Advice on international "VOIP network"

techguy

Hi Guys,

A friend of mine has just moved back from the states but is still running a business over there. He has asked me to look into setting up a VOIP link between his US and Irish office in an effort to reduce the cost overhead.

Please keep in mind that I have only a working knowledge of the basics of VOIP.

My Question:
I'm wondering how I can convert the international leg of transmission over to VOIP. I'm thinking that I need a VOIP gateway in the US and Ireland. I would also like the US gateway to be able to take a sim card so it can receive calls to the mobile number and divert them over using VOIP to Ireland.

Here's a quick overview of his operation:

-Office in USA. (Landline and USA mobile numbers)
-There is also a company in the US that answers his phone during business hours. We can call this a second US office.
-Office in Ireland. (Landline and Irish mobile numbers)
-Currently uses BroadVoice for some basic VOIP services at the moment.

- As the business is in the US most calls arrive to either his US office or mobile. Currently these calls are diverted to his Irish number when in Ireland. (Note: High cost here, due to roaming!)

Any advice on this?

Thanks in advance.. :-)

bhickey

Unless he has a VoIP server in his USA office, then the simplest thing is that he can seup an account with any USA VoIP provider and get a USA number that way. He can forward calls to that USA number. He'll need an IP phone/ATA or SIP software then to use the USA VoIP account.

techguy

bhickey wrote: »

Unless he has a VoIP server in his USA office, then the simplest thing is that he can seup an account with any USA VoIP provider and get a USA number that way. He can forward calls to that USA number. He'll need an IP phone/ATA or SIP software then to use the USA VoIP account.

He has an account with BroadVoice, a US VoIP provider.

Is it possible to get a VoIP gateway that will take a sim card and transfer incoming mobile calls onto the VoIP line..?

Thanks.

bhickey

techguy wrote: »

Is it possible to get a VoIP gateway that will take a sim card and transfer incoming mobile calls onto the VoIP line..?

Yes but they're not cheap. Are you talkin about incoming calls to a USA mobile? Have a look at the Portech VoIP GSM Gateways here.

techguy

bhickey wrote: »

Yes but they're not cheap. Are you talkin about incoming calls to a USA mobile? Have a look at the Portech VoIP GSM Gateways here.

Yes, That's what I mean. This guy receives a lot of calls on his US number when here in Ireland. Currently spending a LOT on phone bills so I'm trying to setup a VoIP network to cut out international PSTN/Mobile calls and the resulting cost.

Those boxes look like they'd do the job. But it says they are only compatible with Asterisk systems.

With the kind of setup i'm looking for will have to set up an Asterisk (or similar) server. I'd like to avoid that if possible.

**Actually, i'm beginning to realise I don't have much knowledge of VoIP. I'm gonna try and find some good informative sites. Please share some links if you have any good sites.. Cheers!

bhickey

techguy wrote: »

With the kind of setup i'm looking for will have to set up an Asterisk (or similar) server. I'd like to avoid that if possible.

These sorts of device are usually SIP-compatible so in theory they should work with any SIP provider. As long as a USA mobile SIM works in the unit then you should be fine. Just pick a provider that'll help you through setting up the VoIP connection from the GSM gateway to their service.

Dum_Dum

You can link a GSM Modem to Asterisk using chan_datacard. I use an unlocked Huawei E1550 which I bought for less than E20. You can add something like "Dial(SIP/localsipphone&DATACARD/datacard0/mymobilenumber)" to your inbound callplan. Effectively my mobile phone acts just like a extension; and with the right inclusive callplan, GSM to GSM calls can be 'free'. Vice versa is also true - you can call your Asterisk box from your mobile too, and get it to give you a dial tone from which the world is your oyster.

In fact, you can have a bit of fun when these unlocked modems are linked to a PC: like smstools3 which my Asterisk box sends forwarded emails to me and voicemail alerts via SMS

techguy

Dum_Dum wrote: »

You can link a GSM Modem to Asterisk using chan_datacard. I use an unlocked Huawei E1550 which I bought for less than E20. You can add something like "Dial(SIP/localsipphone&DATACARD/datacard0/mymobilenumber)" to your inbound callplan. Effectively my mobile phone acts just like a extension; and with the right inclusive callplan, GSM to GSM calls can be 'free'. Vice versa is also true - you can call your Asterisk box from your mobile too, and get it to give you a dial tone from which the world is your oyster.

In fact, you can have a bit of fun when these unlocked modems are linked to a PC: like smstools3 which my Asterisk box sends forwarded emails to me and voicemail alerts via SMS

Wow, that's pretty cool.. I must check that out for myself. is it easy to integrate into Asterisk??

THANKS!!

malachy47

You could achieve this for free if you used Google Voice. I have it setup working fine.