A bit of a VOIP virgin although I pretty much understand the basic
technology underneath there being a programmer and part-time system
administrator. However, I'm not up to speed, at all, with the current state
of products available, both software and hardware. We currently have a BT
(Nortel) Meridian-1 PBX and we're moving to a new office some point soon.
We're definitely going to take the opportunity to go wireless within the
office - that side of the technology we're perfectly happy with. But we've
discussed about going wireless VOIP telephony as well - but that's a lot
more scary. We simply want to replace the PBX functionality in the office,
with wireless phones and minimal call centre agent functionality. We're not
jumping on the internet telephony bandwagon yet so the software PBX would
have to integrate with POTS. I've had a look at Asterisk in the past but
shied away a bit as we're kind of a Windows house (sorry).
Any recommendations for reading/reference material would be appreciated. If
any vendors are out there listening who want to drop me an email about the
services they offer, I wouldn't object too much...
> discussed about going wireless VOIP telephony as well - but that's a lot
Gulp - just seen the price of the Cisco 7920G Wireless IP Phone at nearly
£500. That's a non-starter :-) Maybe that single thing gives me a good idea
of where the market is up to and why few people are VOIP wireless...
Ohh forgot to mention, we're a Citrix/Terminal Server environment.
Rob Nicholson wrote:
|| A bit of a VOIP virgin although I pretty much understand the basic
|| technology underneath there being a programmer and part-time system
|| administrator. However, I'm not up to speed, at all, with the
|| current state of products available, both software and hardware. We
|| currently have a BT (Nortel) Meridian-1 PBX and we're moving to a
|| new office some point soon. We're definitely going to take the
|| opportunity to go wireless within the office - that side of the
|| technology we're perfectly happy with. But we've discussed about
|| going wireless VOIP telephony as well - but that's a lot more scary.
|| We simply want to replace the PBX functionality in the office, with
|| wireless phones and minimal call centre agent functionality. We're
|| not jumping on the internet telephony bandwagon yet so the software
|| PBX would have to integrate with POTS. I've had a look at Asterisk
|| in the past but shied away a bit as we're kind of a Windows house
|| (sorry).
||
|| Any recommendations for reading/reference material would be
|| appreciated. If any vendors are out there listening who want to drop
|| me an email about the services they offer, I wouldn't object too
|| much...
||
|| Thanks, Rob.
DECT works with Asterisk, so long as you have a suitable interface such as
any Analogue Telephone Adapter.
For that matter, DECT would work with a budget phone system as
well..............
you don't say how many lines you'll be having. Are they analogue or ISDN?
How many users?
Rob:
>Talking to myself but found Zytel wireless IP for $168
You mean Zyxel P2000, readily available from broadbandbuyer.co.uk and other
online stores,
the price has dropped from original £200, but still too expensive.
There are others e.g. Senao, Pulver etc. but, to my knowledge, not on sale
in UK.
You can use Windows based PDA / phones, but they are not cheap either.
Some day, soon I hope, ordinary mobile phones will be WiFi VoIP capable,
at the moment there is Nokia E70, E61 and 9300.
Regards,
Martin
> you don't say how many lines you'll be having. Are they analogue or ISDN?
> How many users?
Not defined - new building but I assume it's still ISDN for this kind of
thing? System has to be expandable up to 150 users I think (capacity of
building). We realise that it's not going to be exactly cheap (original
Meridian wasn't) but there is a line between spending the right money to get
the right system and being a bit too bleeding edge and having to spend too
much money of things like wireless handsets.
That said, cabling the building is probably going to be around £15k which
gets you a fair number of £500 handsets.
I kind of expected cheaper wireless handsets basing my guess on the cost of
mobile phones and home DECT sets. Wrongly it seems :-)
In article <435d9515$0$49798$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net>,
Martin² <never@give.one> wrote:
>You can use Windows based PDA / phones, but they are not cheap either.
>Some day, soon I hope, ordinary mobile phones will be WiFi VoIP capable,
>at the moment there is Nokia E70, E61 and 9300.
The Nokia 9300 doesn't have WiFi, but the 9500 does. (And it's Symbian
based, not Windoze :)
I don't think theres a VoIP application for the 9500 yet though... It'd
be nice if there was!
"Rob Nicholson" <rob.nicholson@nospam_unforgettable.com> wrote in message
> I kind of expected cheaper wireless handsets basing my guess on the cost
> of mobile phones and home DECT sets. Wrongly it seems :-)
>
> Cheers, Rob.
