[Freeswitch-users] [Out of curiosity] Why not use a voice modem for FXO?

[Steve Underwood]

On 05/26/2010 09:37 PM, GillesToo wrote:
> Hello
>
> In case there are system developers out there with good experience writing
> modem softare, considering that...
> 1. even a cheap OpenVox PCI card starts at $90 for just one FXO port
> 2. even entry-level PC's theses days have ample CPU power especially when
> just used a basic server with Linux
> 3. we've been using so-called softmodems (ie. controller-less modems that
> offload processing to the computer's CPU) for over a decade and they sell
> for about $10 as OEM
> 4. and finally, Digium/Asterisk's Zaptel driver was precisely meant to run
> on cheap voice cards
>
> ... I was wondering why no one has gone forth and written a driver for this
> kind of hardware, which would be great for SOHO users to handle just one
> landline. Is it because the hardware is not standard enough, and writing
> this kind of driver takes a lot of work?
>
> Thank you.
>    
Despite a lot of hot air spouted to the contrary, very few people have 
produced open source telephony code. None of those have so far been 
motivated to produce the relevant driver, so today the only one 
available is the Digium's own intel 536 driver in the zaptel/dahdi 
distribution. If you would like to produce drivers for other common 
chipsets, many people would be delighted. They just won't contribute.

Steve