Randy, can you help with a little more information. Can he use a different carrier, if not, his options could be rather limited? I thought the FCC had some control over the costs of services that providers can charge, especially when only one carrier is in a market. It prevents them from naming their price and forcing others to pay. He should also check with others in the area to see if their prices are going up as well or if its just him, he may have a good legal case. What type of a connection is he using today? If he is using T1's and is looking to switch to a bunch of 1FB's that roll-over is he going to have to change out a bunch of equipment? - I currently pay a little over $500 per T1 currently / 24 channels means that I pay about $20 per line using a T1 - He will want to stay with a T1 digital type of service to keep customer connection speeds above 33.6K When you say 100+ lines, do you mean 100+ phone numbers or are you really needing 100+ (POTS) individual lines? I know that you can have regular POTS lines roll-over to another line when they are busy, it costs me $3 / per month / per line for that feature. Jim Quoting Randy Clarksean <rclark at lakesplus.com>: > > A buddy of mine runs a local ISP. His cost for DID phone lines has gone > through the roof ... from $21 to $57 ... plus they are going up more here > shortly. It is clearly affecting his profitability .. basically the local > telco is pressuring him anyway they can ... to get him to sell or go out of > business. > > Question: What options does anyone out there know of that would allow him to > use regular lines ... and have them rolled over .. or call forwarded to a > regular line .. rather than having to pay the outrageous sum he is paying for > DID lines. > > For example: IS there a way he can buy regular lines for some sort of phone > system and have the hardware roll over to another open line that has a > different number? The cost of a regular local line is $27. > > Saying that he is getting ripped off will not help anything ... as he already > knows that and has had the FCC involved, etc. I am just looking for > technical solutions ... ways he can use 100+ local lines (regular phone lines > with different phone numbers for each line) to decrease the costs associated > with his DID lines. > > Thanks .. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. > > Randy > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using mail services provided by NorthLANs Alliance. --------------------------- www.northlans.com --------------------------- _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list