diff --git a/apps/app_speech_utils.c b/apps/app_speech_utils.c
index 5e236ddc64..73fe3ce13d 100644
--- a/apps/app_speech_utils.c
+++ b/apps/app_speech_utils.c
@@ -669,7 +669,7 @@ static int speech_background(struct ast_channel *chan, void *data)
 					if (chan->stream != NULL) {
 						ast_stopstream(chan);
 						/* Change timeout to be 5 seconds for DTMF input */
-						timeout = 5;
+						timeout = (chan->pbx && chan->pbx->dtimeout) ? chan->pbx->dtimeout : 5;
 						time(&start);
 						started = 1;
 					}