Asterisk & IVR & provider

Question

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to setup an IVR or to be more specific an automated attendant using Asterisk. I don't want anything fancy besides the simple automated menu system, and instead of dialing an extension (for now) just ring the same phone line (POTS) if pressed 1 or play a recording if pressed 2. The server running Asterisk will be in a remote location.

My questions are:

• Is this setup doable?
• Do I need to sign up with a IAX VOIP provider? (no VOIP calls will be made/received) Only normal POTS calls will be made. (possible in other country)
• What hardware do I need? Remote server side and client-wise (POTS phone line)

Any comments will be appreciate it.

Thanks

Answer 1

You could code up a simple IVR in less time than it takes to install Asterisk if you use a hosted service like Twilio or Tropo. I'm partial to Twilio myself.

Edit: here's an example of a simple phone menu.

Answer 2

Quick answers to your simple questions:

• this setup is doable.
• no, IAX is not neccessary
• some hardware setups are listed in wiki

I think you should start with wiki and free Asterisk book

Answer 3

This is definitely doable, however, it seems that your specifications need to be modified a bit. Here are some things to consider:

1. What type of PSTN connectivity will your remote Asterisk server have? (SIP / POTS / T1 / PRI / etc.)
2. If your remote Asterisk server is going to be using a physical medium, do you have the connectors and hardware in place? EG: If you are using a T1 line, do you have a channel bank or T1 card?
3. Are you comfortable with Asterisk dialplan / AGI / AMI, or are you going to use an Asterisk distribution like trixbox, AsteriskNOW, Elastix, etc?
4. Will your client location (with the POTS line you wish to ring) have a PBX, or will it just be a typical POTS line hooked up to an analog handset?

My recommendation to you:

1. Get a cheap server (any 1U with a dual core processor and 512MB of RAM will do), and put it at your remote location.
2. Load Asterisk 1.6+ onto your server. I recommend 1.6+ as it can use the dahdi_dummy driver as a reliable software timing source (it will ensure that your audio quality is not choppy and broken).
3. Get a SIP account with a reliable SIP provider. My personal favorites are: flowroute and voipms.
4. Set up your new SIP account in Asterisk, and purchase a DID (phone number). This phone number will be your business phone number, the one that you give out to clients and put on business cards.

5. Configure your Asterisk dialplan to receive calls from your SIP account to your IVR menu.

   Your IVR menu logic should be something like:

   a. Play the IVR menu. b. Wait for a keypress. c. If the user dialed '1', then make an outgoing SIP call to the POTS line phone number you want to reach. If the user dialed '2', then playback the recorded message.

Now, if you are looking to save money, and have the most cost-effective setup for your remote IVR, I would recommend throwing up a second Asterisk server on site at your client location (where the POTS line comes in), and throw away the pots line and just setup an IAX2 trunk between your client location and your hosted server location. This way, when calls come in to your remote Asterisk server via your SIP provider, you can route the calls (when the user hits option 1) over your IAX2 trunk, directly to the client location for free!

Depending on your skill level, and comfort with Asterisk, this could be either a really fun learning experience or a confusing nightmare. If you would like to learn more about telephony and Asterisk, especially if you are going to use it for your business, you may want to use a simple (free) Asterisk distribution like: trixbox CE, Elastix, or AsteriskNOW.