On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Gerry Hull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My question is: What is your purpose for swiching to Asterisk (IP-based > telephony)?
Multiple factors: 1. Wiring costs. We've got a new building coming up, and we will save several thousand dollars by only wiring for data (no dedicated voice wiring). 2. Cost of expansion. Norstar is expensive to add capacity to. Asterisk has a significant up-front cost, but adding sets is cheap down the road. 3. Longer reach. Norstar is limited to 1000 feet on copper. With fiber extenders, I can bring that out to about 2 miles, but it's expensive. VoIP is effectively unlimited. Even going to our new building is cheaper with VoIP. System-integrated off-premises extensions would be very handy to have for a few cases (field sales staff). 4. Product lifetime. The Norstar platform is going to end-of-life sooner or later. We're faced with sinking money into expanding a system that's at the later stages of it's product life. I'd rather put that money towards something with a long-term future. (Granted, Norstar even if Nortel EOL'ed it today, used equipment would remain on the market for a decade plus. But that's not a situation I like being in.) 5. Features. Not sufficient justification by themselves, but when you add in all the above, some of the additional features we would gain would be of real business benefit. -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/