400 vs 500 series...upgrade justification?? 2

[clindberg]

I have a bunch of 406v2s in the field currently. I am trying to find a justification to management to upgrade to the 500. We are hoping that little issues such as voice quality may improve on the newer hardware platform...

Beyon just a much more stable hardware platform, what benefits would I see from upgrading? The software is identical, so it's hard to hype any new features..

 

[qtelcom]

ah the software is far from identical, and yes you could hype new features. OneX Portal, Video Softphone, OneX Mobile, etc... Better read up on R8.

 

[clindberg]

Yes, a whole bunch of features our management and staff doesn't really want. We're simiply looking for a stable call quality and 1990's PBX functionality....

Version 6 is as far as we've gone and are happy with the feature set.

So I pose the question again...

 

[qtelcom]

too little information... what phones? IP or TDM? are your sites SCN'd together? do you use centralized voicemail? What voice quality issues? (This is a tek-tips forum, not a general sales analysis ROI tool.)

I have customers still running on their 406v2 with no quality issues, so if your not having stable call quality, then that is your first problem. My customers upgrade if the benefits outweigh the costs. This is different for each customer. You should talk with a qualified BP for your answer.

 

[Westi]

happy with what you have?
Why change it if you don't have problems that require a change or upgrade and no features are there that warrant it for you.
We sell that stuff but if you don't want to have anything that it offers then keep what you have until you want something new and better, and in a year or two from now there might be features that you really want and then you can still upgrade.

We are mostly phone guys (and other geeks) here and we want the new stuff because we love to play with it but as most endusers don't care. I would not feel pressured to upgrade if your systems don't act up.
Make sure you run them in an air conditioned room and have a good UPS on it to make sure that it is protected.

Joe W.

FHandw, ACSS

 

[clindberg]

I understand and we are going to talk to a BP.

I apologize for not being more specific. My question should have been more to the point that we are experiencing intermittent call quality issues with voip calls with 5620 IP phones.

I take issue with some of the quirky hardware problems, such as the half-duplex ethernet ports (what's that all about), and I'm trying to determine whether I should just swap out the box and see improvement instead of a complete replacement, which is a consideration.

And yes, the LAN, QOS and otherwise, has been checked and rechecked.

 

[clindberg]

So I guess the question should be, Apples to Apples, V6 on a 406 vs version 6 on a 500, any difference?

 

[qtelcom]

As I tech the first few questions that come to mind are; What does "intermittent call quality issues with voip calls with 5620 IP phones" mean? Do you hear an echo? or Gibberish? or missing words? and how often? and does it happen on extn to extn calls? Does it happen on all 5620's? What is the call scenario when the intermittent call quality issue happens?

What version of Release 6 are you on?
What firmware are the 5620's running?
What codecs are the IP phones using? (G.711, G.729, etc...)
What model data switches do you have in place?
Are you using VLAN's are part of your QoS implentation?
Are phones crossing traffic over the WAN or a Layer3 link?

These are all kinds of fun questions that come with implementing and troubleshooting voice quality issues with IP phones on any system. Keep in mind, putting in an IP500 with the latest firmware may not solve your intermittent voice quality issues.

A lot of techs here have tips and experience in the field and offer some suggestions given enough information.

 

[clindberg]

QT, I appreciate the effort you are putting into answering my questions. And we have gone through quite a bit of the troubleshooting you mention.

I just need a simple answer regarding the hardware differences, if any, there are between the two versions and if there is any benefit to the upgrade, assuming software revisions stay the same.

 

[AndrePa]

clindberg,

The 5620 IP phone is a very good phone, with great audio quality, better ( in My opinion ) than the 16xx series, and much more stable than the new 9608.

QT has a valid point on QoS, VLAN, I would look into that. Also I like using G.711.

If You like 96xx Phones, ( 9630G/40, 9650 are excelent Phones )then go with IP 500, as they are not supported on Ip 400. VCM32/VCM64 on 500 are better than the VCMs used in IP400.

Your BP can help you transfer of licences from your 406v2 to 500/500v2.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

simple - the ip400 platform is not supported by avaya anymore. as of rel 8 6.x no longer falls under their support.

ACSS - SME
General Geek