[Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments

Colin Anderson ColinA at landmarkmasterbuilder.com
Tue Dec 13 23:26:20 MST 2005 

Rogers (Canada) + Ateus VoiceBlue 4 port - total bitch to set up but works.
Don't know if I'd recommend it though. I'm sure there's something else
better out there. Rogers is also difficult to deal with but then what
carrier isn't. But in the end everything works. There's other tricks you
have to do, too, like essentially lying to the enduser and telling them that
the DID is their cell number, and making sure you block the outbound caller
ID so the callee doesn't get confused by the actual phone number of the
cell. I have a DISA line set up so they can call in to Asterisk and
"unblock" their caller ID for paranoid callees that won't pick up unless
there's a number(actually I am just using SetCallerID() after they
authenticate) fortunately the procedure that Rogers uses to REALLY unblock
Caller ID is almost exactly the same procedure that I set up with my DISA
line so it doesn't smell funny to them.

There's some other cool benefits a rig like this brings to the table: 

-For users that work in the office and the field, a SIP phone at their desk,
a V510 on their belt and one number will follow them, great for business
continuity
-Single voicemail box, and we push out 500mw WiFi at the construction sites,
they walk around with laptops and can listen to their voicemails right from
Outlook; the WAPs are VPN'd back to head office and Outlook runs direct off
of our Exchange server no goofy "synchronizing".
-The aforementioned fax to the DID. This they totally love. One of our
subcontractors makes a design change and faxes it to the enduser while they
are talking on the phone and it comes up in their Outlook in near real time.
(See, this is how construction guys are dumb: Why not email a PDF? But no,
in construction, everything is fax,fax,fax. Oh well.)

-And for me, call recording of cellular calls (inbound only) which is
extremely useful on 10 million dollar projects when it's a he-said /
she-said situation. We've never had to use it yet but boy it's going to save
us a lot of money when we do.



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Augustyn [mailto:augustynr at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 10:13 PM
To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments


Colin,
Nice summary, what gateway are you using and with what carrier.
Thanks,
robert 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> Colin Anderson
> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 10:53 PM
> To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments
> 
> 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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