[asterisk-users] USA BRI -- any hope at all?

[Wilton Helm]

>I wonder if BRI would have gotten traction if it offered PRI functionality 

I can't say for sure, and don't even know the differences in functionality, but you may be right.  When I last ordered DID I couldn't justify PRI so brought it in as analog.  At that point in time and with that LEC PRI wasn't cost effective, even if I filled it up.  I could have filled a 24B but it would have left my entire facility at the mercy of a single circuit, which isn't very smart.

To me the thing that did the most to insure the demise of BRI in the US was the insane pricing.  Most LECs saw it as a large cash cow and priced it with large margins (keep in mind it is cheaper for a CO to export two LDNs on a BRI than on two POTS, but most priced a BRI at about 4x a POTS).  Most LECs only offered it as measured service with stiff per minute charges even on local calls.  Many charged stiff rates for connect time in data mode (in fact some would get around this by treating data as voice).  Their greed backfired, and of course when DSL offered more bandwidth for considerably less money, the bottom fell out of the data side.  The only LEC I knew that didn't go down this path was QWEST.  They priced it flat rate at rates that were competitive with POTS and I leased them for every site I managed.  They offered higher quality and more features than POTS.

Wilton
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