[VoIP] Down under

[Ian Jolly]

The first asterisk tandem is now up and running in New Zealand on +64 846. Chris, who is the owner only found out about CNET on Sunday!!   Is that a record for getting connected?  He has a few years experience on both Linux and Asterisk :-)

The second at MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) at Auckland should be on line soon.  They are awaiting the IT guys there to run the network cables and the telecoms guys have a 20 pair cable to link the telecoms and computer locations. They have a network of electro-mechanical switches including a Plessey 50 line Common Control exchange, an NC100 crossbar exchange, a New Zealand Unit Automatic eXchange No 13 Strowger exchange plus an Ericssons manual switchboard.

Another bit of news - we've found a source of  Pulse to DTMF converters  US$53.95 each. Neat little units, line powered and don't suffer from the 'double digits' problem. Would you believe they also have a version for the 'reverse' NZ dial and another for the 'reverse' Swedish dial - all off the shelf. Only problem is that the carriage outside the US exceeds the cost of the unit.  I think the ones I bought were brought to the UK by a private jet which I paid for in less than 48 hours !!   They would not send them by any cheaper method other than by UPS. By the time the UK government had added 17.5% tax onto the cost not only of the unit but also the horrendous carriage charge - it means I can't retire but have to carry on for another two years :-(

I'm also in touch with two collectors in Australia who are hoping to join - both have crossbar PABXs and one has a 25 line Strowger PAX.

Ian Jolly
+64 85 32 864