[Asterisk-Users] Slightly [OT] Asterisk Backends

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Andrew Niemantsverdriet wrote:

>I use Askerisk in my home as my home phone system. I use to make long
>distance calls because of the cost savings that I can get. I also
>share my phone system with my neighbor via a wireless link so that he
>can also use * to make long distance calls at a savings. He also uses
>that as a second emergency phone line.  So for all of that I just have
>an internet connection and 1 X100P that goes to my phone line. That is
>as big of scale as I have seen.
>
>My question is how to the bigger companys do it? Do they have just a
>bunch of phone lines that plug into their computer? What kind of cards
>do they use, I know that they don't use 100's of X100P cards so what
>are they? And lastly how can companys make money on such ventures?
>Judging by the price of my single phone line it would be hard to have
>much of a margin even with a T1.
>
>Like I said in the subject off topic but I have wondered how my voip
>provider makes any money
>  
>
Just with anything else there are ecomonies of scale that come into play 
the more volume you start to move. Typically a VOIP provider will use an 
asterisk box that terminates directly into a T1 interface (this is the 
way alot of larger PBX systems work as well). Another thing to keep in 
mind is that you only need enough channels (24 for a T1, 23 for PRI) as 
you are using at this exact moment. To steal a page from the ISP guys, 
you need to determine what the best ratio is for channels to 
subscribers. Typically ISP work on a ratio of 12:1, mean for every 12 
subscribers, they have 1 modem port. The same applies with VoIP 
providers, the larger you get... the better the ratio will work in your 
favor.

Tom Walsh