[asterisk-users] Re: RE: Digital Phones

[Stephen Bosch]

Robert Augustyn wrote:
> Can you connect existing Nortel system to Asterisk through fxs/fxo?
> That way one could use existing infrastructure for few old phones and
> Asterisk for new phones and all good things which come with it?

No. They are digital phones and use proprietary Nortel signalling.

The "too bad" thing about Nortel is that, when all your infrastructure
is Nortel, it's pretty solid, reliable stuff, and in its day it was also
pretty amazing. There's a reason why their PBX hardware was the most
widely deployed in North America.

Every technology has its day, though, and Nortel has been milking its
contribution since 1975. The new IP stuff is unimpressive; I considered
getting BCM certification once but when I looked at the equipment costs,
I just shuddered. No sane business operator would pay those prices, and
most of the insane ones are already in jail.

Your best bet is to sell the sets you already have and replace them with
appropriate IP hardware (you might even consider Aastra, which inherited
most of Nortel's conventional telephony portfolio and has done great
things with it); you can still get good money for used Nortel digital
sets; many people are perfectly happy with their systems and I expect
they'll be around for some time to come.

-Stephen-