[Asterisk-Users] analog or sip ? was far end disconnect supervision

[Rich Adamson]

> Thanks to everyone that responded to my channel bank question.  Ive
> decided that the Adit 600 would be a good choice.
> Then I got to thinking about SIP phones and wondered if their quality
> has progressed to the point that they can be deployed to customers who
> "just want their phones to work" and wouldn't tolerate any SIP hickups. 
> As for pricing, I would think the SIP phones would need to be in the
> $200 price range to be competative with analog or ADSI phones plus a
> channel bank.  I know there are lots of variables that figure into the
> analog vs SIP question like number of incoming lines and how they're
> delivered and the number of extensions etc....   I guess what would be
> helpfull to me would be some general rules of thumb that you asterisk
> experts use to determine what type of extension phones to recommend for
> a given customer.

Lots of choices ranging from about $80 to $700 (and more) depending upon
manufacturer, model, features, etc. Believe the wiki has some references
to many of them.

For business use, I've had excellent experience with the Cisco 7960 
(refurb ~$350 with the power cube), and average-moving-to-good/excellent
with the Snom 200 (using the latest firmware). Both are probably 
considered higher-end multiline business sip phones by most on this list.
There are others but I've not attempted to eval those.

Your customer is likely to drive the decision "if" you let them eval 
a few different models. Since you indicated that you're just getting
started with *, etc, pure guess is that most business sales are likely
to require a mixture of multi-line and single-line insturments. 

There has been a fair amount of list traffic relative to how various
phones support nat, call transfer, music on hold, speaker volume, 
call waiting tones, and other issues. Best guess is that you would 
likely only sell a select set of single-line and multi-line units purely 
from a support perspective, with actual proposals based on specific
requirements (eg, a location needs nat therefore this model, business
office with all internal phones likely a different model, another
business with an unlimited checkbook gets a Cisco ;).

Rule of thumb...
 - don't give an executive or check-writer a cheap phone, or one that
   is so lite-weight they pull it around their desk
 - find a single-line instrument or two you are comfortable supporting
   (seems like the list has suggested at least one vendor's cheap phone
    has a high mortality rate that might be worth striking from your list)
 - understand where the ata-186 kind of boxes fit (and where they don't
   fit from a real business perpective)
 - understand the value (or lack thereof) for the phone having an 
   internal switch with two RJ45 jacks (and who's phones don't work very
   well with this)
 - keep a sharp eye on the sip marketplace going forward ;)
 - understand the value of QoS in switches
 - find a supplier that delivers & invoices reliably, and will work with
   you on defective units

If you're looking for opinions on specific models, I'm sure you'll get
a number of responses from those with favorites.