategy (ring-all, sequential, round-robin) | Voice → Ring groups |
| Paging group | One-way broadcast to desk-phone speakers or in-app page, with no return channel | Voice → Paging groups |
| Hot-desking | Agents bind to shared desk phones at sign-in so calls follow the person, not the furniture | Voice → Hot-desking |
Vendors buy these in this order: SLA first (the receptionist line is the one number every customer knows), call park second (the informal transfer), ring group third (the team distribution), paging fourth (the overhead-speaker replacement), and hot-desking fifth (the desk-sharing model). On Orbit all five are sibling pages under Voice; a team turns the one it needs on without touching the others.
Shared line appearance — the receptionist line
A shared line mirrors one extension onto a roster of member devices so an inbound call rings all of them at once. First member to pick up owns the call; the page at Voice → Shared lines polls live status to draw a busy lamp, and the Grab action moves the answered call from the answering device onto another member's device — the exec-assistant handoff without a transfer sequence. Each line caps at 50 members, names a primary extension (the line's identity), and requires a DID routed to it to receive inbound traffic. The full SLA operator guide on Orbit covers member management and the grab-time conflict rules; the taxonomy table above is where it sits in the UCaaS-operations tree.
Call park and the lobby — the informal transfer
Call park is the operator hand-off: hold a live caller into a numbered slot, watch the lobby to see held calls, and retrieve from whichever phone you moved to. The Voice → Park page is that lobby — each slot (park, retrieve, release) is a labeled entry so a front-desk sees all held calls at once. A parked call is not routed; it lives in a slot until a human retrieves it. Pairs well with a page group to announce "call parked on slot 1" — see the parking guide.
Ring group vs hunt group — the distribution
A ring group is a saved destination list a DID routes to; it fans an inbound call out by strategy — ring-all (every device at once), sequential (in ranked order), or round-robin (first available loops). The legacy PBX vocabulary calls it a hunt group, and the strategy selector is the hunt. On Orbit the Voice → Ring groups page creates the group, names the strategy, and attaches it to a DID. The distinction matters when you graduate: a ring group answers — it does not hold callers in FIFO order — so the moment callers need queued, a formal queue takes over (see the buyer checklist below).
Hot-desking — the desk-sharing layer
Hot-desking treats phones as a pool: an agent signs in on a shared SIP credential, the phone becomes their extension for that shift, and at sign-out the phone returns to the pool. The Voice → Hot-desking page also opens a reservation calendar so agents book a desk for a future window and block anyone else from claiming it. Retail floors, clinics, and hybrid offices typically run more agents than desks — the page is the fix. Walkthrough here.
Ring group vs queue — the graduation line
A queue is the CCaaS routing layer with FIFO holding, skills-based assignment, SLA timers, and overflow policies. The five primitives in this guide are live-call distribution — none of them hold a caller in an ordered line, so a queue is needed the moment callers exceed live capacity. A ring group is the right tool for a tens-of-devices receptionist; a queue is the right tool for a call center. The ACD queue model concept names the difference; when you graduate you pick the contact-center software surface instead.
Buyer checklist — small-business first, queue second
- Pick the primitives you need — SLA (reception), park (informal transfer), ring group (team distribution), paging (broadcast), hot-desking (shared desks). Most SMBs need two of them, not all five.
- Wire a DID route with fallback — every inbound number carries a fallback to voicemail so an empty roster never drops a call.
- Watch for queue signals — when callers need to hold in order, when agents need skills routing, or when wrap-up time between calls matters, the queue replaces the ring group.
- Re-check the neighbor surfaces — extension SMS, voicemails, colleagues, and the IVR builder are the other UCaaS pages a complete SMB setup reads.
- Compare against the incumbent — if stacked against RingCentral the comparison lands under Orbit vs RingCentral. The UCaaS flips when the dashboard moves past macro-trend essays into the operations primitives this guide covers.
Worked example — a 10-seat SMB without desks
A ten-person hybrid team where nobody has a dedicated desk:
- Hot-desking the phones — provision one shared SIP credential per physical phone. Walk-up sign-in covers most shifts; the reservation calendar covers booked seats ahead of the shift.
- SLA the main number — point the main DID at a shared line. Anybody with an open desk and a signed-in phone rings; a dedicated receptionist is not required.
- Park overflow — a call the SLA line caught that needs a colleague outside the conversation moves via park, retrieved from whichever desk the colleague happened to sign in at.
- Page the floor — a page group reaches desk-speaker phones for "call parked on slot 1" announcements without ringing.
- Ring group for the sales DID — the ring-all strategy so every signed-in agent rings at once; hot-desking guarantees the right devices answer.
- Fallback to voicemail — every DID route carries a fallback so an empty roster never drops the call.
The whole setup runs from six dashboard pages — nothing on a PBX, no provisioning trip per desk move.
Frequently asked questions
Do all five primitives have to light up at once?
No. SLA, park, ring group, paging, and hot-desking are independent pages — the SMB picks the two or three it needs. A bare SLA line plus a fallback voicemail is a complete setup for a single-desk receptionist.
What is the difference between hunt and ring groups?
None, in operation — the older PBX term for "ring group" is "hunt group", and the hunt strategy (circular, sequential, longest-idle) is the ring-group strategy selector on Orbit. When a vendor asks for a hunt group, the answer is the ring-group page.
Can a shared line member Grab a call in progress?
Yes — a member with canGrab permission reaches the answered call onto their own device via the grab endpoint. A member without the flag rings on the line but never reclaims the call. See the SLA section.
When does a queue replace the ring group?
When callers must FIFO-hold instead of ringing live. A ring group answers live; a queue holds in order. The contact-center page is the upgrade path the SMB-outgrows-its-dashboard buyer reads.
What is the fallback for the SLA line when nobody picks up?
A DID route carries a fallback destination (voicemail, another primitive, or the queue) so an empty roster never drops the call. Fallback wiring lives on the number routing config, not the SLA line page.
Where do the neighbor pages land?
IVR index for the scripted front door, extension SMS for per-extension texting, voicemails for catch-all capture, colleagues for the user directory, and the compare RingCentral page for the head-to-head breakdown a still-shopping buyer needs.