@ Brian, Thanks. An E1 would be an overkill for my scenario. I require one or two pilot lines per branch and say 20-40 extensions.

@Wash, The basic requirements are;

1. Setup telephony in the various branches mostly in the major towns of KE
2. Have one/two pilot lines (not Telkom CDMA or GSM) which can be called from anywhere.

Seems my major challenge is the pilot lines since i would not want to take up E1 lines for my small requirement.  Your suggestions are quite insightful let me look at the options.

Rgds,
Andrew.


On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Kerich,

Your requirement doesn't sound quite clear to me. Could you please start over again and present a clear picture of what you need to achieve?
I did not understand this "I require phone lines in various offices outside within and outside Nairobi". "Outside within and outside" doesn't make sense to start with. Then saying you "require phone lines" and going ahead to rule out Telkom/Orange Wireless, then also ruling out GSM further doesn't make sense - at least I think so, because that leaves you with almost nothing. Look, you have ruled out CDMA and GSM. What remains?? Landlines??? Then again, you go ahead (below) to say you require pilot numbers where external calls can be routed. Wait a moment - Zuku has some phone system within their Triple-play, and so is KDN (spit!) with something that used to be called Izzytalk (http://www.izzytalk.co.ke/). I must admit that I don't know how both technologies work because I haven't bothered as yet.

If you have several offices spread out geographically, you can do either of two things:
1. (a) Have your own IP PBX in the HQ.  Also have a VPN concentrator (Cisco 28xx or the ASA-series can do this)
    (b) Have VPN phone(s) ( IP Phones with built-in VPN) at the other offices, configured to authenticate via the VPN
         concentrator at HQ and having the Call Server as the HQ PBX.
2. (a) Have an IP PBX at HQ, with any good grade Cisco router or any other router that supports VPN tunneling
    (b) Install similar routers at the branches and configure VPN tunnels of your choice to HQ router
    (c) Install IP Phones at the branches, configured with Call Server as the HQ PBX

If you'd like to have "Pilot" lines, you can have them at the HQ and route calls as you need. You can easily do the same using an E1 circuit from Safaricom/Airtel/Orange and have DIDs for each of the offices. With enough channels on the E1, you can even partition the channels in blocks for each of the offices. Those are logical partitions, achieved by call routing!

YMMV, but that is what I'd do.

Again, I am not at all pretending that I understood your questions/requirements, so my advise could as well be quite vague!




On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 10:57, Andrew Kerich <andykerich@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks, I will also require pilot numbers where external calls can be routed. I will then need to integrate this to the HQ IP Telephony.
Safcom said they dont provide PBX solutions just the value added services

Kerich.


On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 10:35 AM, Collins Areba <arebacollins@gmail.com> wrote:
get a vps somewhere and host asterix, then get good internet from more <reliable> service providers to each of the sites and voila! 

by the way, how about Safaricom? 

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 10:34 AM, Andrew Kerich <andykerich@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I require phone lines in various offices outside within and outside
Nairobi. Telkom wireless is not an option due to poor service. Also
not GSM for now.
What options are there?
I am currently looking at hosted PABX solution at MTN. Ideas?

Rgds
Kerich
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