been there done that The biggest problems that we have had to deal with is stability. Stability with respect to system stability and also stability of the user. System stability is extremely difficult to deal with when you have poor power, power outages, guys pressing the buttons next to the blinkenlights because they are curious (very difficult to control access to gear in a construction trailer when everything is set up ad-hoc) and users doing stupid things like moving their phone from their desk to another guys desk for god-knows-why reason then not plugging into the cat5 cable. Then the users tend to say that your phone system is shit, when these types of problems are largely beyond your control.
As to user stability, I don't refer to mental stability, I refer to churn. Staff churn in the construction industry is brutal and combined with the relative unsophistication of people in the construction industry, it's the Training Session That Will Never End. My evolution of how to deal with this problem has gone from broadband to a construction trailer, wifi and wired sip phones, to masking a user's cell number behind a DID and cutting airtime with a GSM gateway. Really, it's the best way, treating cell phones as "extensions". Masking the cell number behind a DID allows me to get the audio inside of Asterisk so I can do VoIP-y things with it, the GSM gateway adds very little incremental cost (a 4 port GSM gateway adds only, for us, $100 Cdn a month to our cell costs and saves us $2-3k a month at 25c / min) and there's not too much of a training issue, since these blockheads grock their cell phones already. We even have 4 digit extension dialling from office staff to cells, and call transfer from the cell. MWI and inbound fax reception notification is done via SMS (each DID can recieve faxes, and the fax goes to the user's email, thanks SpanDSP!). Overflow when the gateway is full goes out our PRI, and we eat the airtime, but that's a good thing because if the GSM gateway is full, we are saving money. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Totaro [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 8:12 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments Very true. How about using WiFi and DEC phones? Thanks, Steve > > hey chris, > > The only issue you'll run into is that with all temp stuff like > construction > trailers ect they like to cut there lines A LOT with all there nice > machines. > > Carlos Alcantar > Race Technologies, Inc. > 101 Haskins Way > South San Francisco, CA 94080 > P: 650.246.8900 > F: 650.246.8901 > E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris > Bagnall > Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 5:08 PM > To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' > Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk in real estate developments > > > I was wondering if anyone has used asterisk in a real estate > > development project. I know someone that is developing a ~400 home > > project and thought asterisk might be a possible alternative to the > > phone company and a way to offer more service to buyers. > > How about deploying asterisk to support the contractor responsible for the > construction of these sites? Instead of developers (who are often on-site > for 6 months plus) relying purely on cellphones or asking the ILEC to > install a load of phone lines for them, stick an asterisk server in their > site office linked to a net connection, shove a load of cordless phones on > a > channel bank at convenient points around the site and contractors are > never > far from a phone. > > This is something we're hopefully doing for a property developer in the > new > year. It'll be interesting to see how well it all works out. > > Regards, > > Chris > -- > C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited This email is made from 100% > recycled electrons > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > Asterisk-Users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > Asterisk-Users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users