>
Absolutely.
A DECT set + ATA would be much more versatile & cost less than a WIFI
phone.
"Rob Nicholson" <rob.nicholson@nospam_unforgettable.com> wrote in message
news:Bob7f.3403$iZ4.2000@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
>A bit of a VOIP virgin although I pretty much understand the basic
>technology underneath there being a programmer and part-time system
>administrator. However, I'm not up to speed, at all, with the current state
>of products available, both software and hardware. We currently have a BT
>(Nortel) Meridian-1 PBX and we're moving to a new office some point soon.
>We're definitely going to take the opportunity to go wireless within the
>office - that side of the technology we're perfectly happy with. But we've
>discussed about going wireless VOIP telephony as well - but that's a lot
>more scary. We simply want to replace the PBX functionality in the office,
>with wireless phones and minimal call centre agent functionality. We're not
>jumping on the internet telephony bandwagon yet so the software PBX would
>have to integrate with POTS. I've had a look at Asterisk in the past but
>shied away a bit as we're kind of a Windows house (sorry).
>
> Any recommendations for reading/reference material would be appreciated.
> If any vendors are out there listening who want to drop me an email about
> the services they offer, I wouldn't object too much...
>
> Thanks, Rob.
Hi Rob,
I'm also doing some similar research.
You could look at http://www.swyx.com/ it's a fairly fully functional
Hybrid PABX with support for E1, BRI and POTS input as well as VOIP.
Based on Microsoft server, so integrates with Active Directory, Outlook etc
I'm still looking for the 'gotchas', but it looks good - and the
documentation is all downloadable in .pdf!
"Rob Nicholson" <rob_nicholson@nospam_informed-direct.com> wrote in message
news:djkr2p$mvd$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk...
> > I don't think theres a VoIP application for the 9500 yet though... It'd
> > be nice if there was!
>
> See - £189 is about the right place for a complex handset that offers way,
> way more functionality than that CISCO handset I found. Madness :-)
>
Hi
The 9500 is in reality between £420 and £480. And the R&D costs of it has
been spread over may years and the larger number of units that will be
shifed, The WIFI handsets are priced as they are as the makers are still
trying to get back the R&D costs and this cost will be spread over a smaller
production run.
> You could look at http://www.swyx.com/ it's a fairly fully functional
> Hybrid PABX with support for E1, BRI and POTS input as well as VOIP.
>
> Based on Microsoft server, so integrates with Active Directory, Outlook
> etc
>
> I'm still looking for the 'gotchas', but it looks good - and the
> documentation is all downloadable in .pdf!
> "Rob Nicholson" <rob.nicholson@nospam_unforgettable.com> wrote in message
>> I kind of expected cheaper wireless handsets basing my guess on the cost
>> of mobile phones and home DECT sets. Wrongly it seems :-)
> Absolutely.
>
> A DECT set + ATA would be much more versatile & cost less than a WIFI
> phone.
Not to mention the fact that WiFi can easily be knocked out by someone using
a microwave in the vicinity, or setting up a wireless access point of their
own, or using any equipment in the same license-free 2.4GHz band. WiFi has
its uses, but business-critical telephony [I'm assuming it is if you're
going to have 100 lines with only 60 users] is not one of them. WiFi phones
seem to be in their infancy at the moment [with all the attendant problems,
such as high cost and low battery life], but as soon as volumes start to
increase they'll come down in price.
--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (gebssnfxl@ubgznvy.pbz)
19:30:09 up 22:04, 3 users, load average: 0.14, 0.08, 0.08
This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK
> You could look at http://www.swyx.com/ it's a fairly fully functional
> Hybrid PABX with support for E1, BRI and POTS input as well as VOIP.
I've just spent a while having a look through the documentation. I remember
Swyx from when I had a think about this over a year ago. It does look like a
contender and a very rough back of the envelope calculation puts us in the
£25k area for 50 users, ~£500 per user. This figure could be out but it
gives us a feel. That's not for wireless VOIP though - need to do some more
investigation on that side.
One BIG advantage of Swyx for us is the mention of the word "Terminal
Server" with their CTI application. This is a key requirement for us.
> Not to mention the fact that WiFi can easily be knocked out by someone
> using
> a microwave in the vicinity, or setting up a wireless access point of
> their
If they do, then our network is probably down anyway :-)
Wireless VOIP in an office environment 
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