Hi Forum
I’ve been using FreePBX for many years with chan_dongle and Huawei stick modem.
It has been a really good solution.
Sadly, the 3G networks are being shutdown in AU, and we’re all being forced to migrate to 4G or 5G with VoLTE.
I’m wondering whether a Waveshare 4G dongle might be a suitable device to anable FreePBX access to a 4G cellphone trunk.
The Waveshare specs do include VoLTE.
I’ve already begun some simple testing.
To start, FreePBX recognises the usb dongle, and the ATI command reveals some usual hardware details.
Please, does anybuddy have any tips or clues for how I might get this working.
Sorry that I can’t help with the Waveshare modem, but I’m curious why you are doing this at all, because VoIP calls to Australia are quite inexpensive.
If you have little traffic, a SIP trunk would likely be less expensive. With a lot of traffic, being limited to a single channel is a significant disadvantage for the mobile setup.
What is your approximate monthly minutes usage incoming? To fixed lines? To mobiles? How much are you paying for the cellular account?
Stewart
Thanks for response and all good questions.
The short answer is its mostly a legacy issue.
We’ve been using this cellphone dongle for business calls for many years, and need to keep this number alive for a while longer.
The amaysim (aka Optus) mobile monthly plan has just gone from $10 to $15 per month for unlimited national calls, including mobiles.
It was previously our LCR choice for most outgoing calls.
In previous years, VoIP calls to mobiles were usually timed, hence the preference to commence cellphone calls from cellphone dongle and avoid the voip.
Untimed and unlimited calls to mobiles is a relatively recent phenomenon, eg Aussie Broadband VoIP now $10 per month.
Also, we have some 2FA codes that are received on this dongle by SMS, which then get turned into local email.
How else to share 2FA codes within a small organisation ?