Hey I hear ya, I am in much the same situation.
PRI or channelized T1 is not really a cost effective solution until you are over at least 10 lines, and need features like the DID or callerid, hunt, etc. that you would pay a few bucks more each per line so the per line analog cost would have been driven up over $50/line.
My thoughts were BRI's as well since they work out to about $40/B channel, and you can add and delete in fairly inexpensive groups of 2. You get all the CLASS features of the PRI, but without having to buy a ton of lines to get them.
BRI channel bank is one option I guess, but fairly rare and expensive.
I would love to find a bri to pri T1 multiplexer at a reasonable cost. I have seen a few for sale minus the BRI cards so no deal on them.
The ones I have seen do much more than is actually needed here so likely the cost is excessive when bought new.
I am still not really clear why the isdn modems that seem so common can't/won't work in this situation. Is it simply an issue of software does not exist ? Does the modem do something other than simply dump the composite digital datastream into the serial port ? I am familar with how a channelized T1 can be output/input via a v35 HSSI port - Does this same concept not extend to the BRI isdn and a regular speed serial port ? Is the issue that a conventional serial port is topped out at 115k and bri would be 64+64+16 ? If so, how does the modem work in bonded bearer channel mode for data ?
Anyone got answers ?
At 06:40 AM 3/2/2003 -0500, you wrote:
Hello!
Several of my customers would like to add a backup to their Internet connection. ISDN is a good solution: decently fast for a dial-up-type connection, yet still faily affordable. While I was at it, I decided to look at a couple of more creative telephone service options to possibly improve their service or lower costs at the same time. These customers range from having just a couple of POTS lines without a key system up to as many as 18 POTS lines into systems such as AT&T Merlin or Nortel Norstar systems.
My first thought on the higher end was a PRI line. However, the cost seems *very* prohibitive. The average cost for a PRI line was $550/month, just for "dial tone"! I've heard others say that PRI becomes cost effective in the 8 line range, but the cost for the office with 14 lines ($25/line * 14 lines) is only $350. It would take 22 lines before the PRI would equal the cost of individual POTS lines!
As an aside, I did a survey of several of my customers with 10-30 employees. Most of them have POTS lines only (from between 4 and 10) fed into some sort of PBX. Only one of them has a PRI line, and they wish they hadn't gone that way: they thought they would need more lines than they do, and now they feel that they're way over-buying.
Am I missing something? When is a PRI competitive with POTS? And if I'm not missing something, is there an alternative between POTS and a PRI, particularly for 5-15 lines? None of the telephone companies I called offered channelized T1 options for local service (let alone frac-T1), only PRI. Are there other options?
Finally, any alternatives for smaller companies? I tried to get a simple BRI ISDN line for Internet backup for the company with 18 POTS lines. [EMAIL PROTECTED]@ Ameritech (excuse me, SBC) charges $10/month more if you don't sign a 36-month contract and wouldn't give it to them without a credit check, several pieces of company information, the names and telephone numbers of at least two officers of the company and a personal guarantee from an officer! This for a customer who has had 18 POTS lines for *15* YEARS!
I hate SBC...
Thank you for reading my rant. I would greatly appreciate any information or suggestions you might be able to give me.
Tim Massey _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
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