Could someone explain...
jeter suggests above getting a dedicated business line for this application. And this line of thinking seems to be "conventional wisdon" in the business, e.g. get a dedicated line for your fax machine and anything else that needs an analog line, even though you have a PRI for voice.
I don't understand why you would want to do so in most cases, unless your PRI is heavily used. We use analog ports on our MICS w/PRI for our fax, conference room phone, postage meter refill, modems to remote control systems, etc, and it works wonderfully. I can connect to an ISP (if I need to) at 50.6k, since it's all digital past the MICS. The only downside is no caller ID on the analog ports. And if the PRI goes down I have to use my cell phone to call repair.
But the economics are great, especially the low usage lines. Yes, we had to buy the analog station module, but there is no monthly charge at all. (I've even got a BRI card connected to our server for inbound V.90 modem connections over the PRI.)
So, what's the downside? Is the MICS unique in its ability to handle analog stations without quality degradation? Or is there something else I'm missing?
emk