[Asterisk-Users] Channel bank question

[Sean Kennedy]

Damon Estep wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
>>[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
>>Sean Kennedy
>>Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 4:40 PM
>>To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Channel bank question
>>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>Quick question regarding channel banks, I managed to confuse 
>>myself ( monday...daylight saving time...no coffee ).
>>
>>If I have 10 copper wires coming in from the phone company, 
>>and I want to get a channel bank that will turn those into a 
>>t1 to feed into an * box with appropriate hardware, do I want 
>>an FXS or FXO channel bank?
>>
>>While I'm at it:  Are there specific features I should be 
>>looking for?  
>>Is there a specific company everyone's had good luck with?  
>>Any recommendations on this or otherwise?
>>
>>Thank you.
>>
>>Sean
>>    
>>
>
>
>I am assuming you are in the USA, correct me if incorrect.
>
Correct.

>You want to call your telco and see what the cost of a PRI (T1) is to
>replace those 10 lines. You have 10 analog lines should be at the point
>where it is about a break even, if not call a competitive carrier.
>  
>
Not in my area.  I have one provider who is brave enough to ATM a t1 out 
to my location.  Everybody else won't touch us.  Currently, we have what 
our vendor is calling a burstable t1.  I don't know if this is a common 
term or not, but bassically it means voice and data share the t1, voice 
eating into the bandwidth as needed.  The t1 is actually terminated into 
an Adtran 616 which I am currently researching to see if it can feed out 
a t1 feed instead of the 10 copper lines.  But I digress.

>You do not want to use a channel bank to convert analog to digitial,
>even if it could be done you are putting bandaids on a huge wound.
>  
>
Agreed.  However, given my options....

>You will get a lot of features with the PRI you can not get on analog,
>not to mention it will work, what you are talking about doing makes no
>sense from a practical standpoint.
>  
>
Well, except it's probably the best solution when you consider 
cost/complexity. 

>Do it right, get a PRI and a single PRI digium card (or another PRI
>terminating device like a T1 chabbel bank)/
>  
>
Normally, I'd agree with you.  However, this situation is different 
given the line costs.


Sean