asterisk users - Apr 2005 - Slightly [OT] Asterisk Backends

I use Askerisk in my home as my home phone system. I use to make long
distance calls because of the cost savings that I can get. I also
share my phone system with my neighbor via a wireless link so that he
can also use * to make long distance calls at a savings. He also uses
that as a second emergency phone line.  So for all of that I just have
an internet connection and 1 X100P that goes to my phone line. That is
as big of scale as I have seen.

My question is how to the bigger companys do it? Do they have just a
bunch of phone lines that plug into their computer? What kind of cards
do they use, I know that they don't use 100's of X100P cards so what
are they? And lastly how can companys make money on such ventures?
Judging by the price of my single phone line it would be hard to have
much of a margin even with a T1.

Like I said in the subject off topic but I have wondered how my voip
provider makes any money.

> Judging by the price of my single phone line it would be hard to have
> much of a margin even with a T1.
First of all, a T1 is cheaper than 23 POTS lines, as you noticed, but not by
a huge amount. However, what you must remember is that with T1, you have
DIDs. That means you can have >23 numbers ringing to the first available
channel on your T1. The provider gambles that 1 out of 4 (for example) users
will be using a channel at any time, so could support 92 (for example)
users/numbers/lines on that one T1.
 
> Like I said in the subject off topic but I have wondered how my voip
> provider makes any money.
Besides that, the larger providers buy in significant quantities, and pay a
lot less than what you or I would for a single T1.

--
Nabeel Jafferali
X2 Networks
www.x2n.ca
T: 1.647.722.6900
   1.877.VOIP.X2N
F: 1.866.655.6698
FWD: 46990


> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Niemantsverdriet
> Sent: April 16, 2005 5:45 PM
> To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Slightly [OT] Asterisk Backends
> 
> I use Askerisk in my home as my home phone system. I use to make long
> distance calls because of the cost savings that I can get. I also
> share my phone system with my neighbor via a wireless link so that he
> can also use * to make long distance calls at a savings. He also uses
> that as a second emergency phone line.  So for all of that I just have
> an internet connection and 1 X100P that goes to my phone line. That is
> as big of scale as I have seen.
> 
> My question is how to the bigger companys do it? Do they have just a
> bunch of phone lines that plug into their computer? What kind of cards
> do they use, I know that they don't use 100's of X100P cards so
what
> are they? And lastly how can companys make money on such ventures?
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Andrew Niemantsverdriet wrote:
>I use Askerisk in my home as my home phone system. I use to make long
>distance calls because of the cost savings that I can get. I also
>share my phone system with my neighbor via a wireless link so that he
>can also use * to make long distance calls at a savings. He also uses
>that as a second emergency phone line.  So for all of that I just have
>an internet connection and 1 X100P that goes to my phone line. That is
>as big of scale as I have seen.
>
>My question is how to the bigger companys do it? Do they have just a
>bunch of phone lines that plug into their computer? What kind of cards
>do they use, I know that they don't use 100's of X100P cards so what
>are they? And lastly how can companys make money on such ventures?
>Judging by the price of my single phone line it would be hard to have
>much of a margin even with a T1.
>
>Like I said in the subject off topic but I have wondered how my voip
>provider makes any money
>  
>
Just with anything else there are ecomonies of scale that come into play 
the more volume you start to move. Typically a VOIP provider will use an 
asterisk box that terminates directly into a T1 interface (this is the 
way alot of larger PBX systems work as well). Another thing to keep in 
mind is that you only need enough channels (24 for a T1, 23 for PRI) as 
you are using at this exact moment. To steal a page from the ISP guys, 
you need to determine what the best ratio is for channels to 
subscribers. Typically ISP work on a ratio of 12:1, mean for every 12 
subscribers, they have 1 modem port. The same applies with VoIP 
providers, the larger you get... the better the ratio will work in your 
favor.

Tom Walsh