On Sun, 2009-08-02 at 14:54 -0400, Carlos Ruiz Diaz wrote: > Why PC modems were not used as FXO devices? Why chan_modem was > deprecated? it seemed a nicer option instead of buying expensive > gateways.
This question has been answered many times, but just for the fun of it I'll answer it again: If PC modems had been ideal telephony cards, we'd still be using them. My own experience with using modems as FXO devices (long before I became a Digium employee) was that they were awful. I encountered problems with echo, half-duplex audio, and lack of far-end disconnect supervision. All of those problems are solved with most modern telelphony cards (except for the ultra-cheap cards, which are still just modems). To put it frankly, I wouldn't wish one of those modems on my worst enemies. > Anyway, for people living really far from USA the price gets > incremented twice or more and this is without considering the > conversion between currencies. > > 1 $ = 5100 Gs., not cheap at all. I understand that the cards are disproportionately expensive in many parts of the world as compared to the United States, because of the difference in economies. I spent a couple of years in Paraguay in the mid 90s, and know what it's like to pay outrageous prices for specialized electronics just because they have to be imported from other countries. (I'm guessing that you're from Paraguay, based on on the monetary conversion you gave. Does Antelco still dominate the telco market in Paraguay, I wonder?) That being said, the cost per port of the Digium cards (or any of our competitors who design their own cards) is still much lower than what you'd pay for traditional telephony cards, such as those manufactured by Dialogic or Aculab. I know that probably doesn't help you afford to be able to buy a more expensive card, but hopefully you have a better understanding of why we don't use modems as FXO devices. If your time and sanity are worth anything at all, it's a worthwhile investment to buy a good solid telephony card. -- Jared Smith Training Manager Digium, Inc. _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona Register Now: http://www.astricon.net asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
