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Start Your Own Open Source-Based Telecom

Posted by timothy on from the or-at-least-daydream-about-it dept.

prostoalex writes "George Ou shows how with the help of open-source VOIP server Asterisk you can start your own telecommunications company for under $6000 '...you can build a phone system that can support 72 analog telephones or fax machines, 100 IP hard or soft phones on site or remote, a T1 line to the public telco for 23 simultaneous external PSTN connections, multiple IP-based IAX trunks to multiple remote offices for seamless toll-bypass 4-digit dialing, IVR, and almost unlimited voice mail for everyone - for under $6,000 in a 1U chassis. Such a price point is easily 10 or more times cheaper than a commercial alternative,' writes George."

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Just the basic hardware... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's nice to see such an impressive setup for such a low price, but to "start your own telco" for real, you'd need a bit more I think:
    - Billing and invoicing software
    - Provisions for wiretaps (if mandated by your local gov't)
    - Customer service (unless you're not going to provide any)
    etc.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  2. Cost to build cost to maintain by TwoEdge77 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And so I expect this person to support and manage the system 24/7. There are other costs involved, not just turn it on and walk away.

  3. And when it breaks... by torinth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who's going to have it fixed within 24 hours?

    a) Big company with a trained staff and warehouse full of warranty/replacement parts.
    b) The guy who put it together over two weeks while reading a HOWTO.
    c) Nobody, and your business misses a week of calls while guy from (b) tries to figure out what happened.

    1. Re:And when it breaks... by drooling-dog · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You had to know that this discussion was going to go the way of the Microsoft response to Linux.

      The rational position is to take a hard look at the actual value of this "support" relative to what you're paying for it, keeping in mind that its high cost stems largely from the closed and proprietary nature of the products being supported. It would be surprising if a competitive independent service & support industry for open source telephony didn't spring up, and once it does it is likely to considerably more economical than the premium brands.

  4. Not a "telecom" by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Start Your Own Open Source-Based Telecom"

    This isn't a way to start your own telecom. There's no means of interfacing with the system at large other than by buying the services of an existing telecom at regular commercial rates. You can't, for example, realistically offer me and fifty of my random neighbors cheaper phone service in our houses with this. This is simply a way to build a PBX-type phone system that can inexpensively serve more than one physical location over an IP network. Timothy apparently doesn't understand the difference between being a telecommunications provider and simply owning a PBX or key system.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  5. Re:Is Asterisk a secured VoIP system? by glomph · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For audio security, you do NOT (or better not) rely on something in the phone switch (Asterisk/Avaya/whatever) to do it. You need endpoint-to-endpoint encryption. Sipura equipment (among others) does this as a standard feature. Then the switch just shuffles the bits along.

    In my multioffice/worldwide Asterisk setup the various sites connect to each other via CIPE or Open VPN tunnels, so at least the bits that leave the office are scrambled.