The certified build of the open source PBX is available now at a price that's designed to unnerve the closed-source competition.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 11, 2005]

Digium is to Asterisk, the open source PBX what Sendmail.com is to Sendmail, the open source MTA.

Mark Spencer wrote Asterisk and remains its lead author (the project now has about 350 contributors, he says). Spencer is also the president of Digium, which produces commercial versions of Asterisk (for more on Digium and Mark Spencer, see The Power of Open Source Telephony).

The product sells for $995, and comes with all the features. It also comes with a guarantee that the system works, if used with Digium hardware and specified servers (Dell and HP) running Linux (Red Hat).

Don't rip and replace
But that's not all. The key price barrier to VoIP adoption isn't the cost of the PBX—it's the cost of replacing all of the phones in the average 100 seat office. Asterisk is compatible with both VoIP and TDM, so business customers can retain their old phones and don't need to throw them away until they're ready to.

Of course, newer VoIP phones offer more services, but the Asterisk PBX can handle conference calling, voice mail, and the other basic features that every user expects from a PBX.

Look at Digium's T-1 phones
Spencer says that any ISP that has Linux skills should be able to learn Asterisk. "Our direct customers are all Linux-heavy," he says. "But if you don't want to apply your skills to this area, or are not expert, we can point you to companies that have the skill set. Asterisk gives integrators and resellers a real opportunity to add value."

He says that any residential ISP has spare PRI capacity during the day, and can turn that into a phone service. "Phone numbers cost about $3 per month for a block of twenty. You hook your modem bank up to these phone numbers and put a device like an Asterisk server or an ADTRAN ATLAS. That device looks at a dialed number, and if it's the regular dialup number, it passes it through to the modem bank, but if, on the other hand, the call is for an office, it sends the call across an IP or TDM link, based on the number called. The net result is that business customers use the PRIs during the day, and residential customers use them at night."

Features of the business edition
The Asterisk Business Edition (ABE?) comes with support covering installation, bugs, and product updates for one year. There is a support web site, and phone support is available from 8 AM to 6 PM Central Time. The product comes with a manual.

Other features include:

• VoIP and TDM compatibility and integration
• Voice-mail
• Unlimited seat conference bridge
• SIP and IAX (inter-Asterisk eXchange) support

The product is tested to run over 240 simultaneous calls per server, more than enough for most small- and medium-sized businesses.

Pricing and availability
The Asterisk Business Edition is available now from Digium at a price of $995, which includes support for one year.

—End