[Asterisk-Users] Kind of off-topic: VoIP services and multipl e callers

[Colin Anderson]

>If five people in the office all need to use their phones at the same
>time, would I need five VoIP lines, or would I only need one VoIP line?
>Am I over-thinking this?

You would need 1 broadband connection, and technically, you would need only
1 ACCOUNT (I think that's the word you are looking for) but any VoIP
provider that doesn't want to go out of business right away would enforce
account limits so only 1 account could be in use at any one point in time.
Otherwise, you could make an account and have 1000 people making calls at
the same time. Think of it in terms of software licensing: With a VoIP
account, you have a "license" to use their service, 1 user at a time making
1 call at a time. In the software world, this is called concurrent
licensing. 

So POTS line != VoIP "line"

-but-

VoIP "line" == User account

Of course, it would be possible to use 1 account if you could train your
users to only use the phone 1 at a time. But, it'd probably be just as
easier to do 5 accounts if you are paying by the minute. If it's a flat
rate, you would pay more for 5 accounts but you would have the 5 users
making calls concurrently, which is what you want. 

YMMV, I've noticed that almost everyone has different policies on this.