Voice Applications

Telephony system for remote locations

Feb 5, 2013
1 minute read

Who is living far away from home country. Or working remotely. Who is travelling a lot, or have presence in another country — such people or businesses need some telecommunication system, that will keep them connected to the world.

Target users

  • Remote workers;
  • Travelers, tourists;
  • Digital nomads;
  • Expats, migrants, students;
  • Business companies operating internationally or having multiple branches;
  • Transport and logistics companies;
  • Travel agencies;
  • …and more!

Such users often searching for:

  • a local SIM card to make local calls and to browse internet;
  • an solution to get calls to the old (home) phone number without paying too much roaming fees;
  • low-cost roaming solution;
  • (who is looking to establish an virtual presence) — for local phone number in remote location;
  • low-cost calls;

Solution

So how that could be implemented?

To create a phone system with low-cost or zero-cost calls between two locations, you need such components:

  • VoIP server — hosted PBX or a small server with Linux and Asterisk PBX onboard. This box could be an: old computer, Raspberry Pi, OpenWRT router, VPS server;

  • Prepaid SIM card in present location with mobile internet;

  • DID phone number in home (remote for virtual presence) country. DID is a phone number you could get from an VoIP carrier, forwarded to your phone system

    or

    as an option: an FXO/VoIP box to which you could plug your home phone-line or an Raspberry Pi with GSM USB stick or GSM gateway — with your old SIM card inside;

Setup call diversion from your home SIM card mobile to the DID number (or keep your SIM card within GSM gateway);

Configure SIP account on your softphone, point it to the VoIP server;

Update dialplan and get the calls, easy as 1-2-3 ;)

Of course calls works in both directions! In case if there is no internet coverage, calls could be sent to the cellphone through VoIP trunk (and you would pay some fee for that, but it’s most likely still way cheaper than pay roaming fees).

I do that for years and now working on roaming PBX solution that automate various use cases.