[Asterisk-Users] Where to buy POLYCOM phones?

[Reid A. Forrest]

> 
> All I can say about Polycom and Cisco, is that dealing with Cisco is
> MUCH easier than dealing with Polycom for the updates for 
> their phones. 
> I chased my tail for a couple days before I found a place 
> where I could
> get the firmware.  I find it kind of funny that all of the "Polycom
> Certified whatever they are", seem to be selling their own 
> VoIP solution
> and don't want to just sell the phones.  It really irks me that these
> are the only people who can get the firmware from Polycom's site...
> 
> At least with Cisco they have made their policy very clear for getting
> the firmware for the phones.  Buy the phone, get a SmartNet contract,
> then you can get the firmware.  Oh, and as the end user I can actually
> get the firmware myself once I have that SmartNet.
> 
> Tim Donahue
> 

The problem right now with Polycom is that they will not allow any reseller
to purchase their phones that is not certified on one of their "approved" PBX
platforms. Asterisk is not an approved platform. There is a group within
Polycom who wants to make the phones available to resellers who can "self
certify" and prove their worth, if you will. As a reseller who would *love*
to be able to resell their phones, I would encourage anyone who thinks they
have a superior product to lobby Polycom to allow resellers to self certify.
This will help the Asterisk community greatly.