Backup PRI? 1

[mcplaty]

Hi everyone,

Right now, we use Windstream, and have two T1's - one as our main, and another as a backup. Is this even worth doing? Since they're both from the same provider, I suspect whatever would cause one to go down would also take the 2nd T1 with it.

Also, am I right in that using a PRI from another provider isn't a feasible option, since all of our DID's will be owned by the main provider?

 

[tampasteve1]

Most businesses now are using SIP trunks as their backup rather than an additional PRI. This is what we do. We have the PRI for main business use, but if it goes down we can forward the main number to the SIP trunks. But, if you have all your services through the same carrier you may defeat the purpose. For example, do not get your internet, PRI, and SIP trunks from one carrier, you should get the internet and SIP trunks from a different carrier, if possible. As you have noted, often the whole service goes down, so having two PRIs with one carrier may actually not help in a situation where there is an outage.

I will let others comment, but I believe that you would need to forward each DID that you desire to be forwarded if your PRI went down. We only forward the main number and do not worry about the DIDs as this is only in an emergency as it is and only happens maybe once a year at most.

 

[Telecomboy]

Having a fail over PRI with the same provider is not the best idea in my opinion. If you do order a PRI via another provider: You would need to have/order a minimum of 1 DID number on the other PRI. You could then have the main PRI set-up to forward automatically (fail over) to that new DID number on the other PRI if it goes down. Outbound would obviously be fine as long as the IPO was programmed correctly. It is the inbound you would need to limp along with pointing all DID's to one number on the other PRI... or have a DID for each DID on the new PRI and have individual fail over for each DID separately.

 

[mcplaty]

That's what I thought. tampasteve1, When our PRI went down a few months ago, I forwarded our mainline number to a Google Voice account, and it worked fine to at least allow folks to leave a voicemail. I suppose that's similar to what you're doing.

If anyone else has some more input, I'd appreciate it.