[asterisk-dev] Routing data modem calls

[Brian Candler]

On Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 08:09:30PM +0300, Stelios Koroneos wrote:
> Have you though regarding the cost of implementiong such a solution and ROI
> ? (Both in terms of hardware/software and line/data/power consumption costs)
> The reason most of these remote "terminals"  (replace terminal with  atm,
> vending machine or something similar) come with low speed modems (2400/4800
> bps) is that they need (in most cases) to transfer very low volumes of data
> and not so often (from a few times a day to once every week).
> In many cases even a wireless (GPRS) "always on" connection is an over-kill
> when taking into account equipment and connection costs and is used when no
> phone line can be installed..
> Transfering these using voip requires at least a stable dsl connection which
> in many cases is not possible to install due to the location of these
> machines and might cost a lot more than a phone line.
> (I come from an embedded background and have installed several of such
> "terminals" doing "all kind of stuff")
> 
> Just a few thoughts...

Good thoughts. However these are sites where we already have reliable DSL
connectivity installed; the idea is to leverage this connectivity to make
cost savings on the other circuits by subsuming them onto the same line.

A GPRS connection may well be cheaper than POTS, but still costs money, and
you need a fairly expensive router.

The fact that these applications use low bandwidth means that they would
effectively be unnoticed on the DSL lines. The RoI on development is
dependent on the size of the rollout.

Regards,

Brian.