[Asterisk-Users] Re: Transfer with Budgetone

[Eric Wieling]

Why are you even looking at VoIP?  Analog ports and phones are pretty
cheap.  They are not "pretty", but they are cheap and all the smarts are
in the PBX.

On Wed, 2004-06-02 at 20:40, Tony Hoyle wrote:
> Adam Goryachev wrote:
> 
> > The smarts are in the PBX not the phone. Though the phone DOES need a
> > way to tell the PBX what it wants to do. The phone is just the interface
> > (like the keyboard on your PC), but the PBX (CPU) is what really does
> > the work....
> 
> That was the point I started with...
> 
>   > Well, actually they are. Sure, for $20 you can buy an analog phone, for
> > $150 you can buy a grandstream, big difference. However, for a PBX class
> > telephone, you are looking at prices > $500 per handset....
> 
> No idea what you mean by PBX class telephone but if anyone at our company 
> spent $500 on a phone they'd probably be fired (unless it was the boss).
> 
> Our desktop phones were done as a package deal from the building owner (who 
> also runs the existing PBX) for almost nothing.
> 
> > If you have a problem with the grandstream product, which I think
> > everyone acknowledges as being the cheapest hardware VoIP phone
> > currently on the market (someone please correct me if I am wrong), then
> > perhaps you should tell them that even though they have the cheapest
> > product on the market, they should also have the most features. Somehow,
> > I think while they will try to add these features over time, they will
> > laugh at you....
> 
> All the company would want a phone to do is:
> 
> 1. Make calls.
> 2. Receive calls.
> 
> Just a straight replacement of the cheap phones that everyone gets with one 
> that has a cat5 socket on the back, does DHCP and auto configures itself. 
> Nothing flashy.  It doesn't need an LCD display with the time on it, or a big 
> flashing 'message' button.  Just a phone - preferably for no more cost than an 
> analogue phone.
> 
> The rest of the PBX stuff isn't needed (except *00# for call pickup, which 
> gets used a lot).
> 
> If I can't spec out a system which is like that then the project will be 
> shelved - which I suspect is precisely what my boss wants to happen (he's also 
> the main advocate of the MSN Messenger solution).  Corporate politics is like 
> that...
> 
> The advantage is I got an excuse to play with Asterisk/VOIP at home (have a 
> Granstream and there's a Sipura coming [there was some talk of using sipuras 
> for those people that need them rather than using a digital PBX]).  I'll have 
> to use them now I've spent so much time/money on them....
> 
> For myself I'd love to play with a Cisco but with the 7960 going for £600 a 
> throw I'm not in the market for spending that much...
> 
> Tony
-- 
          Eric Wieling * BTEL Consulting * 504-899-1387 x2111
"In a related story, the IRS has recently ruled that the cost of Windows
upgrades can NOT be deducted as a gambling loss."