[asterisk-users] * as VM for legacy PBX?

[Karl Fife]

> Hi, all.  I've got an old Telrad PBX with an Emagen(?) voicemail box.  The
> VM box, itself, is beginning to show its age.  Big-time.  We're thinking 
> it
> might be time to look for a replacement.  I'd love to install Asterisk
> with an FXO card or something, but I don't think it supports whatever
> protocol legacy PBX's used to speak to VM systems.  If someone can tell me
> I'm wrong, a six pack of their favorite $BEVERAGE will magically appear at
> their door.

I recommend you go on a quest for a Telrad guru.  There may be some arcane 
Telrad  secrets that will make your life much easier.  For example when 
interfacing with Nortel PBX's you can create DISA trunks which give you 
internal 'intercom' at which point you can invoke Nortel features & commands 
including raising the message waiting indicator.  Nortel also made (& 
perhaps Telrad did too) a special ATA intended for interfacing specifically 
with external voicemail systems.  Nortel called it the VMI adapter 
(NT8B89DA).  The nice thing about the VMI was that it handled all of the 
secret proprietary Nortel signaling voodoo, freeing you from the need to 
kludge-up a bunch of DISA trunks & routines :-).

Just to add 2¢ to what others have said, I think what you're talking doing 
is a great idea.  In my opinion, forklift upgrades concentrate disruption 
into a narrow window for everyone all at once which can have greater impact 
than a series of smaller 'fires' that necessarily accompany any migration. 
That is to say nothing of the non-trivial burden of migrating physically 
from cat3 2-wire infrastructure to Category 5 MANAGED 802.11af Ethernet.

-Karl