Advice on creating PSTN/VoIP/DECT telephone system please

sixedup :

Sorry, a case of regional differences I suspect. The only cordless phones available in the UK these days are DECT phones. Many of us tend to use the terms interchangeably now.

The phone that I have are several years old now and similar to DECT. There are plenty of DECT phones available here (Newfoundland) and they are now very cheap. The range is much better than my wireless signal.

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However, I now see what you meant about the SPA3102 - which makes sense, as it provides some endpoints for the Asterisk system, and my current wired phones can stay "in parallel" with it on the POTS line (subject to REN limitations) so absolutely no changes required at all for the rest of the family. I'll see if I can get one ordered this week.

All you need to do is put the ATA between the PSTN socket and one of the old phones and connect to the ethernet. A computer can be plugged into the ATA if you wish. You can set the dial plan so that local calls will go to PSTN and other to voip (local calls a free here). An incoming call on PSTN can be transferred to voip and vice versa

sixedup :

I'll post back here with more info on the outcome of my conversations with Icon & non-Kirk handsets on the KWS300 when I've talked to them next week.

I talked to Icon, who are one of the main resellers of Polycom equipment in the UK; they were very professional, and extremely helpful, particularly given that I represent a very small purchase indeed compared to their more normal complex solution sales to companies.

It turns out that the Kirk KWS300 is GAP compatible, and they have seen other handsets being used with it, though as you'd expect, most of their customers do tend to go with Kirk handsets as part of a complete solution. They've also already seen other customers using the Kirk KWS300 with Asterisk, which bodes well too. They're going to drop me an email later this week with local pricing information and details of a distributor that I can purchase from in due course.

So, looking positive so far ...

sixedup :

They're going to drop me an email later this week with local pricing information and details of a distributor that I can purchase from in due course.

Local price is currently £225, which is quite a bit more than their launch announcements indicated. That'll be the collapse of the pound I suppose

It's been a long time since I originally posted here, as unfortunately I've been rather ill and unable to progress this in the meantime. However, I have got things moving again recently, and thought it would be useful to post an update.

I've currently replaced my original hardwired phones with a package of 5 DECT handsets based around the Siemens Gigaset S685IP. This is then connected to my original fixed line, and I've acquired a single VoIP line (from Tesco, of all people!) which provides me with a geographic inbound number, and unlimited outbound calls to national geographic numbers for a fixed fee of only £2.89 a month (about $5). I'm currently using the Gigasets built-in dialplan facilities to do some simple outbound call routing over the two lines, and I also have inbound routing set up so calls to my different lines ring selected subsets of the handsets. It all works surprisingly well, and despite my concerns over the reliability of the Siemens kit (based on comments from the web) the system has been rock solid, with no sign of any problems at all. My non-technical family can pick any phone up and dial, and it "just works".

Call quality using the VoIP connection over my ADSL2+ connection has been fine, with no lost calls and no noticeable problems from latency etc.

As a solution, I suspect that this is fine for the vast majority of users, including me. However, I would like to take it a little further, and so I am in process of installing and configuring Asterisk, with a view to fronting the whole Gigaset system with asterisk (and a Linksys SPA3102) to allow me to do some time-based routing of inbound calls, and filtering out calls from direct marketeers. The interesting issue now will be developing and testing the system without disrupting the normal use of the current set up, which would be likely to incur the wrath of my family!