[Asterisk-Users] Limiting call minutes on a GSM SIM

[Remco Barende]

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com wrote:

> On Wed, 2005-09-14 at 07:01 +0200, Remco Barende wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I'm considering to buy a GSM bridge to save on GSM calls. Right now they
>> are offering subscriptions with 200 minutes each month for almost nothing,
>> however the 400 minutes subscriptions are considerably more expensive.
>>
>> Most GSM bridges can cater for 2 SIM cards, is there a way for Asterisk to
>> run the first SIM card to it's max and then switch to the second? (If one
>> call would overlap I wouldn't mind).
>>
>> Asterisk would have to keep track of the minutes called each month for a
>> SIM (channel?). On most bridges you can select the SIM you want by a dial
>> prefix.
>
>
> I do not know about the specifics, but it seems to me that you would
> need an AGI that would track the usage and compare that before placing a
> call.  To switch I do not know how you tell the sim adapter which one to
> use, but surely there must be a command somewhere, the mere fact that
> agi allows you to script something like this fairly easily means that it
> shouldnt be a big problem, assuming you code :)  And you can even pick
> your favourite language given how the AGI talks to asterisk even
> 'unsupported' languages can be used.

Thanks for the tip. I was actually thinking in the direction of putting 
the asterisk calling card application to use. I've never used it and 
wonder if it is at all possible to use it from within the dial plan 
instead of normally from an extension.