[Asterisk-biz] Large volume inbound US provider request

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005, trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com wrote:

> On Thu, 2005-07-21 at 12:40 -0400, alex at pilosoft.com wrote:
> > c) SS7 interconnection (which is probably what you are asking about):  
> > Instead of buying PRIs, you can buy IMTs. If you connect to a tandem,
> > it will be an IMT. IMTs are much cheaper than PRI. You need proper SS7
> > gear).
> 
> You dont have to be a clec to get SS7 interconnection, nor do you have
> to have proper SS7 gear.  Verisign has a service offering called SIP-7
> where they will use SIP IM capability to traffic SS7 messages (and they
> are already connected to every lec/ixc in the US and Canada - they claim
> every but who knows).  This removes the requirement of the gear, and its
> upto the carriers you connect with as to whether or not they will give
> out SS7 access, there are quite a few that will even if you arent a
> clec.
*sigh*
*) First, try reading my posts before responding to them. 

a) SS7 messaging is not very useful if you don't have some IMT trunks to
control them with. (Yes yes, there are borderline cases like LIDB or CNAM 
access that you can run without IMTs, but that's separate subject).

b) While I'm sure there are CLECs that would sell IMT trunks to you 
without you being a CLEC yourself, the most useful IMTs are ones built to 
your ILEC (tandems or EOs). ILEC will *not* deal with you without an ICA. 
You have to have CLEC certification in order to get ICA. Thus, 

c) In order to get into LERG for routing of inbound calls, you have to be 
a CLEC.

> Asterisk business edition has SS7 now (and has for a while), and that is
> most likely a better choice than trying to use SIP IM, but the option is
> still there.  Verisign again has a straight SS7 feed that you can use so
> you have one connection instead of multiple to various different
> providers.
Err, no, asterisk business edition emphatically does *not* include
asterisk-SS7 licensing. SS7 licensing for asterisk is not cheap (in range
of few thousand dollars per port, and you want two ports). Of course,
compared to a proper SS7 softswitch, it's peanuts, however, that's far 
more than asterisk business edition pricing.

-alex