[Asterisk-Users] Level(3) SIP termination services

[John Todd]

[crossposted to isp-clec and asterisk-users]

>Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 21:12:22 -0500
>To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>From: John Todd <jtodd at loligo.com>
>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Level(3) SIP termination services?
>Reply-To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>
>Anyone investigated the new service offerings from Level(3) in the
>last few months?  They claim to be using ENUM and SIP - see
>http://www.level3.net/2192.html for details.  Any idea of their
>pricing model for mid-sized enterprise applications or call centers
>for origination/termination?  More specifically, do they interoperate
>with Asterisk?  Some providers insist on certain hardware that speaks
>SIP flavor-of-the-month.  I could call them to find out, but I
>suspect that this list will have far more clue than the Level(3)
>sales humanoid that I'd get on the phone and who would want to waste a
>few days of my time asking stupid questions of me.
>
>Replies off-list, if you feel it necessary.
>
>JT

At 11:53 AM -0800 12/20/03, Darnell Gadberry wrote:
>John,
>
>I spoke with Level(3) last week regarding SIP termination.  They
>quoted $0.01/minute, with an 11 Million Minute / Month minimum.
>
>Ugh!
>
>-dg
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>Darnell Gadberry
>President
>binaryMedia
>darnell AT binmedia DOT com
>------------



That's not such a great price at 11 million minutes, in my opinion.

Did you ask them if they would speak to Asterisk via SIP?   We have 
on this list (asterisk-users) made some short lists of retail 
providers of minutes (see archives,) but it would be interesting to 
see what wholesale providers will warrant Asterisk use with their SIP 
gateways as "acceptable".

Questions for y'all to ask when you start fishing:

   - do you need dedicated interconnect with the network of the 
termination provider?  In our example of L3, do you need to buy a 
fast ethernet of IP bandwidth from Level3, or will they take the 
traffic across a peer or other transit customer's link (in other 
words: the Internet.)

   - what codecs are supported?  Some providers insist on G.711, which 
strikes me as underhanded at worst and significantly short-sighted, 
at best.  If they support Asterisk (yay!) do they allow iLBC, GSM, 
and Speex?

   - how are CDR's transmitted back to the customer?  Daily?  Live? 
Monthly (agh!)?   Via the Internet, or on tape/cd?

   - are media streams restricted to a single (or very few) IP 
addresses, or will they take media streams from "anywhere"?  Again, 
many providers seem to want to break SIP's model of peer-to-peer 
media transmission, even when it's possible, for various "business" 
reasons.

   - are there any geographic considerations for sending traffic?  Are 
there any area code/prefix sets which cost more?

  - are there any topological considerations for sending traffic?  If 
traffic shifts between appearing on the East Coast, and then fails 
over (as an example) to coming in through a West Cost network 
perspective, does that change any SLAs or pricing?

  - if the provider offers multiple rates to North American 
destinations, how often does that rate table update?  How is that 
rate table provided?

  - in what format does the provider offer international rate updates? 
How often?

  - does the provider offer private or public ENUM lookup for 
destinations locally served, if they provide DID's to their larger 
customer base?  what is the provider's plan for ENUM rollout once 
NANP is fully ENUM capable?


As you speak with providers, so long as there is no NDA, please share 
your experiences with the list.  The medium-sized call-centric shops 
and call centers would benefit greatly from hearing the possible 
competitive alternatives that might be connected to Asterisk systems.

This again brings up the topic of asterisk-biz mailing list, if there 
is any traffic.  However, I doubt there will be much traffic since it 
seems the people who do many minutes keep their mouths shut, at least 
on this list.

JT