VoIP questions.

[bakersman]

My situation is as follows :

I want to be able to connect roughly 30 to 50 IP based phones together. They have to be able to phone one another(free) and phone to outside numbers(telkom, cellphones, intl).

Each of them has to have it's own number. I read somewhere about an 087 number? Through which company can I obtain these numbers?

The other problem we have is, we will only have one outgoing line. Possibly a diginet or ISDN line, as ADSL is not available in the area. Is it possible to route all the calls through this line? How will this affect the phone number assigned to each individual telephone?

Sorry if this post is a bit unstructured. It's difficult to explain how exactly we want the system to function, but the above will most likely give you a simple overview.

Thank you in advance.

[Napalm]

I'm not 100% sure how your gonna setup that system. But i know IP based calls like (Skype etc) uses alot of bandwidth. And i doubt 30-50 calls could be handled with a 512K ADSL line even. At least not one line.

Over a network it would propably be possible. But with SA's cap and skype call costs it would be heavy for calling outside local network

[bakersman]

Most calls will be within the network. My guess, pending questionnaire, is that only 15% of all calls will be outside of the network.

Above that, it's possible to assume that not all the phones will be calling outside the network at the same time.

[ic]

...
Each of them has to have it's own number. I read somewhere about an 087 number? Through which company can I obtain these numbers?

The other problem we have is, we will only have one outgoing line. Possibly a diginet or ISDN line, as ADSL is not available in the area. Is it possible to route all the calls through this line? How will this affect the phone number assigned to each individual telephone?
...You're going to have to get a fibre line [e.g. digicrapnet from the monopolistic beast] that connects you directly to the service provider supplying you with 087 VoIP numbers [e.g. Internet Solutions]. Since the ECA is now in effect, the 087 service provider [e.g. Internet Solutions] might be able to supply you with their own fibre link [i.e. without ever paying Telkodemonopolies] although ICASA probably hasn't gotten around to even thinking about issuing licenses to companies for this...

[Gerry]

you want to setup a temporary site, much like an expo at a shopping centre, or a golf day ?

[ant101]

I would use asterisk (or Trixbox) for your setup. You'll need a decent box with a couple gigs of memory. Calls between users will be on the local network.
For the 15% that breaks to the outside world, (which seems real low) you could have ISDN lines or even normal lines if the demand is low. Users can just select or dial a code to access, Asterisk will notify the user when all circuits are busy-and users can try again later, or alternatively you could just throw more bling at your system for more hardware :D

With regards to each user having their own number, maybe rather let each user have their own extension number, then let Asterisk IVR prompt the incoming caller for the desired extension number, and Asterisk will connect.

You have so many choices with asterisk that you're likely to feel like a chameleon on a smarty box...

[ic]

For 087 VoIP numbers [even one of them with multiple extensions], an always-on connection to the the 087 VoIP service provider will be needed - ISDN will make that extremely expensive since calls are charged per minute...

[bakersman]

I prefer each user to have their own phone number, this is one of the main points. Will the asterisk box be able to handle 30-50 phones, each with individual 087 numbers? Can you make more than one call at the same time to the outside world through the asterisk system?

[Daveogg]

bakersman, before you get too far down this path, can i point out that as yet Telkom does not interconnect with any VoIP provider meaning that atm those 087 numbers are effectively useless for recieving calls.

The only way you are going to recieve calls on those VoIP phones is if you have POTS lines coming into your asterisk box and extensions from their.

Apparently Telkom are going to have to interconnect at some stage - its probably imminent.

[bakersman]

Thanks Daveogg.

This system will most probably only be installed late december/early january 2007.

If I have no other choice, I might as well use the extensions.

Could any of you please answer the following questions :

If you have one incoming POTS phone line, will you be able to handle more than one call at a time(incoming and outgoing, and multiple incoming/outgoing)? What will the caller ID look like? Can you include the extension in the Caller ID?

How will you route these calls to the specific phone? Can you use the asterisk system?

If somebody wants to dial a user withing the network(from the outside) will they have to phone the specific number, then enter the extension, or will you be able to phone the phone number and extension directly. What will this number look like?

Thank you for the help so far guys!

[TelFree_VoIP]

Gentlemen,

I hope we are all having a great weekend so far!!!

Bakersman, the reply is a bit late, but i would like to announce that their are Live SS7 interconnect agreements with Telkom, Vodacom and MTN through TelFree.

Widespread VoIP adoption is dependent on several things, the most important being an interconnect Agreement. There is no point in trying to call a cellphone via a VoIP phone unless the cellular provider and the ISP have an agreement to pass traffic from one to the other. The problem with so-called “VoIP” operators is that they sell no real value to the customer if they cannot connect and receive calls at the same time regardless of the originating or terminating network. An Interconnect also contributes to the quality and connection time of the call (Latency around 120ms and TDM interconnects @ 64k unlike 8k IP Interconnects)

The beauty about this Service is their joint offering of connectivity through ADSL, MPLS, Diginet, BRI, etc. For once, we are able to offer customers Toll Quality Calls @ reasonable rates. Additional to this, we are able to offer a customer the following savings:

Local - 8%
National - 15%
Mobile - 24%
International - 70%
and...
ALL ON-NET CALLS ARE FREE OF CHARGE

This is exciting stuff and we have all we need to enter the market.

Additional to this, there is an opportunity for you guys to make some $$$ off this as well.

Feel free to contact me for details.


Cheers