Setting up a PBX for Israel<->US communication

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 11:04:07PM +1100, Amos Shapira wrote:

>I have a Nokia E71 with a built-in SIP client which I'd like to
>connect to this thing.

The easiest way to test it is to use a computer with a SIP client.
Then you have access to network debugging tools, etc.

>From Windows and Mac I prefer X-Lite which is free as in beer, not
open source. 

	http://www.counterpath.net/x-lite.html&active=4

There are plenty of SIP clients for Linux.

>
>I'd like to have Israeli, a Brazilian and possibly temporarily an
>Australian number which will ring on my phone.

>Anything beyond about $5/month makes this possibly uneconomical, as
>for the long term I don't spend that much on international calls and
>Skypeout subscription can provide unlimited calls for 5 euro/month
>(for minimum of three months). (We have 4000 free Skype minutes from
>our mobiles so Skypeout is very convenient to call from wherever we
>are).

Skype is a cheap, but IMHO not very good alternative. From my experience
it's not consistent. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's unusable, often it
is just ok.

Considering their price $6 (US) or $13 (US) with more countries it's a good
deal, especially because they are up front on what too much is. Last I
checked there was no SkypeIn from Israel, although it is now one of their
"unlimited" SkypeOut countries.

Although I expect that most of the people reading this are too young to
remember satellite long distance calls, most of the time, it's better
than they were.

If you make a lot of calls to Israeli cell phones, you might want to
check out Orange's deal. It's 600 minutes a month of outgoing calls
to any number in Israel, plus the ISP side of a 2.5m line for 139 NIS.
Additional minutes are 29ag, which is the cheapest I've seen to a cell
phone, but awfully high to a landline.

I don't know if they would let you take it and just use time with your
own IP PBX, or if you would have to add your own system after their box.

Since if I remember correctly, you don't live here, you would be in effect
buying a family member an internet connection. 

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM