IP Phones Compatible with cs1000 switch

[cacre516]

Hello,

I understand this is a vague question, but our company is switching over to VoIP and we are trying to find the most cost effective IP phone that is compatible with our cs1000 switches.

We are currently looking at Nortel IP 2004 -P2, Avaya's IP phones, Lync Polycom cx600, and Lync Aastra.

My initial question is: which IP phones work best with cs1000 switches?
second: are there more IP phones that are compatible with our switches (besides the ones listed above)?
And third: which phone do you suggest?

Thanks again! I have not used this site before, but found it while searching for information on IP phones.

-Caleb

 

[gwebster]

The most-compatible would be the Avaya (ex-Nortel) 1100-series (

http://www.avaya.com/usa/product/1100-series-ip-deskphones)

and 1200-series (

http://www.avaya.com/usa/product/1200-series-ip-deskphones).

They support UNIStim which is the proprietary protocol used by the CS 1000. UNIStim will give you the greatest range of features which your users are accustomed to on a digital set.

 

[RLSbutton]

I agree with gwebster.

The 1100 are very clean and modern, while the 1200 are less expensive and more utilitarian, but both work the exact same. If you are looking for the cost effective set, choose the 1200 sets. I've tried the 1100 and 1200 on SIP on other platforms before, and they definitely are very feature rich in the Unistim format, so stick with Unistim.

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[cacre516]

Thanks for the quick response! I will be taking a look into the 1200 series most likely.

You mentioned SIP, so if we were to buy the 1200 or 1100 series and then decided we wanted to move away from a switch to a virtual server. Would the phones be able to switch without having to buy a whole new set of phones? I understand that some of the functionality will not work.

Thanks again,
Caleb

 

[RLSbutton]

Well, you can convert the 1100 and 1200 to SIP phones via TFTP server and firmware on Avaya's site. For the 1200 sets I would do it while you have an Avaya service contract, otherwise you will need to buy licenses for the phones to run SIP.

There is a way to trick the phones to have basic SIP functionality....search "Nortel 1200 SIP Michael McNamara" and you should find instructions.

The 1100 sets do have a special advantage. If you download the SIP firmware 2.2 off Avaya's site, this firmware is free and open source and will allow you to use the Nortel SIP firmware free of charge on any SIP server and never require a license. I currently use a Nortel 1120E with SIP 2.2 firmware on a pure SIP carrier platform from VOIP.MS and it works very well. Any Version from 3.0 up, uses a license server for functionality.

So if you are looking to convert the phones over to SIP one day with little problems, I would stick with the 1120E and 1140E sets. If you do go with the 1200 series sets, you will have options down the road to convert them to SIP, but again, do it while you have the Avaya service contract.

Joe

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast