Enhancing an RPi with phone capabilities

Fri Jan 25 14:34:10 CET 2013

On 2013年01月25日 8:17 AM, jcommeli at math.leidenuniv.nl wrote:
> Thanks for your replies. I think I have some good pointers here. But, to
> make one thing clear. I am not looking that much for VoIP options, but
> would like to connect to an existing carrier, with a SIM-card.
> The point is that I want other people (without VoIP) being able to call
> this phone. And if I only have VoIP, then they can not give me a call (as
> far as I know).
> Am I missing something?
>>Well, yes. A VOIP "DID" line, which most people use when they speak of 
VOIP (ignoring Skype for the moment) costs 1ドル-3ドル a month and has a 
regular phone number attached, so yes, people with regular ("POTS") 
phones can indeed call it. The other end can be logged into by a 
hardware SIP phone, a software SIP or IAX phone, an "ATA" Analog 
Terminal Adapter with a regular phone plugged into it, an Asterisk 
instance running like a regular "phone system" inside a business or 
home, etc.
And people with Skype can now dial regular phone numbers.
Read the intro chapters of "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony" for a 
good overview (the book's a bit dated as it talks of Asterisk 1.6 and 
1.8 while they're up to 1.11, but all the stuff it covers is still 
useful and it's quite readable).