[Asterisk-Users] Digium T100P T1 Card

[Steven Critchfield]

On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 10:23 -0700, Wiley Siler wrote:
> LOL - Thanks for not getting mad about my email.  I just felt a little
> stung for being uneducated about T1s but we have to learn somewhere!  
> I completely understand your concerns and will try to comply as best as
> I can.  
> Again, thanks for being such a contributor to the this support system!! 

Until something is said that is blatantly slap in the face nasty, don't
assume that a comment is meant to berate. For my one comment about the
amount of knowledge left to learn, you should have accepted it as a
measuring stick commenting on the depth of knowledge required to get to
where you wanted to be and the estimated amount you already possessed.
So while it might have been a bit of criticism, I went ahead and was
willing to lay out examples that matched your situation to help fill in
the gaps. Consider that a sign I felt you were worth me spending my time
on and your likely hood of understanding the information I was about to
give you. 

> To further explain my siutation, I should give you some more background
> on my setup.  My current setup has an AdTran 616 on the wall breaking
> out my 6 analog lines and delivering my data to the office.  I have two
> TDM400P cards receiving 6 analog lines which are used for both fax and
> voice.  I have had numerous problems with this ISP and I just want to
> get away as soon as possible.  Problem is, I have a contract that won't
> expire for a while so I need to use these lines for something.  The ISP
> wants a contract extension and some setious cash to do the upgrade.
> Better to just seek alternate service.
> 
> I originally bought my T100P thinking I would get digital lines and all
> the goodies involved.  Then budget constraints and an ISP that wants too
> mcuh to convert me to Digital lead to a temporary solution.  I would use
> the analog lines for a while longer.  Well, that has run its course and
> I have to get to something more stable.  The PRI card looks pretty good
> at this point.

I don't know your area, and I don't think it has been mentioned. It
might be a good idea to look into what it costs to break the contract,
get DSL installed and your voice lines as a fractional T1 or PRI. DSL is
usually quite a bit more inexpensive than a fractional T1 but at the
cost of a reduced priority if you have a line failure.

A full data T1 in my area seems to run about $750 a month, but I can get
a business class DSL 3meg for $85. As you can see, it wouldn't take long
for the difference in service charges to add up to the cost of breaking
the contract.

You then can look at what it will cost to get a telco to drop a T1 into
your office space. Last quote we where involved with was around $200 for
the loop and then whatever service you wanted on it. So 12 lines would
probably run around $500 or so. Compare that to your service now and see
what you think.

> So getting back to the T1 PRI issue (and I am playing catch up here), my
> goal is to just deliver new service into this office over my T100P and
> just dump nothing but fax out those old lines.  That way I can reserve
> the digitals for our truly important calls and still reap the benefit of
> having those old analog lines.

It is a shame you already bought the equipment as you may find that you
want more than one T1 port. But working within your constraints now,
lets look at what can be done and what needs to be available as a
feature. 

Obviously you need some analog FXS ports for your fax machines. With
only 1 T1 span available, you probably need to follow the suggestion I
made before about passing the T1 through a channel bank and using the
spare channels to signal back to the FXS or FXO ports in the channel
bank. Remember that your T1 interface can have 24 channels and if you
only have 12 phone lines being passed from one external to the channel
bank interface(PSTN side) to another external to the channel bank
interface(T100P side), you can use the remaining 12 channels in the
T100P side to signal back to analog ports on the channel bank. Granted
this doesn't let you use PRI. That is why I suggested you look at E&M
wink. You still get your DIDs but they can be passed from one machine to
the next without much trouble.

What do you plan to use for phones in your office? SIP or analog? If
analog, you will definately want another T100P card so you can bring the
T1 line in directly to the first T100P card and then use the second to
connect all 24 channels of the second T100P card to a channel bank.

Or how about, you explain a bit more about where you want to go instead
of where you are at so the end point can be planned then you can decide
how to get there. 

> I will have to google up ILEC and CLEC for more info b/c that is new to
> me as well.

<Single quote is me(Steven) from the previous message>
> come from a ILEC(former baby bell) or a CLEC(competes with ILEC). Your

ILEC is the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. Or what many used to call
the Baby Bells, what was left after the break up of "Ma" Bell. They are
the one you probably most likely think of in your area as the big
provider. Here in the south east, it is BellSouth, Elsewhere you have
Pac-Bell(I think this has changed) and SBC. 

CLEC is the Competing Local Exchange Carrier. They often times lease
phone lines from the ILEC at reduced rates and then provide lower cost
or different services on the same wires. These are all the smaller
companies you see selling service. 

-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>