Just curious...
The thread started with an analog trunk problem. Unless I missed something, the suggested "solution" appears to be to go to old DSM hardware. If the problem is indeed with analog trunks, why would anyone expect the problem to go away after a change of the digital set interface device?
In my opinion, there is a simple test to determine if the problem is with the analog trunks or the digital set interface device. When you make internal calls (extension to extension), analog trunks are not used at all. Therefore, if there are no issues with static on internal calls, the problem is not the digital set interface device.
If there is static on internal calls, you can look at the configuration of the digital set interface device / the UCx system. If the digital phones (the DSM16) are not collocated with the UCx system, you should make sure that the jitter buffer is enabled on the Nortel Settings page (packet loss due to a remote jittery network connection could sound like static).
If internal calls are okay, but external calls over the analog trunks exhibit the problem, you should focus on the analog trunks. First, you should make sure that the ucx_ectune script is executed while the 8 trunks are connected (you should follow the E-MetroTel documentation for setting up analog trunks). Second, it is important to understand what the users call "static". The type of impairment could provide an indication where the problem might be. My recommendation would be to record a couple of such calls and send the recordings to E-MetroTel support.