Reza,
First, if you find a free version of g.729, please send the link asap. I think it would be my equivalent of you finding a viable way of using hydrogen instead of petroleum. That said, my response to your question is as follows: Would you avoid g729 if you could? Of course I would, but I can't. I know there are technical alternatives that are as good or better than g.729, but with who can I interconnect to that is, or would agree to, also using another codec? I can't use another because the carriers that I am interested in (in my case Global Crossing, Level3, Telmex and others, primarily Tier I) are not preferring, but requiring my interconnect to be in g729 and this is because they buy Cisco, where the g729 codec included is peanuts compared to the ridiculous cost of the hardware itself. But the results are what you'd expect from a Tier I carrier: Solid. In the professional carrier wholesale market, SIP/g729 has become the de facto for VoIP interconnects. The question you have to ask yourself is: Am I willing to spend $300-500 for the g729 in order to connect to these underlying carriers and why? .and based on your first email, if you have the business, you should be willing, because it will mean getting the superior quality and reliable service you are looking for. Otherwise stick to another voip-peer offering any of the equivalent free codecs in the interconnect and risk Tier III quality and results. Good Luck (especially on finding the free version of g729), Michael _____ From: Reza - Asterisk Enthusiast [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 18:39 To: TAUG Subject: [on-asterisk] Your opinion on G729 This is more of a political/economical question. $10 per license that Digium charges - majority goes to VoiceAge for their intellectual property licensing. Though they, or intellectual property patent owners can argue that lot of time has been spend behind their development etc., grants them the divine right to charge a licensing fee (and that's fine with me), the Open Source community can equally claim greater time spent, but passing away the software as open source/free to use, free knowledge etc. Having said this, I would have preferred g729 codec to be free for all - but out of respect for the developers of g729, I'm not going to whine (though I want to like a little kid). The problem I am facing is that a number of carriers I am potentially signing up with and doing testing, allow g729 only as they have proprietary switch (hardware and software) for which they have made a considerable financial investment. Though I do not mind spending the money for about 30 - 50 licenses for concurrent calls --- I want to hear from you folks, whether g729 is worth the bang for the buck. The more I am getting involved with other Telcos that have proprietary hardware VOIP switch and have excellent rates with excellent quality, costing less than a cent per minute - is pushing me more towards g729. So! The $300-$500 dollar question: Would you avoid g729 if you could? If so why? Are there TRULY FREE implementations of g729? (I could not find any for Asterisk) Would love to hear all your ponders! Cheers!
