[Asterisk-Users] how many production systems are there?

[Brian Capouch]

Steve Totaro wrote:
> i am excited too.
> 
> what kind of wireless wan?

I operate a wireless WAN that covers approximately 500 square miles of 
NW Indiana.

We are lightly loaded right now, so it is not yet possible to tell 
whether or not we're going to have QoS problems once traffic picks up. 
But for the most part a number of us are using Asterisk, "via" IAX2 and 
SIP, to provide value-added services to our customers throughout our 
coverage area.

But the PBX capabilities of Asterisk are also of great interest to our 
customers, and we're on the verge of spinning off a VoIP unit to handle 
those sorts of things, where it appears there are vast market 
opportunities because of the bloated profits being enjoyed by both the 
traditional TDM-style PBXs as well as the "big-boy" vendors (e.g. Cisco 
and 3Com) in the VoIP space.

The biggest feature we hope to offer, which we're going to call 
"Wireless InterCon," allows customers who opt for the service to expose 
a local PSTN line for sharing with other members of the "club."  Because 
we operate across many ILEC exchanges and two LATAs, we have the ability 
to route calls privately and then out the PSTN as a local call to 
exchanges that may be far away.  The "principle of locality of 
reference" extends past the CO, and so many people are excited about 
being able to talk to others in nearby towns for whom the call is now a 
toll charge.

The scheme we're working on will try the local call first if the 
exchange is one covered by a club member, but to allow our members 
unfettered use of their own phones, when the local TDM circuit is busy 
we just run the call out through an ISTP.

Our calcs so far show that doesn't happen very often, and the cost is so 
low for VoIP ISTPs that it will only add a modest overhead to the cost 
of operating the system.

I'd love it if others on the list who see any regulatory issues with 
this could speak up: because we're not charging money for the service 
itself, but operating a club for our customers who buy connectivity  and 
VoIP from us, we're hoping we'll be OK with the state regulators.

Thanks.

B.