[Asterisk-Users] VOIP phonesets vs. cheap Analog touch-tone sets with Asterisk

[Steve Murphy]

Hello--

I've been asked an interesting question, and I'm too ignorant to answer
it authoritatively (yet). Can anyone help me?

Question: If I'm going to implement a somewhat small (10-80) phone
system, and I have a choice of using VOIP phoneset (like SNOM or
Grandstream or Cisco, etc), vs. cheap analog touch-tone phones, exactly
what features will I kiss goodbye if I use the cheap analogs?

In other words, what features will a (more expensive) VOIP phoneset
provide, that the analog won't?

I know already that asterisk will give me these features with just plain
analog phones (&zaptel cards, of course): Voice mail, park & retrieve &
MOH, transfer, agents, and a few others. And, if you get an analog with
a CID built in, you could have that, too? (Haven't tried that yet).

What is the justification for VOIP? just total cost reductions (if the
phone is cheap enough?)? Or are there some nicenesses that only VOIPs
can supply?

murf