<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Oct 21, 2005, at 9:37 AM, Michaël Gaudette wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#540000">[snip]</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I have (yet another) follow-up question...my hypothetical company had 24 external lines and 72 internal employees.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Which is why a T1 was the answer. Now that I think of it, couldn't I use VoIP instead for the external lines (I'm not looking at the internal lines right now, just trying to figure out whats cheaper for outside access).</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Meaning, couldn't I have 72 phone number coming in throught my VoIP provider, sent to my Asterisk PBX through normal Internet plumbing and then channel it to whatever internally.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Mike,</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>You could easily do this, but keep in mind you will probably need a full T1 of data bandwidth (1.5mb/s) to handle the call volume. This, of course, depends on the codec used, which will, in turn, affect your CPU load... Don't forget about QOS, too, and you might want to consider using a dedicated data line for the voice traffic, just in case your 50 windows clients all download the latest 5MB update via automatic update. (that tends to have a negative effect on your QOS for voice traffic!)<BR></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Anyhow, I think you will find that the ITSP/VOIP route will be very workable, but it will also be somewhat less reliable, simply because the PSTN is so darned reliable. In the event that you choose this route, you won't need the equipment for incoming lines, since they all come in via ethernet.</DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"><DIV>Tom</DIV></BODY></HTML>