[Asterisk-Users] Re: Some simple voicemail questions...

[Brad Stockdale]

Hello all,

    I am working on setting up a basic Asterisk system (using Digium FXS 
and FXO cards, Polycom IP phones). I've got a few questions in regards to 
voicemail and was hoping that someone could give me some ideas...

    Right now we have three incoming POTS lines. There are times when all 
three lines are used. When the lines busy out, the incoming call is sent to 
a voicemail system that our local telco offers. The nice thing about it is 
that it never busy's out -- it always is available to take the message and 
store it for us...

    If I put this * system in place, as far as I can tell, if the POTS 
lines are all busy, the customer will get a busy signal and will have no 
chance to leave a message...

    My question is this -- Is there any way around this problem other than 
ordering more POTS line that would, most of the time, sit idle and be used 
only to take voicemail?

    If it helps at all, we have Centrex service on our lines here... Is 
there a way for * to somehow hook into the telco's voicemail system using 
Centrex?

    Any thoughts would be appreciated... It will be hard for me to use * 
here if we lose part of our voicemail capabilities... It would also be a 
hard sell to buy extra lines at $40.00/month per line (without centrex - 
with centrex that cost goes up to over 120 a month)... Getting a DCS line 
or a partial T isn't an option either -- DCS runs about $1,000 a month here...

    Voicemail is something that my company relies heavily upon, and until I 
can figure out some sort of solution to this problem or an interoperation 
between the CO's voicemail and our Asterisk machine, I can't really put 
this system into place. :-/

Thanks in advance,
Brad


Thanks,
Brad