Asterisk Questions, please help

I’m trying to create software “A” where people cal call software “A” on a toll-free number. Software “A” can call 200 people easily, maybe 25 simultaneous calls 8 times. The 200 calls can be landlines, voip, or cell phones, its no telling how many of each. Software “A” can send a fax. Many people can call software “A”, hopefully no more than 25 calls simutaneously.

The Software I’m making is using TAPI (for telephony connection) and SAPI (for text to speech and speech recognization).

I want to use Asterisk to handle all the calls over VoIP so I wont have to buy 25 landlines. So is my plan possible so far? Can I use Asterisk to help me out with these things?

What are the best telco’s to help me with this? I need:

  1. 1-800 number DID
  2. can have 25 concurrent inbound
  3. can have 25 concurrent outbound
  4. Can connect to fax machines, and cell phones
  5. Fax to email or vice versa might be great
  6. I would like this to be as cheap as possible because some months maybe no one would call in.
  7. If I have to use multiple service providers than thats fine.

I have been looking all over at different rates and I really can’t find the right combos.
So far I’m looking at: FWD + IPKall + Mutualphone, but it doesn’t include a 1-800 number and I don’t know if I can call cellphones.

Please help pleas please please =)

Thanks a lot!

  1. can have 25 concurrent inbound - depends from your provider - I am using for income calls one provider, other for outgoing - to save monney. We got 8 numbers from our provider - we are peying for 8 numbers, I can have up to 8 incomming calls.
  2. can have 25 concurrent outbound - yes - if you will use sombody like voipjet.com - you can make as much calls as you want - depends only from money in youw account
  3. Can connect to fax machines, and cell phones - about CEL phones - if you will use GSM modems and DIGIUM analog cards - no problem, but why you need this?
  4. I would like this to be as cheap as possible because some months maybe no one would call in.
  5. If I have to use multiple service providers than thats fine. - yes it is possible

I am sure Asterisk could handle points 2-7 - about 1 - I am leaving in Bulgaria - I don’t know nothing for 1-800

Is the only way to handle 25 concurrent inbound is to have 25 phoen numbers?

I just want 1 (1-800) number and multiple people can call it and I can take up to 25 calls on the same number. How can I do this?

Also I’m going to be calling people on whatever number they prefer: home, cell, or fax. So some numbers will be cell phone numbers, isn’t there a telco that handles cellular calls or do I HAVE to buy some external hardware for this? I might make 13 concurrent cell phone calls and 12 concurrent landline calls, I have no idea what type of numbers people will give me every year to reach them. Is there any telco that can handle this inexpensively?

Also how can I get the 1-800 number that can take a lot of phone calls inbound through the same number?

Please help

Yes you can have 25 inbound calls to 1 number. In the PSTN world this would be doen on a PRI or rollover lines.
You just have to find a provider that will offer you this service I use a company called netlogic but I only use them for outbound Long distance calls all my inbound come in on a pri from the local CLEC

As far as cellular I dont see why this would be an issue unless you are outside of the US maybe? I never had a problem calling a cell phone from any phone connected to the PSTN

Heres a list of VIP providers

voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP … s+Business

With rollover lines I’m guessing I would have to have other lines to rollover to. How can I do this with only one line? Is that what PRI is? I looked it up and it was talking about T1 lines and 24 connetions. I think I have found lots of PSTNs that can do 25 concurrent lines and just didn’t know that they can call cellular networks as well. So me living in the US most likely they will your saying. So now I need to find a company that can do 25 concurrent inbound through 1 (1-800) line without rolling-over to another line.

I went through the list and none of the companies I checked mentioned PRI or what they offer as far as concurrent inbound connections without rolling-over. Could someone help with this please?

rollover is I guess an old pots service or DID. We used to have 12 pots lines and 1 phone number the calls would just roll to the next avalible line.

Now we went to a Pri this gives you 23 lines basically over a pair of lines from the phone company Its the signalling they use on the line that allows this.

go to some of the companys in the list web site or call them I sure they can help you out

My company will not be using this system. Software “A” will be making outgoing and having incoming calls which should be at the maximum of 25 concurrent calls. exgn.net said that they would be able to provide me with such a telco service for this to happen. But they said they will do it through PRI. Now I’m reading about PRI and it seems like I have to have a T1 line or ISDN lines.

Current I have a Comcast Cable 8mbit connection which can download at 1 meg a second.

If the voices are 30K and there are 25 of them then thats only 750K, so do I have to switch to a T1 or ISDN lines or can I use my Comcast Cable Broadband lines?

The software I will be making will hold voicemails and will have a touch tone or maybe voice recognition service, so I most likely will not be using those options in Asterisk.

So basically I have 2 questions:

  1. Since I have a 8meg (1 meg a second) cable line do I still need ISDN or T1 lines
  2. Should I use Asterisk or should I buy a PBX or VoIP server since my software should be taking all the calls or making all the calls.

Please help, thanks

Im soory if I have confused you with all the pri stuff
Short and simple

  1. Since I have a 8meg (1 meg a second) cable line do I still need ISDN or T1 lines ? No you should be able to do this over your connection

  2. Should I use Asterisk or should I buy a PBX or VoIP server since my software should be taking all the calls or making all the calls.? Up to you I guess Asterisk is a PBX VOIP server or what ever you want to call it

Awesome, everything is seeming to come to place then. So now the question is what type of external devices are needed.

I have an internet connection, a few computers, one will host software “a”, the other will host Asterisk.

There will be no internal phone usage.

Do I need anything else?

if your going pure VOIP and not terminating to the PSTN localy then nothing else is needed except time and a lot of coffee or drink of your choice. Sometimes an old computer that you can hit with a hammer once in a while helps too :laughing:

Ok sound good, thanks a lot rusty!

So since I’m using this for business, It will record voicemails and play back sound files as well as text to speech. So what is the best codec for me to use.

I have a 8mbit connection through comcast which is only about 750kps (i dunno why they call it 8mbit) maybe I can get up to a meg a second.

I want to be able to have 20-25 concurrent connections. I would be satisfied with 15 though if I have to.

I know the better the codec the more bandwidth it will take.

So what Codec do you recommend?

So what Codec should I use and do you know how much Kps it costs?

if it’s comcast cable, then it’s asymmetric, so it’s 8mb down and 750kb (or whatever) up. the uplink BW is the limiting factor in this case.

Yeah I know that, I wan’t asking about Comcast, I was asking about the codec. What Codec should I use and how much kps will it use?

I heard the voice codecs range from 30-80K.

Which is the best codec for me to use in my case? And how much Kps will it cost me?

well, sorry. i took your question at face value (“if it’s 750kb, i dunno why they call it 8mb”). i had no way to know how knowledgeable you are. i guess it’s called “marketing” :frowning:

doing the math, a g711 stream takes about 90kb/sec, so that’s right out. google for the other codecs and add about 20kb/sec to their usage (you’ll see g711 listed as 64kb/sec) and divice that into 750 kb/sec (but be conservative.)

voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+bandwidth+iax2

Perfect, that link is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks guys!