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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>This is for a small business (restaurant and catering). We want
to move from POTS<br>
to VoIP to save on the phone bill. Currently we use four lines for<br>
voice + one fax going into a Lucent Partner system PBX.<br>
<br>
Right now I'm considering two alternatives, both powered by * and a<br>
SIP/IAX wholesaler (any recommendations on that for someone who can do<br>
LNP on DIDs in </span></font>Boston, MA, USA area are gladly accepted).<br>
<br>
Alternative One)<br>
Use a Digium card in the * box to drive the PSTN lines going into the<br>
Lucent system. This is the simplest and cheapest alternative, as it<br>
leaves all the current phone equipment in place. From what I've read<br>
I think it shouldn't be a problem to get incoming calls on the VoIP to<br>
hunt through the FXS interfaces.<br>
<br>
Alternative Two)<br>
All VoIP: buy new phones (probably Cisco or Polycom IP phones), a PoE<br>
switch and some ATAs. My hesitations in this area (aside from the<br>
cost) are mimicking the functionality of the partner system. Because<br>
this is a restaurant environment, there are only three phones that<br>
will be used as "Office" phones -- the rest are floor phones.
In the<br>
partner system these are the cheapest phones offered: 4 button, no<br>
display. On these floor phones, the four buttons are just used as<br>
line buttons. Incoming calls always ring all phones. A manager can<br>
answer a call on the floor, put it on hold and return to the office.<br>
Incoming calls for employees are put on hold and the page feature is<br>
used to let them know (i.e. "Bob, call for you on line three").
It<br>
wouldn't really work to transfer the call to a specific extension,<br>
since the workers move around and need to be able to pickup an<br>
arbitrary line from anywhere there is a phone. All the lower end IP<br>
phones I look at say they have two "lines" ... I'd really like to use<br>
cheap(er) phones on the floor: they get abused and gross and don't<br>
need to do much (except be four line phones) -- and need to be<br>
<script>
<!--
D(["mb","replaced more frequently than "normal". I\'d like to hear other\'s\<br\>ideas on how to implement this system or if others have implemented\<br\>VoIP with "floor" phones in a restaurant, warehouse, etc...\<br\>\<br\>Finally)\<br\>Would I be foolish to try to send / recieve fax over VoIP by plugging\<br\>the fax server into ATAs and using a zero compression codec? We send\<br\>about 150 faxes daily and recieve a couple as well...having to keep\<br\>more than one analog line around for FAX would defeat the cost saving\<br\>motivation behind all this anyway (we can theoretically use up to\<br\>three of our five lines for FAX at a time). Internet Fax is so\<br\>overpriced its absurd (unless someone knows of a company doing it for\<br\>around $0.02 a page, which is how much the phone call costs to send a\<br\>one page fax).\<br\>\<br\>Thanks for making it through my long post...I\'d by happy to get any\<br\>answers about any part of what I mentioned above!\<br\>",1]
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D(["mb","\<span class=sg\>\<br\>~Adam\<br\>\</span\>",1]
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D(["mi",0,2,"100f6eeb39ba754e",0,"0","Adam Lewis","supercargo@gmail.com","asterisk-users","1:41pm (11 minutes ago)","asterisk-users@lists.digium.com","","","Adam Lewis \<gmail@adamlewis.com\>","Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:41:06 -0500","Small PBX to VoIP transition questions","",[]
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</script>replaced more frequently than "normal". I'd like to
hear other's<br>
ideas on how to implement this system or if others have implemented<br>
VoIP with "floor" phones in a restaurant, warehouse, etc...<br>
<br>
Finally)<br>
Would I be foolish to try to send / receive fax over VoIP by plugging<br>
the fax server into ATAs and using a zero compression codec? We send<br>
about 150 faxes daily and receive a couple as well...having to keep<br>
more than one analog line around for FAX would defeat the cost saving<br>
motivation behind all this anyway (we can theoretically use up to<br>
three of our five lines for FAX at a time). Internet Fax is so<br>
overpriced its absurd (unless someone knows of a company doing it for<br>
around $0.02 a page, which is how much the phone call costs to send a<br>
one page fax).<br>
<br>
Thanks for making it through my long post...I'd by happy to get any<br>
answers about any part of what I mentioned above!<br>
<br>
<span class=sg>~Adam</span></p>
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