[Asterisk-Users] Newbie has a few basic questions please.

[Jon Radel]

Bruce wrote:

> Thanks for the replies.  I do have vonage phone service and they have 
> provided me a motorla device I plug into my broadband and also plug my 
> phone into to make calls. this is a nice service for 30 bucks, but as 
> with all things linux, why cant one connect to the PSTN for free?

I suspect that somebody, possibly you, paid for the computer you're 
running Linux on.  Connecting to the PSTN costs money for pretty much 
the same reasons.  As a personal aside, you do appear to be a bit hung 
up on the free beer aspect.

> I 
> mean isnt there a protocol one can use to get access to the pstn?  
> What does vonage use to do this?  Or do they have to pay for access to 
> the pstn. 

While I suspect that Vonage gets pretty nice wholesale rates, they most 
certainly do have to pay for access to the PSTN.  You know, even AT&T 
has to pay for routing calls across those portions of the PSTN they 
don't own.

--Jon Radel