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

[Jon Pounder]

Quoting Stephen Bosch <posting at vodacomm.ca>:

> Jeff Davis wrote:
>> Stephen Bosch wrote:
>>> Your rep at Sangoma? Or your reseller?
>>
>> That wasn't very clear. Sorry. It was Sangoma.
>> (I would be more verbose, but I don't want to spam the list)
>
> I just wanted to make sure it wasn't stale information.
>
>>> This is a real chicken-and-egg problem. More people would get BRI if
>>> there were affordable hardware for it.
>>>
>>> I would like to see them write a NAm driver for it. To get them to take
>>> the chance, there have to be enough people willing to purchase the card
>>> to make them consider it seriously.
>>>
>>> The other option is a bounty or community support to get it done. The
>>> hardware already exists.
>>>
>>> The more people make noise about this, the better the chances of that
>>> happening.
>>
>>
>> If there was a driver available, I'm still not sure how many installs I
>> could sell. Verizon wants to pretend the service doesn't exist, and the
>> largest CLEC in my area doesn't even sell it. (I even offered to buy my
>> CLEC rep dinner and she wouldn't sell it to me.)
>
> This is not at all surprising -- they'd be re-selling Verizon's service.
> We've already heard from another poster how eager CLECs are to resell
> the incumbent's service. A lot of mutual sabotage goes on (and I have
> this from insiders).
>
> There is the theory of the "deregulated, competitive market" and then
> there is the practice.
>
>> Without telco support I
>> think that the only real market for this is the DIY crowd.
>
> ISDN had the bad luck of entering adoption right around the AT&T
> breakup. BRI does cost as much to provision as PRI for a smaller
> revenue, so, with maximizing profits on the brain, they're just not keen.
>
> It's also small thinking.
>
> But it is also the law. This stuff is supposed to be available.

most of the first level reps I have ever talked to in the last 10  
years don't even know it exists, higher level people claim they don't  
offer it, still higher level people know what you are talking about  
when you say its tariffed and finally cave in to what you want.

similar situations with the telco:
- outsource vendor exclusions (don't call me)
- no line test exclusion (don't test my line without me asking first)

etc etc

all "top secret" but does exist and you have to persist to get it (at  
no charge)

the secret is get one reference phone number with this stuff setup  
right, and then insist they look at the configuration for that line  
when they tell you it doesn't exist.


I would be willing to help out with a driver, but without a line and  
card I am not sure how productive that would be.


>
>> Of course, as you point out, we'll never know how big the market is
>> without a driver.
>
> The marginal effort of another driver is comparatively low. The card
> already exists.
>
>> I think that the only real incentive for Sangoma to write a driver for
>> an unproven market would be if there were a community driver available,
>> and the cards start selling. The addition of a manufacturer supplied and
>> supported driver would likely increase sales.
>
> This is the source of my other suggestion, that we put up a bounty or
> launch a community driver project. I've always felt there was latent
> demand -- this is an unserved need:
>
> - smaller installations need advanced features like call progress
> control, that they can only get in a BRI
> - the advantages in sound quality are substantial when compared with analog
> - unmanaged VoIP lines are just not reliable enough for serious businesses
> - North America is totally behind on this, we look like chumps
>
> I'm prepared to sacrifice myself for this and get a BRI for our office
> if we can get a driver that supports the signalling. That's a
> contribution I'm happy to make.
>
> -Stephen-
>
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Jon Pounder

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