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

[shadowym]

If you are that price conscious then a good quality (ie. Asterisk on good
hardware) phone system is not for you IMHO.  You are better off with a
Bizfone or Talkswitch analog system.  Panasonic makes a real cheap digital
key system.

Going cheap on Asterisk is just not a good thing IMHO!  Cheap SIP phones are
no where near as good as cheap analog phones for the most basic and
important functionality of talking and listening.  I certainly will not get
myself caught in some project that want's dirt cheap and expects good
quality sound and basic functions that consistently work.  That is nothing
but a recipe for failure.

Just my opinion.    

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erick Perez [mailto:eaperezh at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 2:46 PM
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] RE: Bottom end of the market for 
> an Asterisk PBX ?
> 
> 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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> 
> 
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Erick Perez
> Panama Sistemas
> Integradores de Telefonia IP y Soluciones Para Centros de 
> Datos Panama, Republica de Panama Cel Panama. +(507) 6694-4780
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>