OT: Suggestions for DSL and VOIP

[Dale Farnsworth]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2005 at 08:47:15PM +0000, JD Austin wrote:
> Since all voip providers can become over subscribed I would not rely on 
> their DID's (Dial in #) for my business.
> It's an extra $50/month for a regular phone line, but I have the piece 
> of mind that I can switch between and use multiple providers without 
> having to change my phone number.
> 
> I use VOIP to give me unlimited (well.. unlimited except by my 
> bandwidth) incoming lines.  First call gets handled by asterisk via 
> PSTN, the next call and every call after that forwards to a voip 
> number.  For the equivalent of a 5 line phone system I pay $50 (qwest 
> line) + $5 (voip number) + .02/minute.  Not sure how much the same would 
> cost but I know it is more.   For another $5 I get a toll free number too.

Cool!  Where does the 5 line limit come from--the PSTN side or the VOIP
side?

> I like VOIP for the extra things you can do that you typically can't do 
> with normal phone lines.  For example during a recent presentation I 
> brought my office phone, plugged it into a router and was able to send 
> and receive calls.  I could just as easily take it with me to a hotel 
> with broadband and continue conducting business.  When I'm at work away 
> from my home office I can make calls via a software phone.
> 
> With Asterisk I can take advantage of my cell phone providers free 
> 'mobile to home'  minutes and lower my cell bill.  I don't give out my 
> cell phone number to anyone anymore.  They call my business line and 
> punch in extension 201 instead.  Since mobile to home calls are free the 
> business calls don't use up the limited minutes that come with the 
> plan.  For calling out I can dial into my asterisk PBX, punch in a code 
> and password and get a dialtone to call out.  It is a little 
> inconvenient sometimes but it easily saves me $100/month in cell charges.

Thanks for the ideas.

-Dale