Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

[Deviant Ollam]

I think the time has finally come for me to dump Sprint, or at the very least seriously downgrade how much i depend on them for my mobile phone service.

I would like to make the switch to a mobile that supports SIM cards and is very international-friendly in order to keep in contact with people when i'm traveling around the world and not pay out the ass the whole time.

My thing is... i like my existing number. It's the one that all my closest associates (as well as a number of more casual acquaintances) have and I don't want to change it. However... if i'm roaming the globe, swapping around a lot or pre-paid SIM cards, i want to still be easily reached at the number everyone knows.

So, my question then becomes... what is the cheapest and easiest way that this can be accomplished? The couple people with whom i've spoken have told me that an Asterisk box is the best route to go. Still... I've never been clear on where the horizon is drawn between POTS lines and VoIP service if one does that.

I'm also aware of the fact that if you're running your own PBX (and i think that an Asterisk box can work in this situation) there are ways to forcibly unmask caller ID strings so that people calling me with numbers blocked show up anyway. But is that only if you have a special dedicated line running service to your PBX as opposed to a POTS line?

One last question (perhaps the biggest one)... i do not want my temporary phone numbers (the ones associated with random SIM cards) to show up when i place outbound calls from my handset... i'd like my "proper" number to show up on the receiving party's end. I'm told this is possible by routing a call through the Asterisk box. (someone even said it's possible to get a "family" or "my circle" plan and put the Asterisk box into that calling group so all traffic between you and it are free.)

So... anyone want to suggest to me the best approach to what i'm hoping to do? Overall, i really think i just need to read more of the Asterisk docs (which i'm going to do today) in order to figure out of this is a purely VoIP solution etc or if i'm installing a modem in a machine somewhere.

P.S. - text messages... i'm an SMS madman (not like a 17 year old girl with a pink Razor phone, but you get the idea) and don't want to break this functionality if i can avoid it. does Asterisk handle SMS traffic?

[SarperDomain]

Re: Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

You are in luck. I have been programing Asterisk systems for 5 years now.

[SarperDomain]

Re: Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

Your PBX: Number X; Your Destination: Number Y
An Asterisk server is capable of connecting a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) line to a switched voip line. The way it works is: you call number X which can be either the voip or landline; your PBX, depending on the setup, answers and waits for you to enter number Y.
The PBX then uses either the voip or landline to dial the number. The destination caller ID receives the PBX's info. Now as for the number masking it depends on the phone company(s) you are using, some allow it, some do not.
For security: Setup your PBX to only pickup certain number masks such as (###)314-####, that would be assuming that your cell always had primary xchange of 314; or you could require a pin before it will allow the transfer.

Now I have an Asterisk PBX setup with Vonage(without their knowledge of course) that handles my Vonage house and Vonage business numbers and can route calls from the house phone to the business line, the business phone to the house line, the house phone to the business phone, and re-route the business line through the second house line to my cell phone.
It also controls all of the voicemail and is linked into the security system.
Thus I can call from Hong Kong and the PBX will give me a full status report on all of my security sensors and zone alarms as well as call my cell and the police if the alarm is triggered.
As a bonus feature I also added a meeting line with one of Vonages virtual numbers so that the family in Connecticut doesn't have to dial long distance to get a hold of local family.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

so... what i'm learning thus far...

you can attach a Vonage box directly to an Asterisk box (does it use a modem line and teleco cable or is there a purely VoIP solution that lets the box tap directly into the Vonage network)

are there other VoIP services that Asterisk can utilize? are they better than Vonage?

let's also start using specific numbers in our analogies, by the way...

