[Asterisk-Users] FXO/FXS card

[jgreco at ns.sol.net]

> 
> --On Thursday, September 30, 2004 19:30 -0700 Geoff Nordli 
> <geoffn at gnaa.net> wrote:
> 
> > I think everyone agrees with the T100P and an FXS channel bank.  You see
> > them listed on ebay all the time for really, really cheap (<150 US$).  It
> > looks like the Rhinos are pretty inexpensive as well configured with FXS.
> >
> > In North America is ISDN (BRI) a cost effective solution for FXO ports?  I
> > was thinking of something like a quadBRI card, or something like that.
> >
> > Is one able to get extra DIDs when using BRI ISDN?
> 
> No, BRI ISDN is very rarely, if ever, cost effective here in NA. 

Really?  We're bringing in dialtone on BRI for about $45/month for a basic
Package S BRI, IIRC.  This gives us Caller-ID on two lines.  Since 
Ameritech charges about $14/month for a POTS, and then something ridiculous
like $8-9/month for Caller-ID, it works out pretty cost effectively for us.
We also get the benefit of digital delivery for that extra crisp sound, and
the ability to do things like V.90 dialin.

> Not enough 'consumer buy-in.'

This is correct.  And Ameritech actively makes it difficult to order and
support ISDN.  These days, if you talk to an agent, reports are that when
you say "ISDN", they hear "DSL", so they transfer you over to their DSL
product group, where you wait in that half hour queue to find out you're
in the wrong place, repeat several times, until you get in the ISDN hour
long queue.  Ameritech also makes it difficult/impossible to exploit many
of the advantages of ISDN, by pricing a-la-carte features at exorbitant
prices, and ISTR they simply stopped selling a lot of features as well, as
a way to boost PRI sales and/or other more profitable products.

> I don't think that ISDN BRI allows for extra DIDs as PRI does, but I could 
> be wrong.

You are absolutely and definitely wrong.  The technology supports extra 
DN's (directory numbers) for a circuit.  The question is if you can actually
get them.  I believe Ameritech no longer sells CACH / EKTS, which I believe 
was the primary way this service was sold.  I vaguely recall that there's 
another method for something-like-DID delivery as well.  The problem is that
they really stopped selling any service on BRI that even vaguely looked like
it might be useful.

> Most of the BRI equipment I've seen requires all that 
> information be hard configured.  I could be wrong though.

Most BRI equipment is incompetent at best.  We never truly got past the
second generation of equipment.  Want a terminal adapter?  There are lots,
but most of them are no longer made.  Want a terminal adapter with POTS
ports?  There are some.  Want a terminal adapter with POTS that delivers
Caller-ID on the POTS ports?  I can count them on one hand, I think.  
That'd be the Motorola Bitsurfr Pro (no longer made), the Netgear RT338
(no longer made - also tends to crash/lock up monthly), some Zyxel
product, and I'll allow two more that I've forgotten.  Neat stuff like
the USR I-Modem (primary issue: didn't deliver Caller-ID to the POTS port)
which allows you to do the digital termination of X2 / V.90 calls got
lost in the shuffle of USR being sold to 3Com being sold to new-USR.

I'm not aware of *any* particularly clever or interesting ISDN devices
being sold these days.

Now I find us in a position where I'd like to have a small pool of DID
numbers, but we don't really have enough call volume to fill the pair of
BRI's we currently have.  Analog DID would seem an obvious solution until
you realize there's no Caller-ID delivery on that service.  You really do
need PRI ISDN for that.

So.  I look at our call volume of maybe 10-15 hours per month.  We need to
keep one BRI for V.90 dial, but the other is costing us ~$50 with usage,
so what I see is that I can do outgoing VoIP for ~3c/min, and I can get
inbound 800 service on VoIP for ~6c/min or less, which works out to about
that same $50.  On top of that, I actually get to set the Caller-ID data
on the outbound, and having a bunch of inbound lines is pretty easy with 
our 800# provider ($2/number/month), and our 800# provider translates ANI
into Caller-ID, so we get more reliable Caller-ID, even out of people who
block all Caller-ID.  :-)

Now, my wishful thinking scenario would allow me to terminate the remaining
ISDN BRI, either directly on an Asterisk box or ...?  and have some way to
continue to be able to digitially terminate a V.90 call, while also being
able to use the BRI for other stuff.

Anybody else played with BRI?  Got things that work or are useful?  Drop
a line.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.