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There are a lot of network/systems admins that have to put on the telecom admin hat as well. Either using Cisco Call Manager, Asterisk, other VOIP/digital/analog PBXs, digital/analog systems, wireless phones used in a PBX, voicemail systems, etc. The world is typically foreign to them overall, only over the last 5-10 years intermingling forcibly with the networking side, causing them to have to support it, especially in SMBs where the need for a full-time Telecom Admin isn't necessary.

However, there seems to be a lack of experts here on SF and there isn't a site dedicated to Telecom on StackExchange.

The ServerFault FAQ is defined as:

If your question is about…

Server and Business Workstation operating systems, hardware, software and virtualization
Enterprise storage, backup, and disaster recovery
Network routing, switches, and firewalls
Operations, maintenance, and monitoring

I searched for "telecom" in SF Meta and SO Meta and didn't find much to go off of.

I did see a proposal on Area 51 for Telecom here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/40212/telecommunications

and I also saw someone proposing that the Telecom beta site be merged with the Networking Engineering beta site here: https://area51.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9754/merge-with-network-engineering

The problem is that telecom, like a lot of technology fields, doesn't fit neatly into a single box...either Network Engineering or Server Administration. But giving it its own site clearly isn't getting anywhere on Area 51.


On Server fault there are example questions like:

Cisco CM -- forward single user call after hours

https://serverfault.com/questions/115800/how-do-i-route-incoming-landline-calls-out-to-a-cell-phone-on-a-cisco-ccme-7-0?rq=1

Cisco Unity call manager - deleting users within an LDAP setup

Call history in Cisco Unity

Local Call Classification in CDR records from Cisco CallManager

How do I detect call forwarding in Asterisk?

Play music by Operator in asterisk?

etc...all valid questions with typically little to no answers or the OP coming back and answering based on other research.


It seems as though there isn't a good fit in general here on the SE sites for these questions according to the examples above. They aren't bad questions, they simply get passed over, probably because telecom admins aren't hanging out in SF.

SF at this point seems to still be the only choice, albeit lacking,to ask the questions, but are those of us that do have to support on-premise VOIP, PBXs, etc. forced to look elsewhere for our answers or is there a way to bring this knowledge and expertise into SF? Should the FAQs mention telecom administration anywhere in them? Would the # of telecom administration questions even warrant anyone caring or is it just a small percentage that those of us that do need that kind of support can simply look to the vendor or other online resources?

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  • Good find on the duplicate...I guess I should have searched telco or telecommunications in full.
    – TheCleaner
    May 23, 2013 at 20:49

1 Answer 1

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Is Telecom on-topic: Yes

Should we mention it in the FAQ: Signs point to no

Anyone care: Mostly no, but the OP of those Questions certainly did when they posted (though it seems they stopped caring enough to never come back and all...). Documentation tends to be pretty good, and where it's lacking paid support usually fills in the gaps completely.

I seem to remember there being a Telecom.SE once before and it failing... I could be wrong.

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  • Not so much a site as a proposal: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/40212/telecommunications
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    May 23, 2013 at 19:52
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    The example questions on that proposal are so horrible....
    – Chris S
    May 23, 2013 at 19:56
  • @sysadmin1138 - yeah I mentioned the proposal in my question above. It just looks like it got zero traction. Again, it may simply be that SF while accepting of telecom questions isn't the right venue to get a great answer and the better choice is as Chris states to get with the OEM.
    – TheCleaner
    May 23, 2013 at 20:51
  • It's also worth pointing out that some "telecom" questions these days are arguably NOT "telecom" as a phone company engineer would define them. Configuring Asterisk or CCM, dealing with SIP's idiosyncrasies, etc. are often as much (if not more) in the System Administration field as they are the Telecom field.
    – voretaq7
    May 24, 2013 at 0:18

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