I'm brand new to asterisk but not to T1s so here's my bit to contribute.
Each local telco {be they ILEC or CLEC} is different depending on their
CO switch and the software options they've purchased for it.
In Alaska, the "break-even" for switching from POTS to T1 is about 13
trunks.
Your telco will offer "regular T1" and/or ISDN-PRI. Up here the tariffed
rate on ISDN-PRI makes it as expensive as POTS lines. We lose
callerID if we go to regular T1 but that's because the local telco hasn't
spent the money to upgrade their switch.
Best thing to do is tell your sales rep you want quotes for 10-24 trunks in
PRI-ISDN, regular T1 and POTS. This can be like pulling teeth but it's
what you need to make the best buying decision. Then you can decide
when/if it's time to jump to digital and what kind to go for.
hth
> Hi all,
>
> This is a NEWBIE question, so all you experienced types that are
> tired of stupid questions can move on...
>
> I've pretty much given up trying to do my entire phone system
> over IP (including local service), so I have to select and
> provision my local CO lines. I need about 10-12 lines which can
> be POTS lines, of course. But, I thought, why not get something
> digital and expandable like a DS1, PRI, T1 or whatever they call
> it with 23 or 24 channels of 64 kbps voice. It seems like it
> would be simpler for me to deal with this (and better quality)
> and it *should* be simpler for the phone company, too.
>
> However, while everyone can sell me POTS lines, when I ask about
> getting these in some sort of digital muxed interface, I seem to
> confuse the providers. In one case, I was able to get something
> called "channelized T1" which cost a lot and did not actually
> include the "phone" service for any of the channels, that was
> additional. So the cost to go from POTS lines to something
> digital was extreme, so much more than I can't understand why
> anyone would have T1 voice interfaces, yet all the PBXes have
> this and it seems commonly used. I must be doing this "wrong".
>
> Okay, so I need help with:
>
> 1. Understanding terminology so I can ask for the "right thing".
>
> 2. Advice on when it is reasonable to go POTS versus something
> else and what that something else is.
>
> 3. Feedback on what others are doing with 10-12 lines in the US
> that may want to expand to ~20 lines.
>
> 4. Interfacing so many POTS lines to Asterisk. I guess that
> means an FXO channel bank to T1 card? Kind of stupid to go
> digital/analog/digital in the last 100 feet.
>
> Help?
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