[asterisk-biz] Mobile extensions from Asterisk - HLR registration?

[John Todd]

I've had a few conversations in the last week with mobile carriers and  
equipment vendors who have expressed interest in this concept.  Some  
of you have contacted me as potential consumers of such a service.   
But the scale of interest is in question, and as I am not actually  
developing this product I have only what is discussed on this list (at  
the moment) as valid data to give to some organization who might be  
considering such a service.

If it were possible to selectively and temporarily re-map a mobile  
device so that inbound calls and SMS messages ended up on your  
Asterisk server, delivered via SIP and/or other IP-based transmission  
mechanisms, would you buy such a service?  Assume it would be secure,  
and authenticated both from the server perspective and from the end  
device owner.

Private replies welcome.

JT


On May 20, 2009, at 11:00 AM, John Todd wrote:

>
> I've posed this question in person to people with some frequency over
> the last few years, and the answer has always been "No, I don't know
> of such a service." but I'll try on the list and see what I get.
>
> I think it would be a great asset to the Asterisk community to have a
> service provider (let's call them "SP-A") who is a mobile carrier who
> offered the following method: if I register a SIP entity with their
> servers, they would then register with the HLR of my mobile carrier
> ("SP-B") and act as if I was roaming into a mobile network operated
> by  SP-A.  SP-B would then take all calls and text messages destined
> for my mobile device and send them to SP-A.  SP-A in turn would then
> relay those calls and messages to my Asterisk server, via SIP and/or
> XMPP.
>
> I would have pre-registered my mobile number with SP-B and
> authenticated that I was the owner of that mobile number.  SP-A would
> hopefully charge very little for the calls - perhaps a slight premium
> on what I'd expect for a SIP carrier.
>
> This would, I believe, quickly make Asterisk a roaming-capable
> solution for mobile devices.  Local Asterisk servers would be able to
> (as an example) detect dual-mode devices and then route calls in the
> office in the appropriate manner.  Bluetooth could be used as the
> "trigger" for non-dual-mode phones.  I have faith that Asterisk
> developers and administrators would descend upon this type of service
> like locusts.  The trick would be to make it purchase-able by
> individuals, and not as some large-scale process that involved sales
> contracts and NDAs and the like.  This needs to be a web form, a
> credit card/paypal account, and some good documentation.
>
> Potential problems: what if my mobile phone is registered with SP-A or
> some other provider already?  Who gets the messages?  How do HLRs
> manage multi-registration conflicts?
>
> JT

---
John Todd                       email:jtodd at digium.com
Digium, Inc. | Asterisk Open Source Community Director
445 Jan Davis Drive NW -  Huntsville AL 35806  -   USA
direct: +1-256-428-6083         http://www.digium.com/