Hardware to dial out via cellular connection

Hello,

I’m new to IP PBX and related technology, so please bear with me.

A local telco provider in my location offers a service wherein, if you subscribe to an offering, it assigns your mobile phone a fixed line number which you can use to make calls to fixed lines over cellular. I am using that offering so I can make unlimited local calls to fixed lines instead of paying by the minute if dialling through the mobile number. Now, I’m planning to share that in the household by implementing a PBX. Instead of handing over the mobile phone every time someone needs to call, just dial out using one of the VoIP phones on the IP network.

I did some searching in Sangoma’s website, but the only hardware I could find so far is telephony cards for PSTN (and I don’t have an actual fixed line). I did a search out in the Internet and I think the hardware I am seeking is called a cellular gateway. I’m not sure though. I’m imagining that it has to be a device with a NIC to connect to the LAN and a SIM card slot so it can connect to the cell towers.

So I guess my questions are:

  1. What type of hardware am I supposed to be looking for based on my intent?
  2. Is that hardware really not available with Sangoma or did I just miss the web page showcasing that product?
  3. If it’s not available with Sangoma, can the community recommend brands and/or models of actual hardware that are sure to work with Asterisk?

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

A GSM gateway. Something with slots for as many SIMs as you need and a NIC. You communicate with it like any other SIP gateway.

I have a GoIP 32 I’m not using…

Thanks for pointing me to the right direction @sedwards. Now I know what to look for.

There is also a third party channel driver,chan_dongle, which, I believe supports GSM USB dongles. Being third party, there may be limited support.

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Hey @david551, thanks for mentioning that. That would be a cheaper option.

Just curious though. At the top of your head, would you know if this chan_dongle supports a D-Link DWM-156? That’s a 3G USB dongle and I still have one which works.

I also am curious about another scenario that popped up in my head. I know that there are Asterisk packages in OpenWrt. Although they are outdated, they can effectively turn a router into an IP PBX. I have an LTE router, TP-Link MR6400 v1 if you’re familiar, and it’s compatible with OpenWrt. If I flash that with OpenWrt and run Asterisk with chan_dongle, can it use the internal 4G modem of the router as its SIP trunk? Or is there another driver to do that?

Apologies if I suddenly bombarded you with questions. I just got excited with the cost-effective possibilities. :slight_smile:

I haven’t used chan_dongle. I’m only aware of it because it produces the occasional question, here.

Alright, no problem. Still, thanks a lot for mentioning. it will save me a lot of cash.

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