Deviant's "public" phone number is the one that everyone knows. it's on a business card (well, actually... 248-434-5508 is on my business cards, but i tell people it's not the best way to reach me) and in lots of people's phones. This number would be assigned to my Asterisk box. Let's call this number (DDD) DDD-DDDD

My "private" phone number will be whatever plan i wind up using to give my mobile phone over the air service. Let's call this number (PPP) PPP-PPPP

From time to time i may use pre-paid SIM cards, most likely when i'm overseas on international travel. Let's call such a number associated with a card +II (II) III-III

Lastly, there will be calls that are coming to me and parties that i wish to reach. Assume Alice is the one who is calling me in our examples and that i may wish to place calls to Bob. Assuming they're in the United States, they would be (AAA) AAA-AAAA and (BBB) BBB-BBBB, respectively.

the following is what i'm hearing you say at the moment...

if i want to call Bob, i would use my handset to first connect to the Asterisk box...

(PPP) PPP-PPPP ---> (DDD) DDD-DDDD

then, i would input my desired destination number and that box would place a call to Bob...

(DDD) DDD-DDDD ---> (BBB) BBB-BBBB

is the above step automated or do i have to manually type in their numbers every time? because that certainly wouldn't work for me. i realize that i could program my mobile handset to make Bob's number into +1-DDD-DDD-DDDD [hard pause] PIN CODE [2 sec pause] BBB-BBB-BBBB but that presents its own problems, because if Bob were to call me i'd want my handset to see the caller ID (simply BBB-BBB-BBBB) and associate it with Bob's name, which it wouldn't do unless every person in my phone book had (in addition to that long-ass string) a second entry for just their "bare" phone number.

so yeah, my main question there is... are there any mobile handsets (or settings on Asterisk) that will automate outbound dialing so i can just place calls with ease. (i'd LOVE it if i could set my handset to automatically route all calls through the Asterisk box unless directed otherwise)

in the above scenario, Bob will receive a phone call and see (DDD) DDD-DDDD on his caller ID which is what i want to have happen.

Now, if Alice wants to call me... she dials (DDD) DDD-DDDD from her phone...

(AAA) AAA-AAAA ---> (DDD) DDD-DDDD

... and is hitting the Asterisk box at that point. The box is programmed to forward that call to wherever i happen to be at the present time, right? typically, that would be...

(DDD) DDD-DDDD ---> (PPP) PPP-PPPP

and it passes along the caller ID string properly? so my phone rings and i see (AAA) AAA-AAAA is calling me? (if you'd care to talk to me about masking vs. intentionally unmasking private ANI data, now would be as good a spot as any)


I don't even know where to begin when it comes to figuring out if i can make TXT messages work the way i want them to here. From what i'm seeing, it really seems likely that i would need a specialized handset... a mobile phone that can be configured specifically to route all calls and messaging through a defined PBX.

do such phones exist? are they available for less than an arm and a leg?

[SarperDomain]

Re: Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

Yes it is possible for the PBX to do all that you have requested, except you will have to program their numbers with the PBX and hard pauses. As for the SMS try this: (I assume you are using Linux) kannel.

[afterburn188]

Re: Advice for Mobile Phone Badassery

if i want to call Bob, i would use my handset to first connect to the Asterisk box...

(PPP) PPP-PPPP ---> (DDD) DDD-DDDD

then, i would input my desired destination number and that box would place a call to Bob...

(DDD) DDD-DDDD ---> (BBB) BBB-BBBB

....

in the above scenario, Bob will receive a phone call and see (DDD) DDD-DDDD on his caller ID which is what i want to have happen.

Now, if Alice wants to call me... she dials (DDD) DDD-DDDD from her phone...

(AAA) AAA-AAAA ---> (DDD) DDD-DDDD

... and is hitting the Asterisk box at that point. The box is programmed to forward that call to wherever i happen to be at the present time, right? typically, that would be...

(DDD) DDD-DDDD ---> (PPP) PPP-PPPP

and it passes along the caller ID string properly? so my phone rings and i see (AAA) AAA-AAAA is calling me? (if you'd care to talk to me about masking vs. intentionally unmasking private ANI data, now would be as good a spot as any)

Sounds a lot like what the GrandCentral project originally set out to over come...a layer of abstraction for this situation by creating a new number (NNN) NNN-NNNN that would allow people to call you. It would then forward your calls to all your phones and you'd answer on one of them. You could also call back and make return calls. Caller ID was maintained. Now google has acquired the project and who knows where it is going...