[Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments

[Colin Anderson]

been there done that

The biggest problems that we have had to deal with is stability. Stability
with respect to system stability and also stability of the user.  System
stability is extremely difficult to deal with when you have poor power,
power outages, guys pressing the buttons next to the blinkenlights because
they are curious (very difficult to control access to gear in a construction
trailer when everything is set up ad-hoc) and users doing stupid things like
moving their phone from their desk to another guys desk for god-knows-why
reason then not plugging into the cat5 cable. Then the users tend to say
that your phone system is shit, when these types of problems are largely
beyond your control. 

As to user stability, I don't refer to mental stability, I refer to churn.
Staff churn in the construction industry is brutal and combined with the
relative unsophistication of people in the construction industry, it's the
Training Session That Will Never End. 

My evolution of how to deal with this problem has gone from broadband to a
construction trailer, wifi and wired sip phones, to masking a user's cell
number behind a DID and cutting airtime with a GSM gateway. Really, it's the
best way, treating cell phones as "extensions". Masking the cell number
behind a DID allows me to get the audio inside of Asterisk so I can do
VoIP-y things with it, the GSM gateway adds very little incremental cost (a
4 port GSM gateway adds only, for us, $100 Cdn a month to our cell costs and
saves us $2-3k a month at 25c / min) and there's not too much of a training
issue, since these blockheads grock their cell phones already. We even have
4 digit extension dialling from office staff to cells, and call transfer
from the cell. MWI and inbound fax reception notification is done via SMS
(each DID can recieve faxes, and the fax goes to the user's email, thanks
SpanDSP!). Overflow when the gateway is full goes out our PRI, and we eat
the airtime, but that's a good thing because if the GSM gateway is full, we
are saving money. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Totaro [mailto:stotaro at totarotechnologies.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 8:12 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments


Very true.  How about using WiFi and DEC phones?

Thanks,
Steve

> 
>  hey chris,
> 
> The only issue you'll run into is that with all temp stuff like
> construction
> trailers ect they like to cut there lines A LOT  with all there nice
> machines.
> 
> Carlos Alcantar
> Race Technologies, Inc.
> 101 Haskins Way
> South San Francisco, CA 94080
> P: 650.246.8900
> F: 650.246.8901
> E: carlos at race.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Chris
> Bagnall
> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 5:08 PM
> To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments
> 
> > I was wondering if anyone has used asterisk in a real estate
> > development project. I know someone that is developing a ~400 home
> > project and thought asterisk might be a possible alternative to the
> > phone company and a way to offer more service to buyers.
> 
> How about deploying asterisk to support the contractor responsible for
the
> construction of these sites? Instead of developers (who are often
on-site
> for 6 months plus) relying purely on cellphones or asking the ILEC to
> install a load of phone lines for them, stick an asterisk server in
their
> site office linked to a net connection, shove a load of cordless
phones on
> a
> channel bank at convenient points around the site and contractors are
> never
> far from a phone.
> 
> This is something we're hopefully doing for a property developer in
the
> new
> year. It'll be interesting to see how well it all works out.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris
> --
> C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited This email is made from
100%
> recycled electrons
> 
> 
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