[asterisk-users] North American voice BRI - Informal survey

[Stephen Bosch]

Thanks for the response, Joe.

Joe Greco wrote:
>> Voice BRI is scarcely advertised. In these parts, Telus does indeed
>> offer it. (I had to know what I was looking for, though.)
> 
> BRI is a service the telcos would like to forget about here in the US.
> We ordered it at the house because we're sufficiently near a radio
> station that we tend to get POTS interference, and I wanted the
> flexibility to do virtually anything with the lines, including X2
> dialup inbound (remember X2?  ;-) ).  That was around the peak of the
> BRI craze here in the US.

Yeah -- as I mentioned, it's not like the Canadian telcos are announcing
it from the rooftops, either.

>> I did some inquiries about monthly fees.
>>
>> Here's what I was quoted for 2B+D voice service (all these prices are in
>> Canadian dollars; 1 USD buys 1.05 CAD):
>>
>> 1 Year Contract   $91.75
>> 3 Years Contract $82.50
>> 5 Years Contract $79.85
>>
>> They are not keen on month-to-month, but I squeezed a price out of them.
>> It was something like $110 a month (it was not in the formal quote ;) ).
> 
> We're at something around $50 on M2M, but there was a fairly steep install
> (maybe $250?).  It ends up being around $115/mo for the 2 BRI lines (4
> channels total).

Wow, that's cheap. No wonder you don't get any customer service.

I couldn't even get analog lines for that price.

>> The calling features are packaged as one (for both channels). You can't
>> mix and match. If I only want caller ID, I'm stuck with everything else,
>> too.
>>
>> 1 Year contract   $27.90
>> 3 Years contract $27.30
>> 5 Years contract $25.75
>>
>> I think the month-to-month for this was $29.90.
> 
> Ick.
> 
> Around here, SBC/Ameritech/AT&T prefers you to order by package code.
> You can order a-la-carte but it is damn expensive.
> 
> The package we selected included Caller-ID.  Cheaper packages were also
> available, but did not include Caller-ID, or only included 1B, or only
> data service, or whatever.

Sorry -- I think I was wrong there. I think caller ID is always included
-- but we need forward on busy, which is a "calling feature", so it
means we need the features package. On the regular analog lines, the
caller ID is extra (nine bucks! crooks!).

I suspect it's very difficult to configure this equipment, so they just
throw the whole thing at you.

>> So, say we take a 1 year contract, with calling features:
>>
>> $119.65, before taxes (we'll ignore the installation fees for the sake
>> of this analysis).
>>
>> Now, comparing this with our current arrangement for two lines, forward
>> on busy on one and caller ID on both, it comes to $114.17 before taxes.
>> If one were to go head with the 1 year contract, it's hardly worth the
>> difference to do analog.
> 
> Right, but you also have to ask yourself, "do I like to punish myself?"
> 
> Do you want to be on the wrong end of the support equation when the line
> fails?  You can't just call SBC repair.  They'll say that you don't have
> SBC service.  You then have to make sure you keep track of the ISDN group's
> number, and call them, and be prepared to wait an hour a shot to talk to
> someone.

I know what you mean. This is the kind of headache you get on fibre
connections with Telus.

However, the PRI and BRI are handled by the same advanced business
services group here. I have no personal experience with BRI, but judging
by the ubiquity of PRI, it shouldn't suck too horribly. Of course, that
could just be my youthful optimism talking.

How often have your lines failed?

> Do you want to be stuck with a service where you can't just plug in a
> normal test set to check for dialtone?
> 
> Do you want to have to figure out what combination of service adapters
> is needed to make it all work?
> 
> Do you want to deal with oddities and irregularities in how the service
> works and interfaces to your PBX?
> 
> These are just *some* of the questions that pop to mind.

Oof.

> You *do* get a gorgeous crisp clean signal like nothing you've ever heard
> before.  But it is a lot of work.

This is what is so tantalizing about it. I also like the call progress
information.

> Well, at the time, there was pretty much nothing that was considered to be
> "reliably" supported by Asterisk for NA BRI.
> 
> I picked up an Adtran Atlas 550 with a 4BRI-U interface and an octal FXS,
> and I use the unit's built-in T1 network port to connect to an Asterisk
> box.  This works nicely, except for the things for which it doesn't work
> nicely.  The box is fundamentally being used as a BRI<->PRI translator, 
> but gives me some neat extras.  The BRI ports can be configured to work 
> as user or network, so I've got some of my legacy ISDN devices (Courier 
> I-Modem, and some other various stuff) that I can have switched through
> the Asterisk box and have them work  - all digital signal path :-)
> 
> The Adtran, however, has some limitations.  The nastiest has to do with
> the way it handles DN's.  It always grabs the first DN on a BRI for the
> outbound caller-ID.  Adtran says no plans to fix.  There are also problems
> getting it to register correctly to handle more than one call per DN; I
> have had it working in the past, but now it is pretty reliably broken.
> It's really too damn bad because the Adtran seems to have so many nice
> capabilities.
> 
> We don't use special calling features (aside from Caller-ID, which I do
> not really consider to be a "calling feature") so no idea about any of
> the other stuff like 3way, etc.  We do that on the Asterisk box.
> 
> I wouldn't buy the Adtran solution again.  It cost about $2500 total to
> get up and running, IIRC, with used eBay equipment, but the idea behind
> it is extremely attractive.

Sangoma just came out with a BRI card, the AFT A500. I understand that
there are no plans for a 2B1Q driver, but I am working on changing their
minds.

-Stephen-