For those who don't watch asterisk-cvs, it appears that markster has begun (and possibly) completed adding GR-303 FXS support to Asterisk. This means that Asterisk could be used as an "access concentrator" off of a class 5 switch, which gives us a higher-level alternative between using single PRIs and going all the way to SS7. I for one am very interested in pursuing this option as soon as someone out there has tested it on a live connection... don't think I can afford to be the guinea pig, though, unless my telco really wants to have some fun :-)