I have seen the light. October 4, 2008
Posted by Garrison in Case Study, HowTo, Reviews, Telephony.add a comment
Having discovered the advantages of á la carte VoIP pricing, I pondered how to extrapolate my experience for general discussion while avoiding the pitfalls of interpolation and abridgement.
The Reference Book of Rates, Price Indices, and Household Expenditures for Telephone Service published by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau provides a rough estimate of wireline telephone expenses averaging $45 per month in 2007, based on market research by TNS Telecoms. This isn’t too far from my own experience with residential VoIP plans which have tended to average about $35 monthly, including additional fees and charges, which can be significant: on BroadVoice’s “Unlimited World” plan, for example, “Taxes & Surcharges” account for about 35% of the monthly total. Based on these data, I use an estimated $35-$45 for generic comparison of monthly residential phone bills, or an average average of $40. As I designed our current, á la carte plan, I surmised that after discounting business use, the residential remainder was unlikely to ever exceed $30 in a single month. As the plan took shape, however, I realized that intelligent planning could lower that even further; somewhere in the neighborhood of a $20 monthly average would certainly exemplify what custom VoIP plans can offer, and half the average isn’t a bad talking point. 
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Three Things to Avoid in a VoIP Provider September 19, 2008
Posted by Garrison in Case Study, Linux, Reviews, Telephony.2 comments
Like many others, when I set up my first Linux PBX I knew little about VoIP providers and with few sources of reliable, current information, I made a decision based on name recognition, perceived value, and minimal research. Like many others, I looked for companies who advertised a BYOD plan under the false assumption that said companies would have a clue regarding said devices, despite the cautionary warnings which politely explained that BYO, as used here, means “unsupported”. Like many others, I signed up with BroadVoice believing I had a pretty good deal; in fact, among similar plans offered by cable companies and Vonage, BroadVoice compares rather well.
By the time I started to suspect BroadVoice of stockpiling probiscus laden mammals and bleach, I had already paid setup fees and number transfer fees, and chagrined the thought of early termination fees, more number transfer fees, and a potential three to seven week transfer period. Rather than add to the copious corpus of BroadVoice complaints, I thought I’d focus on what to avoid when choosing a VoIP provider. (more…)
Quick and Easy Caller ID on MythTV December 31, 2007
Posted by Garrison in Case Study, Command Line, HowTo, MythTV, Telephony, Ubuntu.add a comment
I have resisted the urge to display caller id on my MythTV 
as somewhat obvious. I’m always looking for ways to demonstrate the freedom which comes from using open source software, but I prefer the zesty freshness of an original idea rather than anything that’s been done, redone, and done again. My wife, however, thought that Myth caller id sounded like a great idea and asked me to set it up. What follows is how I did this with the least possible effort. (more…)
Direct Inward Dialing with Asterisk and Broadvoice October 16, 2007
Posted by Garrison in Command Line, HowTo, Linux, Telephony.2 comments
When I wrote about building my own PBX, I mentioned that I set up Direct Inward Dialing (DID), a feature which allows virtual phone numbers to be routed directly to extensions while using shared trunks (phone lines). I figured out how to accomplish this after reading this discussion, but made improvements along the way. (more…)
Quick Fix for Asterisk/BroadVoice Number Conflict. October 15, 2007
Posted by Garrison in Case Study, Command Line, HowTo, Telephony.add a comment
I have a strange issue on my Asterisk box. If I call BroadVoice tech support using one of their trunks, I connect normally and hear the initial IVR, I press “1″ and hear “Your call is being transferred.” Then the weirdness starts: I remain connected, but I hear my own hold music. As near as I can figure, while I’m on hold in their call queue, Asterisk has dumped me in to hold and I can’t get out. If I stay on long enough for a tech to pick up, they either hear nothing or my hold music and hang up. Free beer goes to anyone who can identify and solve this issue, meanwhile I have developed a workaround. (more…)
Red Box October 6, 2007
Posted by Garrison in Case Study, Essays, Linux, Telephony.6 comments
I finally built a red box, not the phone phreak device that generates coin tones for pay phones, but rather a Linux PBX which gives me the power and flexibility of a commercial grade phone system at a fraction of the cost. I call it a red box because the primary VoIP number I chose suggests [1]June 20, 1963– the day the “red telephone” went live between Washington and Moscow. Once I painted the side panels a nice, shiny red, I decided that in keeping with the metallic network naming I use (cobalt, tungsten, strontium, etc.) the best name for my new PBX would be ‘copper’. (more…)
