For months and months we have been using Primus at the office with the intenet that we would go with a more professional phone set-up including a digital receptionist, extensions and personal voicemail. Having a single line is hardly professional but the alternatives were a little pricier than we wanted to pay. I had heard of all these great savings with VoIP but they tend to be a single line set-up with common voicemail, helpful at home but not at the office. Other companies we talked to had fancy VoIP/Internet Telephony options but at steep per employee, per month prices.

I started to research Asterisk again as we had an older PC kicking around to use and I quickly found out about DID lines and how we could utilize them. What I wasn't clear about was whether one DID line meant one phone call or whether you could have simultaneous phone calls. Several DID suppliers suggested that I get multiple DID numbers and they could configure rollover at an extra charge. Not bad, but I'd rather have more control over the options. So I installed Asterisk@Home with no problems and started searching for a DID supplier.

After searching on the Toronto Asterisk User Group mailing archives I came across Unlimitel. They offer Canadian exchange DIDs in Southern Ontario, Ottawa and Montreal at $2.50 per month, 1.1 cents per minute within their calling areas or 4.4 cents per minute anywhere else in Canada and the U.S.

But the service is what I'm writing about. Stephan Monette at Unlimitel was extremely helpful in setting up the system and even went so far as to log into my Asterisk box and help configure it when after following their helpful set-up instructions for Asterisk@Home I made a typo and could receive incoming calls.

Thanks Stephan, we're looking forward to using the system!