Thanks for all that - I'm going to keep it for future reference. When we finally stop moving every few years from the military and buy our keeper house I am definitely planning on putting in a full asterisk system linked to both VOIP, the home automation, and us wherever we are. But that is still a few years away.
I went cell phone only back in 2004 and convinced my wife to in 2006. Mainly because I hated the idea of having to pay monthly telephone charges twice - once for a landline and once for a cell phone. Right now we are paying $105 a month to Rogers for two phones and 200 shared minutes. I know, it's awful. The plan itself is $60/mo, plus $20/mo for voicemail and caller id (both of which are free in the US), $14/mo "system access fee", and the rest taxes. If I wanted to add a data plan for my iPhone it would be $15/mo for 5 mb. Yeah, right. The only good part is that all incoming calls are free, including international. Thankfully we use Skype for all our international and long distance calls (yes, they charge long distance fees for cell phones here). I would love to switch to VOIP but it won't solve the problem of needing a cell phone because I travel a lot. And where we live is not wired enough to get by with using VOIP over wi-fi. Here's to hoping that Google wins the 700Mhz spectrum auction and teams up with Sprint to build a free cell phone service nationwide. Because by that time I will be back in America :) On Jan 11, 2008 12:58 PM, Tharin Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I have looked at Asterix > before and never got around to setting it up. > The problem is that I don't have a landline - just my cell phone. > And the SIM card will not be in that cell phone as it will be > traveling with me and have another country SIM. So I'm not sure how > Asterix would get the calls and forward them as I am under the > impression that it needs to be connected to POTS somehow to do that. > Maybe I'm wrong. > > And normally I would just have the phone company forward the number > but I am guessing that forwarding my Canadian number to an American > number would cause some sort of sizeable fee. > > > I'm not sure how forwarding charges from the Telco works because I've > never used it, but I bet you are right that if you forwarded calls from your > cellphone to some international phone number you would bear the expense. > Plus it might be some ridiculous rate because it is a cellular service and > they seem to like to screw you whenever you step outside what your normal > service plan allows. > > I don't know anything about Grandcentral so I can't add my opinion about > it; however, I do have a fair amount of experience with Asterisk. Right now > I use Asterisk in my home and business with a four port card [2 pots lines > (FXO), 2 phone lines in the house (FXS)], a per minute voip account, and I'm > currently experimenting with bluetooth connectivity to a cellphone. It is > definitely easier to setup Asterisk for use with a VOIP service provider > than with a landline because all you need is a high-speed internet > connection which is something you've probably got already. > > Going on the idea of strictly using a VOIP service to interface with > Asterisk, you would need to forward your cellphone number to the voip phone > number. A call from Canada to the U.S. would probably be no biggie since > most VOIP companies charge the same fee for calls to Canada as the U.S. > Because you ultimately need to terminate the call to a mobile number you > would configure Asterisk to forward that incoming call to your current > cellphone number as an outbound call via the same VOIP service or some other > VOIP provider else that will terminate the call to your destination for > less. > > 1. Incoming call on Canadian cell number ==> Forward to local VOIP number > 2. Incoming call to Asterisk server ==> Forward to Current Cell number > through cheap VOIP service > > I was under the impression that most US cellphone providers allow calls > from the U.S. to Canada. Time used would be deducted from your minutes but > no extra charges are incurred. Better check that out with your provider. If > you can forward the call for no extra expense to a US# then you could just > forward the Canadian cell# directly to the U.S. cell# while you are > stateside. I imagine you would just be losing minutes on both cellular > accounts. > > You would probably want to forward your incoming calls through a VOIP > service if you are going to the EU because I think those folks have to pay > for just about every second they use a phone including local calls. I also > think it is more expensive to make international calls to EU mobile numbers > than an EU landline. > > There are VOIP plans that are Per Minute (what I use since I use very > little minutes) and plans that are Unlimited. Careful with "unlimited" plans > because I've read on forums that companies monitor the frequency of calls > and the randomness of the numbers. They might deem you as abusing that plan > and charge you a different rate/fee. CallCentric, Telasip, Teliax, > Voicepulse are just a few of the VOIP providers that support Asterisk. > > If you are going to be in a hotel or office with access to a high-speed > connection it might be good to use a cheap ATA from Linksys or Grandstream > and pair it with a regular telephone. You could then configure the ATA to > communicate directly with your VOIP provider and eliminate the extra > cellular minutes and long distance fees. You could also use a PC or laptop > with a softphone. > > You could install Asterisk as a virtual machine on your home computer if > you don't have a spare pc to dedicate to it. Any management of the dial > plans on the Asterisk system could be done remotely over the internet. > > -Tharin Olsen > -- ------------ Brian Weeden Technical Consultant Secure World Foundation
