Rusty Festa

Think I have got my head around all the theory bar one major point!!

I make a call from a PC to a PC (i.e. my DSL to my brother's DSL) = 100% IP = 100% free

I make a call from a PC to a PSTN phone (i.e. my DSL to my father's POTS landline). Where does the call break out of IP and on to PSTN and who bills me for this call and how much is it

If you can post up suppliers I can get in touch with please?

Cheers, Jon

ChrisB

We have assorted customers using VoIP.

1) Correct

2) You need a break out gateway to convert IP to voice. Have you found somebody or are you looking for a gateway provider?

Rusty Festa

I thought that Gateway sits between my Ethernet LAN and my PBX. this would mean I am using VoIP for internal office calls but the minute I want to call out of the office (i.e. local, national or international) I am paying from my PSTN (or ISDN30 ) lines.

Rather than breaking out of IP and into PSTN inside my office, is there no way I can stay on IP until nearing the office of the destination? i.e. if Tia was calling her parent's in Toulouse, could the call not break out of IP and onto PSTN in Toulouse and how would the billing work for that?

Cheers Chris
Jon

IanW

Jon,

I will reply to this later when I have some more time, but I have a bit of experience with VOIP

What you would need it a routing plan, terminating at different gateways, e.g at my old company if you called a US phone number off of your IP phone you would 'break out' in the LA office, rather than breaking out locally in our office than going via the PSTN.

Ian

Rusty Festa

nice one Ian

I new it was possible - thanks for confirming I'm not going mad!!

Now, I would understand that the LA office thus get's the bill for the call charge from their office to my destination - how do they know I made the call and can bill me for it.....

Also, anyone recommend a generic book (not cisco proprietory) published this year? All I can find are early 2002 books that are full of TCP/IP and not much on H.323

ChrisB

Ah, I understand you better now Rusty.

Quick link - have a look at : http://www.boscom.com/ip_telephony_gateways.htm - it's one product I've seen (I spent a day training on it a couple of years ago).

IanW

My company used to make VoIP billing software

There were loads of ways that we could bill, including PIN numbers etc...

Rusty Festa

a couple of years ago I'm always behind the times it seems

What I am trying to do is look at a solution that reduces the cost of all PC to Phone calls (from IP to PSTN) by carrying as much of the call as possible over IP before it reaches the destiantion PSTN phone. Ideally, I can then sell these calls to customers cheaper than going over a regular PSTN carrier via LCR and CPS...

just need to find someone I can resell for!! (ideally with a bureau account so all the billing is virtual and all I have to do is sell it and sit back and collect the commission )

GaryK

Rusty,

Then you better make it cheap! We do national peak minutes for 2p and destinations like USA and Australia for 3-4p etc. etc. and thats using CPS and traditional fixed line telephony.

Good luck with it anyway.

Gary

Rusty Festa

Cheers Gary

Not everyone knows about you otherwise you would have everyone's business and I'm sure you have volume commitments to meet in order to qualify for those rates

Just have to be cheaper than the average, not necessarily the cheapest or I'll never be able to afford that STi8

GaryK

Yep volume commitments and we only deal with resellers, SMEs and corporates, so go and grab those residentials!

IanW

I was installing some of the first VoIP networks a few years ago, and decided last year that I avhe had enough.

The equipemtnthat I was using at teh time was Cisco, Vocaltec and our own inhouse billing/account managemeny soloution.

I will try and have a look around later and see if I can find some details of the IP carriers/gateway providers that I used to use.

Ian

Rusty Festa

LOL @ Residentials

plenty of SME's to go round though - do you do bureau accounts?

IanW

Jon,

http://www.itxc.com/ are the guys that we used to carry all our VoIP traffic over when doing installations for clients.

As for residential/SME VoIP networks, my old company has some very funky bits of kit How about a DSL router with built in VoIP ports (FXO and FXS) and we were using them 2 years ago!

I have a nice Cisco 7690 IP phone, not small though!

GaryK

Rusty,

If you became an agent yes we would bill and collect on your behalf and you could go out with the rates I mentioned with a reasonable commission, email me for further info. And no voIP either!

Cheers

Gary

MrShades

Rusty, and anyone else interested, if you're looking for good and detailed info on H.323 and other VoIP related stuff, you can do a lot wrse than starting here:

http://www.packetizer.com/

The H.323 primer is good, and gives a sensible insight into VoIP technology, though I'd start reading the SIP section more if I were you

Shades (been selling VoIP based Contact Centre systems - not Cisco - for the last 4 years)

WillieF

www.ednet.co.uk are based in Edinburgh and have a uk based gateway for voip traffic. They will set up up with a reseller account and pretty good call rates.

MrDeference

There are at least 3 ex-VOCL employees that drive Imprezas... and one that reads this board occasionally