[Asterisk-biz] RFQ: USA IAX Services, focused on support

[asterisk at funkspiel.org]

On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 02:22:23PM -0500, tmassey at obscorp.com wrote:
> The recent flamewar has spurred me to put out this RFQ.  I would like to 
> know what alternatives exist for customers who are interested in IAX 
> services that are focused on support.

Excellent statement of requirements, and excellent suggestions so far.
Now this is the kind of thread I like to read. :)

So far the responses have centered on termination and origination
providers.  Clearly these providers are using Asterisk (at least most
of them), but it's a black box to the customer, right?  This is probably
a Good Thing.

However, what if I am interested in developing voicemail applications?
I want to muck around and change extensions.conf, and perhaps tweak
other aspects of the system.  I could do this by ssh'ing into
a dedicated box in your machine room (best), or through requests to
a very responsive customer service person (less preferable).

I'm a programmer, so I don't need a lot of hand-holding... just some
way to administer the Asterisk box.  Think of the case where you buy
web service from an ISP.  Occasionally you need to install new CGI
programs, or tweak your httpd.conf, or maybe even install a new Apache
module.  Either you want sudo access so you can do it yourself, or
you want a customer service so they can do it for you.  What I'm
looking for is the same thing, only in Asterisk space.

In other words, I want to develop my Asterisk applications for my
customers, but I'd rather not have to become an ISP in order to do so.
I want to outsource.

Are there many providers who offer this?  I'm just getting into this
space, so I apologize if this is a naive question.