[Asterisk-Users] UK ISDN with Asterisk

[Henry Owens]

Hi all,

I'm currently tasked with implementing a low-cost, high performance and
reliable telephone system for a motorcycle dealership in the UK, and
Asterisk is my primary candidate for the system.

My question is: can Asterisk work well as a small office (8 extensions)
PBX, with a mixture of analogue and IP phones, on an ISDN2e telephone
line from BT?

The reason i am thinking of using ISDN2e is that i need to be able to
have two lines, but with one number (i.e. if someone calls on the main
number and stays on the call, and then a second person calls the same
number, instead of an engaged tone, they will get through and another
staff member can take the call). If there is another way to do this with
anaologue lines, i'm open to suggestions. I have looked at using a
service such as sipgate.co.uk to allow this to happen, however the fact
that i can not list the number in a normal telephone directory would be
prohibitive (though i will probably want to connect to a VoIP service
for outbound calls also).

If it does work well with ISDN, will features such as DDI (direct dial
inwards) and caller id be possible? And can anyone recommend any
hardware that will allow me to connect my asterisk PBX to the ISDN line?

Many thanks for any information you can offer!

Regards,
Henry.