[asterisk-biz] RE: Bottom end of the market for an Asterisk PBX ?

[Erick Perez]

People always talk about cheap products, but they do not consider an
important factor. There are countries (like mine) that will *not* pay
USD 150.00 for a phone in a company with less than 20 or 30 users.

An Example:
I work for a bank that has 185 analog extensions and about 20 digital
connected to an old, very old, norstar PBX. Analog extensions like the
one I use are cheap Panasonic phone (handset+base, and buttons 0-9,
*,#) that costs 16 dollars per unit in quantities below 10 units.

When I tried to talk about an asterisk setup in my office, they looked
and said "how much will it costs?". When I talked about snom 300
phones at 185 per unit they looked at me and ask me if i could do it
with cheap panasonic phones. An AudioCodes MP124 (24fxs, SIP,
g729,g711) is about 1500 (about $62 per port), so total analog
implementation was about $80 per port (panasonic+audiocodes).

Sure, that implementation wont beat a snom 300, but sure gets the work done.

That's why some of us still use cheapo equipment like grandstream or
the like, because some of us can't affort a 150-300 phone. Unless
you're the big-chief and the company pays you an executive phone.
BTW snom 300 can pass as executive phones down here.

cheers,



On 7/6/06, shadowym <shadowym at hotmail.com> wrote:
> While * may not be low end, * on a Dell Dimension or (insert your favorite
> budget PC here) with X100P cards or cheap ATA's or cheap ? Using Grandstream
> phones or (insert your favorite budget SIP phone here) certainly is low end.
>
> There are MANY people on this list doing exactly that!  That is what is
> perpetuating the image of low quality, not the software itself.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Alexander Lopez [mailto:Alex.Lopez at OpSys.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 6:23 AM
> > To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> > Subject: RE: [asterisk-biz] RE: Bottom end of the market for
> > an Asterisk PBX ?
> >
> > Snip.
> >
> > > * is not low-end, in fact for our purposes, it is likely the
> > highest-end
> > > product that we found.  People have to stop confusing
> > open-source with
> > > low quality.  Do you consider Firefox a low-end browser?
> > >
> > > W
> >
> > Or Linux a low-end OS?, Open-Source is a toolkit, once in a
> > while you are able to find a well-made multi-function tool,
> > but if you realize that while you may not have the exact tool
> > you need, you have all the raw materials and full run and
> > access to the machine shop.
> >
> > On a downside your machine shop tends to reconfigure itself
> > every once in a while, as others come in and add/change the
> > tools!! But unlike closed-source options at least you can see
> > the changes!
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
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Erick Perez
Panama Sistemas
Integradores de Telefonia IP y Soluciones Para Centros de Datos
Panama, Republica de Panama
Cel Panama. +(507) 6694-4780
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