[asterisk-users] ATA for large networks

[Darrick Hartman]

Vieri wrote:
> --- On Mon, 9/29/08, Sam Tam <samtam888 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Why not swap it all with just IP phone?
> 
> That's because we have almost 400 analog phones already wired in our building (which is very large). So we need to take advantage of the wiring.
> 
> Also, if we were to convert to an all-IP phone system (non-ATA), we would need to buy more ethernet switches (currently they're all full) and tunnel cables thtough ceilings and walls. In other words, it would cost a lot more than to simply buy ATAs. What I'm looking for however are STABLE, RELIABLE ATAs...
> 
> Thanks for the feedback,
> 
> Vieri

You'll probably want to use FXS channel banks rather than an ATA.  At 
that kind of scale, I'd call Rhino or Xorcom and have them make the 
recommendation.  You will still end up with a large number of devices 
and likely several asterisk servers to coordinate all of this.  When you 
really look at the numbers, finding a way to use IP phones may not be 
that much more than the overall hardware cost involved to do this right 
with analog lines.

Darrick