[Asterisk-Users] OT: PRI costs in US

[Steven Critchfield]

On Sun, 2003-03-02 at 05:40, tmassey at obscorp.com wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> Several of my customers would like to add a backup to their Internet 
> connection.  ISDN is a good solution:  decently fast for a dial-up-type 
> connection, yet still faily affordable.  While I was at it, I decided to 
> look at a couple of more creative telephone service options to possibly 
> improve their service or lower costs at the same time.  These customers 
> range from having just a couple of POTS lines without a key system up to 
> as many as 18 POTS lines into systems such as AT&T Merlin or Nortel 
> Norstar systems.
>
> My first thought on the higher end was a PRI line.  However, the cost 
> seems *very* prohibitive.  The average cost for a PRI line was $550/month, 
> just for "dial tone"!  I've heard others say that PRI becomes cost 
> effective in the 8 line range, but the cost for the office with 14 lines 
> ($25/line * 14 lines) is only $350.  It would take 22 lines before the PRI 
> would equal the cost of individual POTS lines!

My guess is you have some steeply discounted analog lines already. The
rule of thumb in my area is business lines are ~2x more than residential
lines. Residential lines here start around $18, business around $36,
home ISDN $50, business ISDN $90. The company I used to work for had 24
lines of analog with 2 hunt groups. This setup when moved to a CLEC on a
T1 with channel bank breakout saved us ~$300 a month after equipment
rental. 

> As an aside, I did a survey of several of my customers with 10-30 
> employees.  Most of them have POTS lines only (from between 4 and 10) fed 
> into some sort of PBX.  Only one of them has a PRI line, and they wish 
> they hadn't gone that way:  they thought they would need more lines than 
> they do, and now they feel that they're way over-buying.
> 
> Am I missing something?  When is a PRI competitive with POTS?  And if I'm 
> not missing something, is there an alternative between POTS and a PRI, 
> particularly for 5-15 lines?  None of the telephone companies I called 
> offered channelized T1 options for local service (let alone frac-T1), only 
> PRI.  Are there other options?

Out of curiosity, what area are you located, and who are your CLECs? Our
last installed line was for 24 lines of channelized T1 in 2 12 line
hunts and one hunt is DID with 20 numbers. This config is currently
running us ~$900 a month. We have a quote in from Adelphia now for ~$600
as a PRI. They can offer this drop in cost due to having a fiber leg
already in our building that is only being used for a T1 and a ISDN
line.

> Finally, any alternatives for smaller companies?  I tried to get a simple 
> BRI ISDN line for Internet backup for the company with 18 POTS lines. 
> #$@%@ Ameritech (excuse me, SBC) charges $10/month more if you don't sign 
> a 36-month contract and wouldn't give it to them without a credit check, 
> several pieces of company information, the names and telephone numbers of 
> at least two officers of the company and a personal guarantee from an 
> officer!  This for a customer who has had 18 POTS lines for *15* YEARS!
> 
> I hate SBC...

You and probably most of it's subscribers especially after they went to
the regulators and said they wouldn't spend money upgrading their
network unless they could stop selling their services to CLECS. I have
yet to hear a good review of SBC unless you have spent in excess of 3
months of letter writing to regulatory officials, elected officials, and
coping those letters to C?O level members of SBC. 

-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>