Asterisk

Open Source Communications

Asterisk is software that turns an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk powers IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and more. It is used by small businesses, large businesses, call centers, carriers and governments worldwide. Asterisk is free and open source.

VoIP Gateway

Gateways connect legacy phone equipment (PBXs, ACDs, voicemail systems, etc.) to modern VoIP systems and services. Asterisk supports many different communications protocols from both the modern world of VoIP and from the legacy PSTN. This makes it a powerful tool for building gateways and protocol converters.

Asterisk's "MeetMe" conference bridge application allows you to build sophisticated multi-party conference applications with only a few lines of Dialplan script. Capable of scaling to hundreds of parties, Asterisk-based conference servers represent one of the most compelling values of Asterisk.

Asterisk's integrated voicemail application allows integrators to replace proprietary legacy voicemail systems with Asterisk-based solutions at a fraction of the cost. Asterisk's voicemail can be implemented as a basic stand-alone system or can act as the front end to a Unified Messaging system, storing message using IMAP or ODBC. Building a voicemail server is simple and requires only a bit of dialplan scripting.

Interactive Voice Response (a.k.a. IVR) allows companies to save money and eliminates manual repetitive tasks. Asterisk makes it easy to build IVR applications that respond to tone or speech input from the caller. Asterisk's support for data access of over HTTP and ODBC makes integrating the IVR with the data stores simple and reliable.

Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) allow call centers to handle thousands of simultaneous calls, routing them to agents based on caller input, dialed number, load and other factors. ACD systems typically cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and require specialized training to install and operate. With Asterisk you can build a powerful ACD for the cost of the server hardware and phones.