[Asterisk-Users] asterisk-providers mailing list?

[John Todd]

At 1:04 PM -0400 on 5/20/04, Reed Wade wrote:
>It seems like it might be nice to have a mailing list to talk about 
>(and to) voip providers for Asterisk users.
>
>It would be a good place to share info about config, pricing news, 
>customer service, local numbers, transient outages, etc. Providers 
>would be encouraged to contribute sales info. Users would be able to 
>help each other out with technical and non-technical issues.
>
>Seems good for everyone and it would keep some of the noise and hurt 
>feelings out of the other lists.
>
>The real goal of the list would be to improve the quality of the 
>experience for customers and suppliers. This is something we need to 
>improve in order for voip to be taken more seriously.
>
>?
>
>-reed

   Would providers actually contribute meaningful discussion and data 
on such a list?  My experience shows that the majority of providers 
that I know (and have worked with or for) and who use Asterisk have 
not once, ever, posted anything to either the -dev list or the -users 
list.  That number is more than ten and less than thirty, to be 
suitably vague.  In fact, the only activity on any VoIP list or 
organizations from any of the providers I've worked for seems to 
be... me.

   This is not to say that I'm always the only VoIP person at these 
firms (though that has certainly been the case at several) but it 
does say that providers are notoriously secretive and closed-mouth, 
and automatically distrustful of anything that could expose them to 
the "shame" of running software or hardware that didn't cost them 
millions of dollars. (<frantic_hand_waving> "We're HUGE!  We're 
MAMMOTH!  YOU SHOULD INVEST IN US!  We've spent INCREDIBLE AMOUNTS OF 
MONEY on this system to bring AMAZING RESULTS to our customers and 
INVESTORS!  It's IMPOSSIBLE to duplicate what we've done!  Arrrrr!")

   I would love to see a list where this speak-no-evil trend is 
reversed, but I suspect it would be a very low-volume list.  There is 
already a list called "isp-clec" which (sometimes) covers this 
ground.  See http://isp-lists.isp-planet.com/isp-clec/  for details 
and archives.

JT