asterisk users - Dec 2005 - Broadband VoIP Startup with Asterisk

We are currently an ISP offering broadband and wireless internet 
connections.  We are planning to start offering VoIP services to our 
current customers.  We have decided to use Asterisk as our PBX software.  
 
If I may, I have a multi-part question.
 
1) If we do use Asterisk, what would be a good billing system to use to 
keep track of thousands of customers minutes?
2) Are there are any good back end software available for Asterisk in 
which our customers could log into and view their usage, etc?
3) We are currently testing the Asterisk system using VoIPJet over an IAX 
connection to our Asterisk system.  Would their be any benefits or 
disadvantages to putting in a PRI line instead?  
4) What is some good company names to purchase DID's and VoIP termination 
from?  I have been looking at VoIPJet and Teliax.  I also am a member of 
DIDX.  DIDX does not seem to have any numbers in the area where I will be 
marketing first.
 
I have read some solutions to all my answers above on the Wiki, however, I 
would like some comments from people who have actually gone through his 
process.  As we all know, it is much easier to put in a good system from 
the beginning, then have to switch everything over once its running.
 
Thanks for everyone help with the above questions.
 
-jglucky
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With regards to #3, the advantage of putting in a PRI is that you get 23 or
24 channels that are absolutely reliable and have signal/voice quality that
is essentially as good as it gets. A PRI has got to be one of the most
reliably engineered basic services that a telephone company can offer. With
a PRI, you can expect approximately one hour of downtime per year. Even with
a fairly reliable Internet connection, I think you have to expect more than
one hour of total outage time per year (which consists of approximately 8700
hours) on a VoIP termination/origination service.

The major disadvantages of using a PRI of which I am aware are that you are
limited to 23 or 24 channels on a single line, that you have to pay for the
PRI line, and that long distance termination over the PRI line may be
somewhat more expensive than what you could arrange to purchase over SIP or
IAX Internet trunking.

As far as companies go, VoIPJet offers good rates but their terms of service
are completely ludicrous and do a good job of steering me away from that
company no matter how good their service may (or may not) be. As a matter of
fact, I am prohibited from disclosing the fact (according to VoIPJet's terms
of service) that I am now or have ever been their customer (if indeed that
were to be the case)! WTF?

I am currently testing Teliax and have had good luck with them, but have
only been testing them for a couple of days. If their service continues
working as well as it has been, then I see no problem with using them as my
primary gateway to the PSTN given the level of reliability that my system
requires (which is lower than that of the public-switched telephone network
itself).

-Rusty


On 12/2/05, jglucky@blueware.net <jglucky@blueware.net>
wrote:
>
>
> We are currently an ISP offering broadband and wireless internet
> connections.  We are planning to start offering VoIP services to our
current
> customers.  We have decided to use Asterisk as our PBX software.
>
> If I may, I have a multi-part question.
>
> 1) If we do use Asterisk, what would be a good billing system to use to
> keep track of thousands of customers minutes?
> 2) Are there are any good back end software available for Asterisk in
> which our customers could log into and view their usage, etc?
> 3) We are currently testing the Asterisk system using VoIPJet over an IAX
> connection to our Asterisk system.  Would their be any benefits or
> disadvantages to putting in a PRI line instead?
> 4) What is some good company names to purchase DID's and VoIP
termination
> from?  I have been looking at VoIPJet and Teliax.  I also am a member of
> DIDX.  DIDX does not seem to have any numbers in the area where I will be
> marketing first.
>
> I have read some solutions to all my answers above on the Wiki, however, I
> would like some comments from people who have actually gone through his
> process.  As we all know, it is much easier to put in a good system from
the
> beginning, then have to switch everything over once its running.
>
> Thanks for everyone help with the above questions.
>
> -jglucky
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>
>
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> 4) What is some good company names to purchase DID's and VoIP 
> termination from?  I have been looking at VoIPJet and Teliax.
In my six months of using both services full time, both have worked 
reliably, but we use Teliax for DIDs as we need a company we can talk to 
when we need something, and Teliax is wonderful to deal with. I have had 
to move DIDs between accounts as we brought more servers online, and had 
to deal with some problems with multiple account son one machine, Teliax 
have spent time on the phone figuring out what I need and how to make 
their system do it.
The VOIPJet rates are a little better but I only use them as standby as 
the cheapest rates are not that relevant to me, good support isn't free 
and I'm prepared to pay a little extra for it. The Terms of Service are 
a huge turn off, but if they want to refund my money, go ahead...

I wouldn't waste time having ten different accounts, it's impossible to 
monitor them all. Two good providers should provide all the redundency 
you need, and DIDs can't be redundent anyway. I think you will like Teliax.

-- 
Chris Mason


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jglucky@blueware.net wrote:
>
> We are currently an ISP offering broadband and wireless internet 
> connections.  We are planning to start offering VoIP services to our 
> current customers.  We have decided to use Asterisk as our PBX software. 
>  
> If I may, I have a multi-part question.
>  
> 1) If we do use Asterisk, what would be a good billing system to use 
> to keep track of thousands of customers minutes?
> 2) Are there are any good back end software available for Asterisk in 
> which our customers could log into and view their usage, etc?
> 3) We are currently testing the Asterisk system using VoIPJet over an 
> IAX connection to our Asterisk system.  Would their be any benefits or 
> disadvantages to putting in a PRI line instead? 
> 4) What is some good company names to purchase DID's and VoIP 
> termination from?  I have been looking at VoIPJet and Teliax.  I also 
> am a member of DIDX.  DIDX does not seem to have any numbers in the 
> area where I will be marketing first.
>  
> I have read some solutions to all my answers above on the Wiki, 
> however, I would like some comments from people who have actually gone 
> through his process.  As we all know, it is much easier to put in a 
> good system from the beginning, then have to switch everything over 
> once its running.
>  
> Thanks for everyone help with the above questions.
>  
> -jglucky
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com --
>
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>   
As as WISP you should be familiar with http://www.part-15.org.  If not, 
they are a Wireless Internet Service Providers Orginization. They have a 
reseller program for VOIP and offer different monthly commision rates 
for members and non members of the orginization.  You can get more 
information from this address.  http://www.part-15.org/voip/reseller.htm

This could be an alternative to rolling your own solution.  Just a thought.

Dan