First off, I admit ARS is something I don't understand. at least fully understand.
Company uses ARS for all users. I don't think there is a real reason, just the way it was setup. Some users are unable to dial LD and some are restricted and need to use an account code for LD.
Company has DS1 (T1)/PRI (connected to an Adtran, which is feed SIP) connected to node 1, which all four nodes use for outgoing and incoming calls. Had a six hour outage and people weren't happy when they couldn't place or receive calls. Node 2 is located in different physical location, connected via MPLS to node with DS1. CenturyLink is offering to give us some SIP trunk sessions available via MPLS. If the DS1 failed at node 1, and we had SIP sessions available at node 2, could the Mitel system recognize the DS1 failure and automatically route outgoing calls to node 2?
My guess is if the DS1 failed, and CenturyLink routed incoming calls to SIP sessions at node 2, the Call Routing Tables at node 2 was set up with a copy of the Call Routing Tables at node 1, incoming calls should continue seamlessly. Is that correct?
It's interesting the pricing difference between SIP trunks and T1/PRI licenses/cards. I was quoted $140 per SIP Trunk license for ten, I think that exceeds the cost of a T1/PRI license (which enables 23 trunks?) I know CenturyLink would rather system accepts SIP, instead of going through a DS1/PRI and perhaps SIP is the best option for the future, however SIP leaves me feeling a bit nervous--seems like there is a lot more that can go wrong with SIP. Then again, I am probably full of Breezy Speculation.
Thanks to all the very knowledgeable people sharing information on this forum!
Jeff
