[Wylug-discuss] Linux-friendly POTS-to-VOIP-to-POTS

[James Holden]

On Wed, 2005-10-12 at 11:57 +0100, Dave Fisher wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> My landline phone is dying (handset battery recharges rarely last for
> more than a few minutes) and I need to replace it fairly soon.

You can get spare batteries, of course :-)

> I've been toying with the idea of replacing it with VOIP, but retaining
> the BT line for ADSL (and hence all things IP). Although I'd consider
> junking BT for a (local loop unbundled) DSL-only service if anyone knows
> of an affordable option in the Leeds area (N.B. I need at least one
> static IP address, but would prefer several).

Easynet have LLU's some of the leeds exchanges. Bulldog is available
too, but I've heard too many horror stories.

> I'd still like to make and recieve calls to/from conventional land-line
> and mobile phones. So I'm wondering if anyone is aware of a
> Linux-friendly POTS-to-VOIP-to-POTS service which has much chance of
> staying in business for a few years?

<disclaimer>I work for PlusNet</disclaimer>

Plusnet launched PlusTalk last week, a SIP compliant VoIP service with
breakin/breakout to POTS. We're using Asterisk to run the show.

There are many VoIP enabled ADSL modems these days too, such as the
Speedtouch 716, which is ADSL + Router + 4xLAN + 2xVoIP + 802.11g. You
configure it with the SIP proxy details of the VoIP provider and then
connect your regular house phones up to it along with the Ethernet
cabling for the broadband.

> I've read up on asterisk, but suspect that the effort involved in
> running my own POTS-to-VOIP-to-POTS PBX would not be good value for
> money/time  ... unless someone with hands-on experience knows better?

There's nothing wrong with using Asterisk if you want to do a bit more
clever stuff such as multiple voicemail boxes, faxback etc...

James


> Dave
> 
> 
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