asterisk users - Mar 2005 - Ordering a Voice PRI for Asterisk

We are in the process of ordering a Voice PRI to plug into Asterisk. Of 
course we will be buying a card from Digium for this.

Question is this, there seem to be MANY options technically when ordering 
this PRI (in the US) but since this is the first time ordering a voice 
circuit I am clueless as to what options we need.

Any clues would be helpful or maybe something has already been written about 
this?

Thanks in advance!

--
Start Your Own ISP!
http://www.YourOwnISP.com

On Tue, 2005-03-01 at 10:08 -0600, Me wrote:
> We are in the process of ordering a Voice PRI to plug into Asterisk. Of 
> course we will be buying a card from Digium for this.
> 
> Question is this, there seem to be MANY options technically when ordering 
> this PRI (in the US) but since this is the first time ordering a voice 
> circuit I am clueless as to what options we need.
> 
> Any clues would be helpful or maybe something has already been written
about
> this?
If your telco is worthy, you should be able to involve a switch tech in
the sales meeting to wade through the options that are available on
their switch. 

Oddly enough, last time we ordered a PRI, the forms the telco sent us
had sections that applied to PRI and others for channelized T1 with no
separation or explanation. Had I not been through a channelized T1
before and recognized the questions, it would have been very confusing.

Even after the switch tech went over the sheet with us, we still ended
up with a call back from the person actually doing the provisioning to
verify and get more information.

Remember that when they tell you they can't quote a deployment in under
30 days.

-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>

-----Original Message-----

<snip>
Question is this, there seem to be MANY options technically when ordering 
this PRI (in the US) but since this is the first time ordering a voice 
circuit I am clueless as to what options we need.

Any clues would be helpful or maybe something has already been written about

this?

-If you order an "NI2" PRI you will be fine.  That will give you name
and
number, DID etc.  if they want more than that, ESF,B8ZS, NI2, all b-channels
2-way DID.

Have fun!

Jason Kawakami
www.optellabs.com
Salt Lake City, UT

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Jason Kawakami wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> 
>> <snip>
>> Question is this, there seem to be MANY options technically when
ordering
>> this PRI (in the US) but since this is the first time ordering a voice
>> circuit I am clueless as to what options we need.
>> 
>> Any clues would be helpful or maybe something has already been written
about
>> this?
> 
> -If you order an "NI2" PRI you will be fine.  That will give you
name and
> number, DID etc.  if they want more than that, ESF,B8ZS, NI2, all
b-channels
> 2-way DID.
There are a lot of other important options you need to get right:

 * number of digits sent for incoming Called Party Number / expected for 
   outgoing Calling Party Number

 * expected Type Of Number (TON) for outgoing calls. Same for national /
   international calls.

 * B channel hunting order (use the opposite of what the pstn switch 
   uses in Asterisk).

 * dialtone on empty SETUP (you may as well get this if it is 
   available and free)

 * enabled callerid, if availalbe and worth the cost.

And there are lots and lots of other options. Usually it is a lot cheaper 
to have options set during the provisioning phase than at a later date.

Peter