[asterisk-users] North American voice BRI - Informal survey

[Stephen Bosch]

Jon Pounder wrote:
> Quoting Stephen Bosch <posting at vodacomm.ca>:
> 
>> Jon Pounder wrote:
>>> Quoting Stephen Bosch <posting at vodacomm.ca>:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.sangoma.com/datasheets/A500BRI
>>> is that the card you mean ?
>>> it says it supports asterisk
>> Yes, that's the card I mean and yes, it supports Asterisk.
>>
>> The problem: I have been told -- again, this is tentative -- that there
>> were no plans for a 2B1Q driver for it.
>>
>> I think if Sangoma heard from enough interested North American users,
>> they would write the driver.
> 
> doesn't it seem strange they went to the trouble to get the fcc  
> certification (as per their site) if it doesn't understand the north  
> american signalling ?

Certifications are often handled by agencies that submit a device for
certification with multiple certifying bodies. It's as much trouble to
submit for EC certification as it is for FCC, so if you streamline the
process to avoid replicating effort, you can get a lot more done for less.

Having FCC certification does not automatically lead to a product being
useful in the United States.

> If someone already has a customer relationship with them, ask straight  
> out does it work in US/Canada with the BRI available here with asterisk.

I can tell you right now -- the answer is no. The driver does not
support it. I'll change my story if I'm told otherwise.

> if they can't answer, ask for a demo card to try (as long as you have  
> a line to try with.)

I'm not going to waste my time if the guy who engineered the card is
telling me it won't work.

It needs 2B1Q signalling support in the driver. If the will is there
it's not a big deal to add it, but as it stands, it's not going to work.

> PS - to whoever it was that said they got the telus quote ... what  
> province was that in ? In Ontario Telus is just not interested in  
> selling BRI (could just be the sales rep too, he is kind of lazy. here  
> though its a resale of a bell canada service though, and btw whew that  
> telus/bell merger plan last week died quickly thank goodness,  
> combining bad and worse never makes anything good)

You'd be disinterested too, if you were reselling your number 1 rival's
service. I guarantee you -- Telus' service requests go to the bottom of
Bell's inbox. The only reason they handle those at all is because the
law says they have to.

The quote was for a BRI in Alberta.

-Stephen-