[Asterisk-Users] How to emulate a multiline phone in Asterisk

[Jim Dossey]

On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 09:19 +0100, Peter Svensson wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Jim Dossey wrote:
> 
> > I have a client who currently has a Toshiba PBX.  We are trying to
> > replace it with an Asterisk system.  One of the features that they have
> > on their current PBX is the ability to select a POTS line by pressing a
> > button on their phones.  They have 10 POTS lines and they can select any
> > line by just pressing the corresponding button on their phone.  They can
> > also join an existing call by just picking up the handset and pressing
> > the button for the call they want to join.  This isn't like a conference
> > call because you have one outside line coming in and 2 or more people
> > inside the office on that call.
> 
> This is commonly referred to as a "key system". Asterisk is not terribly 
> well suited as a key system since it is a pbx. The difference is 
> (leaving out all the subtleties) that a key system is based on the concept 
> of pstn lines while the pbx is based on the concept of extensions. Even 
> the whole pstn cloud can be thought of as extensions. 
> 
> You could possibly make something similar if you really _really_ want to 
> using agi scripts and redirects through the manager port to a meetme 
> conference. Before going down that road I suggest you first consider if 
> your client is best served by this solution or if it is just an artifact 
> of their old system.
> 
> Peter
> 

Thanks for that answer.  That clears up a lot of questions that I had.
This isn't really a functionality problem.  It's more a problem of
breaking the users of their old habits and switching them to a new
platform.
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