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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."

3 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. it's nice until by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    you discover that office class IP telephones are expensive as all hell.

    we went with a NEC digital phone system with 2 wic cards for T1's incoming. the CSU cost us $12,000.00 but the Phones are only $185.00 each.

    phones of the same quality in IP phones are neat $350.00 each, and that adds up fast when you look at around 100 phones plus 2 smaller CSU's that are set up as virtual offices at the ends of other T-1' for the sattelite offices with analog fallback if the connected T-1's fail plus allow us to bypass long distance charges by using least cost routing.

    dont get me wrong, but an asterisk solution to replace what i just bought would be close in price and require a few weeks to get it working. I simply pay the local company to install it and maintain it.

  2. I am currently running Asterisk by x.Draino.x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    here at work on a test machine, and at home on my XBOX! It's really incredible all the features that are available in Asterisk. Once you get the hang of the configs.. and there's probably only 3-4 configs you will mess with, it's a breeze. I have call routing rules setup to call my house phone, if I don't answer in so many seconds, it will dial out to my cell phone. Someone has also written a bluetooth presence script so it knows when your at your desk ( as long as the server is near your desk ) and when your gone so it knows which phone to call. Pretty slick. Not only is Asterisk been fun to play with, I've learned tons about telecom that I didn't know before.

  3. Office-class phones by glomph · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check out the Sipura SPA-841 ($90. at voxilla.com, etc.). That is MUCH BETTER than the Fujitsu 'office-class' overpriced phones in common use in my 1000-line office.