Need Advice For Nortel and PiaF Setup

[noblenull]

First let me say that I am a total newbie. I apologize in advance if this is not a question for this forum.

My company currently has 15 lines on a Verizon Flexgrow T1, 6 of which are used for outgoing calls. These 6 outgoing lines cost us $438/month ($73 per line) for unlimited long distance. These lines would cost me $32/each if I dropped the unlimited long distance and went with the pay as we go option.

So, I guess my question is can I setup PiaF box (transparent to the Nortel BCM50) so that it uses a voip provider with 6 outgoing channels that failover to the 6 analog if the voip goes down. The box would have 6 analog to the phone company and 6 analog to the BCM50.

Would I be able to find an voip provider that would give me around 5,000 outgoing minutes for less then $246 a month?

 

[jmullinix]

Yes, yes and yes,

You could build a PIAF box with a Sangoma 2-port T-1 card and place it between Nortel and the PSTN. If your 6 lines come off of a router as analog lines, use a Sangoma A200 analog card with 6 FXO and 6 FXS ports.

Program the dial plan in the PIAF box to capture your long distance calls and route them out to a VOIP carrier like Aretta, who charges $0.0139 per minute for North America calls, or $69.50 for 5000 minutes. You can make as many simultaneous calls as you have bandwidth for on your Internet connection.

Hope this helps,

 

[noblenull]

Does anyone know if the GrandStream HandyTone HT503 will accomplish the same thing? It does have a PSTN pass-through but it is unclear to me whether it kicks in only when the power is out or also when VOIP service fails.