[Mac-telephony-list] Analog Cards for .jp

[Benjamin Kowarsch via List]

On Feb 10, 2007, at 7:28 AM, Ryan Thrash via List wrote:

> Can someone tell me the best way to terminate approximately 6 analog
> lines in Tokyo (which hardware card)?

Japan is an ISDN country.

To terminate 6 voice channels, you would naturally get 3 INS64  
(Japanese BRI) circuits.

For information on INS64 services (links to relevant NTT pages) and  
devices check ...

http://www.sunrisetel.co.jp (still under construction, though)

As for analog, the only scenarios for which you would want an analog  
phone line in Japan are:

1) if you want a line dedicated to a G3 fax machine
2) if you have a point-of-sales terminal which uses a dialup modem
3) if you only have a budget for a grand total of 1 line for both  
ADSL and voice (consumers)


> As a potential alternative, are there reliable, business grade
> inbound/outbound SIP or IAX trunk providers there?

For Tokyo we can provide inbound DIDs via SIP or IAX, but this will  
only be economic for multiple numbers/channels. If you are interested  
in this, please send an enquiry to stevec /at/ sunrisetel (dot) co  
{dot} jp.

As for VoIP services in Japan, there is a service universally  
available from your ISP which is called IP Denwa (Japanese for "IP  
Telephone"). The technology used to deliver this service is based on  
VoIP as it uses (often customised versions) of MGCP or SIP. However,  
all you get is an RJ-11 jack coming out of your ADSL modem serving  
only a single voice channel and it is not unbundled, i.e. your  
service provider is always your ISP, you can't go elsewhere. Thus,  
the business model makes this look very much like a VoDSL service.

The IP Denwa service and your analog line are mixed to a single RJ-11  
jack and the modem routes outgoing calls automatically. Thus, from an  
end-user point of view what you get is a lower cost long distance  
service on your existing analog line giving you long distance at the  
same cost as local calls, all for an extra 3 USD per month. As a  
result, this service is so ubiquitous that the type of VoIP services  
common in other countries have not evolved other than a few minor  
players targeting road warriors with softphones on their laptop  
computers.

The IP Denwa service comes with a special 050 telephone number which  
can be called from the PSTN, but it is more expensive to call these  
numbers from the PSTN and I have never seen anybody publish their 050  
number.

Businesses use the IP Denwa service only for outbound long distance.  
There are business packages with 4 IP Denwa "lines" on a single ADSL  
contract but the monthly rental is about twice the cost of 2 INS64  
circuits (= 4 voice channels) and the required ADSL modems (with 4  
RJ-11 jacks) are very expensive, too.

Depending on your ISP, it is possible to bypass the ADSL modem's  
built-in ATA and send the voice directly to a VoIP device on your  
LAN. We have done it for customers before but there is no single  
method to accomplish this and it may or may not be worthwhile the  
effort.


> Finally, is anyone available in Tokyo that might possibly be
> interested in being available to assist with a branch sales office
> deployment for a multi-national company?

That's what we do, but we are already fairly off-topic, so please  
let's discuss this directly/off-list.

regards
benjk