Understanding a T1 PRI w/ DID 5

[snd1234]

Currently my company has three T1s coming into our building. We have an ancient Norstar system. We have 40 phone lines on these three T1s with the rest devoted to data (about to be cancelled anyway.) Each channel that is not for data is devoted specifically to one particular phone line (no DIDs) regardless of whether it is in use or not.

This is obviously a very inefficient arrangment. At any given time we have probably no more than 4 lines in use. We are not a call center or anything like that. Just a small/mid sized business.

If I understand PRI w/ DID correctly, we can drop the current T1s and get one T1 w/ 23 channels. We take our important numbers (maybe 7 or 8) and make them DIDs. Then when calls come in they just consume channels?

Do I have that right?

Thanks, Guys!

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

Basically Yes!

The thing you have to account for is how many lines you will need in an emergency. Sure on a daily basis 4 or 5 lines is enough, but in an emergency how many will you need determines how many "channels" you need to have available.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[Sympology]

And you can have way more DID's than channels. We have 1000's of DID's but "only" a few hundred channels.

Most people spend their time on the "urgent" rather than on the "important."

 

[DallasBPF]

also, be prepared that you can not move over your numbers to the DID ranges. I have come across this before where the old numbers were housed in one CO where the PRI was coming from another CO, they ended up having to redo the whole order and move them over. Just be upfront with what you are wanting to do in the beginning and that should make things go smoother...

Another thing is that DID's are cheap, so getting a block of 100 now in a consecutive range will be easier than attempting to get 10 - 20 and then add the remaining later on.

------------------------------------
Dallas, Texas
Telecommunications Tech
CCVP, CCNA, Net+

CCNP in the works

 

[donb01]

If I ran the zoo I would take one of those PRI circuits and dedicate it to voice, and give the other 2 to data. You say you have 40 channels now but hardly any are in use, and data is always starved for more bandwidth. The other thing is you won't have to use channel banks to break out your voice anymore - you can hook the PRI right to the phone system via a T1 card.

In this case the lines would be bi-directional. Each channel can be an incoming OR an outgoing call depending on what is needed, so theoretically you could have 23 total incoming calls at one, 23 total outgoing calls or a combination of both. All your numbers could be DID.

This can also gain you some savings if you also have some number of plain old trunk lines you might be using for outgoing calls. Keep a couple of them for power failure purposes or if the PRI goes down, but otherwise you can save yourself some cash deleting un needed stuff.

Back in the day I cost justified the purchase and installation of our PRI circuits by what I could delete. Each PRI costs us $500 - $600 per month (plus local usage), and that let me delete 8 Dedicated DID trunks at $60/mo, and about another 12 copper trunks at $35/mo each - it paid for itself easily.

One thing tho - I don't know about your Norstar system, but on my Siemens boxes you need to have a software license to have the dedicated PRI enabled. Because you're probably using a channel bank right now you're probably running in each channel as a separate trunk. You might want to check to be sure that you can connect a combined PRI trunk to your system before making plans to do so...

 

[snd1234]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the quick replies.

Now let me expand just a little.

First, worst case scenario on outbound calls is during a telethon (12 lines) that might all be in use plus any other general lines. A full PRI is probably more than enough considering we only have may 30 employees on campus at any given time (yes, currently more phone lines than employees!)

How do taxes/fees work for a PRI with DIDs? With our current arrangement of one channel equals one fixed line, the taxes/fees/misc charges are like 25-33% of our bills. Does that get any better under a PRI/DID scenario?

We'll be moving from Nuvox to some other yet-to-be-determined carrier. Everything would be in the same CO so I don't anticipate a problem there.

 

[snd1234]

@donb01

Our data is basically handled by Comcast (primary) and the 512k fractional T1 (backup). I'm planning to kill off the T1 data and go with a 3.6GHz private PtP circuit from a local wisp. Maybe add on Uverse or look at Metro ethernet a little later.

