I have a client with an old PBX and analog lines. Trying to save them money, but they don’t want to replace the PBX. My thought would be just convert the POTS line to SIP Trunks and feed the old PBX that way. I’ve yet to run into this situation, it appears what I need is an FXS gateway. Will need 4 ports most likely. Ideally a small box that we can either mount in the rack or on the telco backboard adjacent to their PBX.
I had looked at the Digium 8 Port Analog FXS Gateway, but having zero experience with these types of gateways I wanted to ask for thoughts from those who’ve done this scenario before. They do not have any need for anything fancy/features, and will not grow with this, so cost effective is important.
If you want to connect the POTS lines coming from your Telco you need a FXO gateway. FXS gateways are used to connect analog telephones or fax machines.
I had good experience with Audiocodes, Linksys and Grandstream gateways.
Thanks, that’s exactly what I was looking for. I could use two of those to do the trick.
PBX is an ancient Merlin system. about 50 extensions and 6 POTS lines in the PBX and 1 for fax/alarm, but only about 10 people; it’s a lab and they float around. Owner is resistant to changing anything, he relishes old tech. Best I’ll get is to replace the LEC with SIP Trunking to save them some money. Maybe later I can use that to put their feet in the water to the idea of a new system, I’ll go throw a phone and demo PBX online for them to play with and get excited by it.