[Mac-telephony-list] Apple USB modem dongle

[Colin Anderson via List]

>1) It's not easy to setup and or run/change.

AMP makes it cake for non-tech users. Way easier than a Meridian for example

>2) Is it as reliable as a dedicated PBX? Doubtful, with the crappy  
>Dell or whitebox systems many people use, or even with Apple hardware  
>for that matter.

No, not 5 nines. But 4, easily. Is 4 nines good enough for your org? Might
not be. In that case you need a Panasonic or Meridian or a Mitel.

>3) Is it cheaper?  By the time you make it redundant enough to make  
>it workable, and hire enough geek talent to make it work and keep  
>working, this is questionable.

Depends. In my org, we replaced 200 Mitels with Asterisk & Snom 360's. The
Mitel cost a quarter million. Asterisk cost $50k. (yes, with redundancy,
failover, and the handsets) As far as administration, in my experience you
either hire your interconnect to administrate the proprietary PBX, you pay a
Linux geek to admin your Asterisk box, or you suffer through it yourself. At
the end of the day, it usually turns out to be a wash. 

>The real cost savings is for organizations that spend a lot on calls  
>between different campuses and already have high quality broadband in  
>place.  Suddenly all toll charges disappear for calls within the  
>organization.

100% agree but for us it's the flexibility and instant gratification of
being able to provision a user with a DID, fax, desk set, and cell in under
an hour, and in any location that has broadband. This for us is the killer
app.