Using CME for SIP only?

milliamp

I was looking at the max supported IP phones for various CME products but I think the numbers implied those calls would be trunked over a PRI or such.

It is obvious that "off net" calls would be limited by the total number of "real" circuits into the router, but in the case where calls are staying on network (eg SIP to SIP) is the limit for a 3800 still only like 250?

mikej412

milliamp wrote:

I guess the reaons I am asking is that some of the "other vendors" softswitches I have seen support like 5 million BHCA (Busy Hour Call Attempts) and it makes Cisco 3800's "CME call-processing support for up to 240 Cisco IP phone users" statement seem more than a little anemic.

You're comparing a grape to a grapefruit.

CallManager Express competes on the low end with Key Systems for small offices and branches. Asterisk, CallManager, and other vendor softswitches compete against the PBXs.

CME is embedded into the IOS software -- hence the limit on processor power and memory and ultimately the number of phones supported.

Cisco CallManager is now called Cisco Unified CallManager and is on version 5.x

<fixed the quote>

milliamp

Thank you for the reply, here is some info I extracted.

Cisco Unified CallManager 4.1 was Windows 2K based, from 5.0 on it is Linux based.

Cisco sells the servers to power the software starting in the $3,000 range, and the CallManager license for it in also in the $3,000 range.

Cisco says it supports up to 30,000 phones, but Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 also suppors up to 8 systems in a cluster so I assume 1 server will support only maybe 4,000 phones.

Where it starts to get expensive is each device (phone) provisioned into CallManager costs extra.

A license for 5000 phones would cost about ~ $187,500

Here are some numbers

MCS7815I2-K9-CMA1 = Server ($2,900)
LIC-CM5.0-7815-I2= CM software for server ($2,700)
LIC-CM-DL-5000= 5000 phone license ($187,500)
LIC-CM-DL-1000= 1000 phone license ($37,500)
Cisco 7902G entry level phone ($130 each, or 130,000 per 1K)

Basic cost of ~1,000 phone deployment = $173,100 up front + service + support contract etc.

it works out to probably < $200/phone, unless I am missing some required equipment/services (voicemail etc.)

That isn't too bad depending on what the commercial VoIP carriers are charging you for ~250 SIP phone lines (not all 1000 phones would be used at the same time)

Does anyone have some rough figures on the kind or monthly rates to expect for this many lines? Usually when there are a bunch of companies offering the service but nobody publishes their pricing, it can be a bad sign.

For virtual PBX hosting I didn't find many prices either, I found one company http://www.tollfreelive.com offering 100 lines (extentions) for $100/month + 2.9 cents/minute after 2500 minutes.

Please correct my assumptions or spit back some other numbers, I like numbers.

mikej412

It does sound like you cracked the pricing code

milliamp wrote:

it works out to probably < $200/phone, unless I am missing some required equipment/services (voicemail etc.)

Yeah -- Unity (the Cisco Voice Mail Solution) is an extra -- or you keep your old voice mail system (and its support costs).

The "smaller" (cheaper) servers support fewer phones -- so you size it based on your expected deployment. Part of your cluster will be backup servers -- each subscriber server can have a backup (for greater reliability, but still not PBX Class uptime) or 2 subscribers can share a backup. And you'll have the Publisher -- the server that makes the changes to the database (and replicates the changes to the subscribers). Not sure if 5.x (and Linux) has changed any of that.

I think there is an Excel Spreadsheet template somewhere on the Cisco Website that tries to cover everything so that you can compare the cost of a Cisco Voice Solution vs a PBX solution. It might be worth a goggle site:cisco.com search, also with the file type option, and with voice as a keywork too. Of course, someone who knows what I'm typing about and has the URL handy would be even easier.

darwinism

Check out http://www.vitelity.net/?p=services

They seem pretty reasonable, but we are just in the testing phase. We have 2 virtual lines and a couple DID's and a 1-800 number. Everything seems to be working well so far.