Our monthly Nuvox bill is almost $3000. Which is a joke considering our usage. I could cost judtify a leased Lexus with the money I'll be saving. Amazing how out of whack something can grow into when you don't watch it or manage it over a period of 10 years.

My Norstar system is version 1.0 firmware so it can't even do caller ID correctly. I've already bought a BCM450 and am already plotting my way out of two problems at the same time (Nuvox+Norstar.) Happy days!

 

[NECPBXtech30]

Depending on the service provider, costs will vary. In FL with Verizon as an SP, A single PRI runs around $1100-$1200 plus $20.00 per 100 DID numbers a month. You could get a fractional voice T-1 (PRI) Cheaper. If you are being taxed per channel, i would look into it. We are taxed per circuit and per 100 DID numbers. Basically we are taxed for the paackage we order not the number of channels we have.

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Sir Winston Churchill

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

Not sure where you are or the costs you are incurring but I can share an example.

I replaced 3 small key systems at a marine core base with an Option 11. ( different platform than you but the rest of the scenario fits)

They had 300 analog lines coming into the base. We replaced those with 3 PRI. They were aware in an emergency that they would have delays getting dialtone but the cost savings for them paid the for system in just over 2 years.

It might take a little longer with fewer lines to pay off your system, but in the long run a PRI is usually cheaper for multiple lines.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

Marine Corps sorry!

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[snd1234]

So a 23 B-channel PRI can do a maximum for 46 calls at one time so long as 23 are going out and 23 are coming in?

I thought every call took up one outbound channel and one inbound channel.

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

23 channels gives you 23 calls, in or out but not 23 of each.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[snd1234]

Yup, that's what I always thought. I just misread one of the comments above.

Thanks, everyone!

 

[jerryreeve]

When you are considering something like this you should do a busy number study (your telco will do this for you) the BNS will tell you the usage of your lines, how many are in use at one time max and min, what the busiest times of day are etc. use this data to determine if a T1/PRI is worth the expenses that you would have with the norstar such as a PRI enabler and possibly a software upgrade for both the norstar and voicemail. a BNS will probably take a month to complete.

as far as number porting onto a PRI/DID, you should not have a big problem with that since you are already paying the telco a fee to ensure number portability (Possible problem if you have to change wire centers but not too likely)

Havint a PRI is a definate improvement since with a PRI in place all inbound and outbound calls will be handled on a call-by-call basis depending on the needs of the moment. and an additional goodie is that a second etc. call to the same number can be handeled by the system instead of being forced to a busy. (let the voicemail handel the excess calls)

----------------------------
Hill?? What hill??
I didn't see any $%@#(*$ Hill!!
----------------------------
JerryReeve
Communication Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[donb01]

I can't really speak on taxes - we're a tax exempt catholic healthcare organization. We do pay some taxes they don't exempt you from, and the usual USF, and other assorted fees, but I'm sure that's nowhere near what the masses are paying.

Wow - glad I'm not in Florida! I should point out that when I do this I sign 3 or 5 year contracts to get the best rate. This place has been around over 100 years and (knock on wood) I really think it's safe to plan out 5 years at a time...

Our service provider is AT&T and we're up in Wisconsin. We also have enough outgoing local call volume (more than 12,500 minutes per site) that I have signed a usage agreement that has a minimum revenue commitment of 12,500 minutes, but I basically pay $0.008 per minute ( 8/10ths of a cent per minute in case I did that wrong) for local calling. I haven't looked at it lately, but the National Average Length of Call was 4 minutes the last time I checked, and for this scheme (at a rate of 15 cents per call otherwise) any call less than 18 minutes saves us money and anything over 18 minutes costs us money. I have been saving $10K+ on local calling per year for the last 8 years or so on this scheme... Find a vendor that has a good support department and sit down with them and go over your business and see what special plans and options are available to you. Use that knowledge to get the vendors competing with each other to see what rates, signing bonuses, waived install fees, and etc you can come up with.