IP Office digital phones

[gregger]

Looking for some input... First of all this would be an install in Canada, near Toronto. I have client that has very nice Cat 5 and Cat 3 cabling. In perhaps 3~5 years I want to move everything over to fibre optics, so I would prefer right now to deploy IP Office with some IP phones but also digital ones using the existing Cat 3 infrastructure. Not only for economics but there are some dinosaurs at the office who will find IP phones a little too high tech. My question is: Is deploying digital phones now too big a step backwards? What are any of you doing to deal with existing infrastructure and some workers fear of change? Btw, this project is part of a 5 year plan for this company. My feeling was to replace the digital phones, over time, with either soft phones or a IP phones as we move to fibre.
Cheers!

 

[tech2233]

The general feeling from the clients we have worked with (also in Toronto) is that most are not ready for a complete deployment of IP soft / hard phones. All IP Office features are available to both digital and IP based sets. IP sets have best been left to the outside users working via IP remotely. This has been the better route, so far, until there is a compelling reason to move to IP based sets inside.

 

[1A2toIP]

I would agree with tech2233. IP phones are a pain to maintain and administer, digital phones are much more reliable and easier to maintain. If you plan on moving to fiber for data that’s great, but why bring voice into the mix. If you have the infrastructure for digital voice I would go digital it has been around for a very long time and is very reliable. All of the CTI advantages are available to digital phones and in fact have been working for years before IP phones came onto the scene. Using IP for networking and remote users makes a lot of sense to me. My experience with data networks has been that they are not very reliable unless lots of money has been poured into them, there are too many things that can affect them.

 

[IPGuru]

I think we are all in agreement here that both IP phones & Digital phones (& even POTs) all have thier own strengths & weeknesses.

use the correct tool for the correct job & do not get carried away by the hype for new technology.

In my oppinion
Remote locations, homeworkers etc - IP Phone
Main offices with suficent cabling - Dedicated Phones, suppliment with IP phones if necessary.
I would always recomend having at least some Dedicated phones on a system as backup shoud a failure occour in the data network.

a common mistake is to think that as IP phones are data devices the n house IT dept. will be able to manage them & therefor make telephone maintanence simpler, unless the IT team also have a knowledge of telecoms this is rarly the case.