My office is wanting to replace their pbx as it doesn't support enough extensions. They have 8 incoming lines, one of which are dedicated to alarms and one is for the fax machine. The other 6 are for the ordinary phones. They have about 10 analog extensions but want to increase this to about 20. They've been quoted about ?4500 for a new pbx. My question is could I use Asterisk to do this cheaper? What hardware would I need? and would this work in the UK? And, perhaps, what else do I need to know about their present set up in order to ask the right questions? I know little about phone systems but I am familiar with programming and network administration (Linux & Windows). TIA, Steve
On 24 Feb 2003, Steve B wrote:> My office is wanting to replace their pbx as it doesn't support enough > extensions. They have 8 incoming lines, one of which are dedicated to > alarms and one is for the fax machine. The other 6 are for the > ordinary phones. They have about 10 analog extensions but want to > increase this to about 20. > They've been quoted about ?4500 for a new pbx.Is that $ or pounds? If it's US dollars, that's a good price. It's usually about $400-$500 installed per extension with voice mail here. dvae -- Dave Weis "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment djweis at sjdjweis.com of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."- James Madison
Kannaiyan Natesan
2003-Feb-24 12:13 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] A new pbx for an office in the UK
Hi Steve,
It is time to move to voip.
I think asterisk can do.
You can use SIP to extend your pbx.
Since with just Ethernet, you can extend 2 lines for $150/- (ATA 186)
There are other boxes from mediatrix where you can extend upto 8 lines
in a cheaper cost.
Cheers,
Kannaiyan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve B" <8fmoc2v02 at sneakemail.com>
To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 5:31 PM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] A new pbx for an office in the UK
My office is wanting to replace their pbx as it doesn't support enough
extensions. They have 8 incoming lines, one of which are dedicated to alarms
and one is for the fax machine. The other 6 are for the ordinary phones.
They have about 10 analog extensions but want to increase this to about 20.
They've been quoted about ?4500 for a new pbx.
My question is could I use Asterisk to do this cheaper? What hardware would
I need? and would this work in the UK? And, perhaps, what else do I need to
know about their present set up in order to ask the right questions?
I know little about phone systems but I am familiar with programming and
network administration (Linux & Windows).
TIA,
Steve
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Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Steve B wrote:>My office is wanting to replace their pbx as it doesn't support enough extensions. They have 8 incoming lines, one of which are dedicated to alarms and one is for the fax machine. The other 6 are for the ordinary phones. They have about 10 analog extensions but want to increase this to about 20. > >They've been quoted about ?4500 for a new pbx. > >My question is could I use Asterisk to do this cheaper? What hardware would I need? and would this work in the UK? And, perhaps, what else do I need to know about their present set up in order to ask the right questions? > >I know little about phone systems but I am familiar with programming and network administration (Linux & Windows). > >TIA, >Steve > > > >_______________________________________________ >Asterisk-Users mailing list >Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com >http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >We are UK based and had a similar requirement and are mid conversion. We opted to junk our analogue lines and move to an ISDN 30, initially with 8 lines but we are going to up this to 30 once it's proven. You could either keep your analogue lines and get a channel bank with 8 fxo ports or in the long term it's better to move to ISDN as after the install cost, the rental is about the same. Our hardware now consists of a digium E1 card (30 Exch lines) a digium T1 card to talk to the channel bank. An Adtran TSU 600 with 24fxs ports (?270 on Ebay) which gives up 24 extensions. A Compaq 1600R (ebay ?250) dedicated server but any spare machine will do. Don't bother trying to find E1 channel banks as they are very very rare and expensive and no better than the T1's. Total cost appx ?1250 plus the cost of the phones & a bit of shipping. Any standard pots will work and we use our old Panasonic speakerphones for this. The cost of the ISDN install adds appx 1K to this but it allows you to have ddi's so our 8 lines have 24 numbers. All in all I'd say it can be done very cheaply and effectively. It seems rock solid and we are currently messing with the dialplans and IVR etc before we go live. I'm a programmer but linux newbie and have found it fairly painless to get up and running with most questions answered on this mailing list. Hope this helps Phil