ISDN - PBX or Carrier for an MCU?

[agarland]

Hey guys -

I am trying to decide between whether to utilize a carrier based PRI or PBX based PRI for my Tandberg MPS 800. Does anyone have any valuable knowledge and any suggestions on going one way vs the other? I see drawbacks and advantages to both, but I wanted to get a feel for what you guys are doing.

PBX PRI -
Advantages: More detailed monitoring and reporting. Faster troubleshooting (since the provider in this case is my telecom group, which I am a part of). Better redundancy (can flip to a different PRI line on-the-fly).
Disadvantages: Another layer of complexity and point of failure. Special PBX configuration for ISDN PRI. No "single neck to choke" for issues.

Carrier PRI -
Advantages: No way to blame internal systems for ISDN issues. Less management required.
Disadvantages: Outage will leave us offline until carrier resolves issue. Not as much management capability.

Your thoughts and opinions?

[agarland]

Seems as though not very many people have even used a PBX based ISDN PRI line for video. That actually helps me with the decision. Might as well adopt traditional methodology where going against the grain wouldn't get me that much anyway...

[Sean Lessman]

Seems as though not very many people have even used a PBX based ISDN PRI line for video. That actually helps me with the decision. Might as well adopt traditional methodology where going against the grain wouldn't get me that much anyway...

It does happen and 90% of the time the PRI isn't set up right. After lots of heartache, the PBX technician finally gets it right and it works :)

I would really recommend a PRI direct from the carrier unless you have a star PBX guy working for you.

Sean