[asterisk-users] conference and wifi phones

[Gordon Henderson]

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009, Kelvin Chan wrote:

>> One of our local companies here in the UK are trialling a new conference
>> phone - the "Konftel 300IP SIP" however it's still as expensive as a
>> Polycom, but that might be the $/£ exchange - might be cheaper where you
>> are?
>
> It seems like an interesting product. Compared to Polycom 7000, it's 
> roughly $400(list price) cheaper. Just out of curiosity, the product is 
> made in Sweden. It should be cheaper in UK. How much are they selling 
> over there?

http://www.provu.co.uk/konftel_300IP.html

or £499.99

A Polycom IP4000 from another UK disty is £525.00, so not much in it.

http://www.voipon.co.uk/polycom-soundstation-ip4000-p-253.html

The 7000 is £683:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/polycom-soundstation-ip7000-p-921.html

>>> For wifi phone, I tried Linksys iPhone. It works well but lacks a
>>> cradle. My users often forget to charge it when they leave for the day
>>> and come back to a dead wifi phone for the next morning.
>>>
>>> Any good recommendations?
>>
>> DECT not Wi-Fi?
>>
>> Can you get the Siemens range over there?
>>
> DECT is not wifi. It is just another digital wireless protocol built for 
> wireless phones.
>
> I'm not sure what do you mean by Siemens range.

I was a bit too terse there... I mean "Why not use DECT rather than 
Wi-Fi".

My Wi-Fi experience is only with 2 phones - The UT Starcom F1000G and my 
Nokia E90. The F1000G is rubbish. Actually, it was OK until I upgraded it, 
then it became rubbish. The real issue is that it doesn't have a built-in 
web browser, so to get it to latch-on to a public Wi-Fi access point is 
almost impossible as all the ones here (UK) needs some sort of 
registration system which needs a web browser to work.

The Nokia E90 is better in that respect, but at the end of the day, 
they're still Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi is basically a "reasnable effort" transport 
mechanism as far as I'm concerend.. It's trivially easy to swamp the air 
with uploads/downloads, etc. from other PCs, making VoIP over Wi-Fi 
problematic at best...

Siemens make a good range of "VoIP ready" DECT phone systems - their 
Gigaset range. Base stations have an Ethernet port and off you go. There 
are also repeaters to extend the range too - although I've only ever used 
a Snom repeater (with Siemens phones!). I do not recomend the snom M3 
range of DECT phones. All the ones I've installed have been returned...

Gordon