[Asterisk-Users] HT-488 vs. SPA-3000?

[Rich Adamson]

> Just want to tap the collective wisdom of this list as to experiences
> pertaining to the Handytone HT488 and the Sipura SPA-3000 adapters...

I've not played with the ht488, but I believe others have posted this
device does not provide access to the pstn-fxo port. The spa3k does
provide that access (if you want it).

> Basically I'm looking for a FXO/FXS/LAN ATA and these two seems to be
> the top of the pick..Any comments and experiences esp. with Asterisk
> compatibility would be great, before I plonk in the bucks.

The spa3k works fine with asterisk as many have posted. However, once
in awhile it does act a little strange in two different ways:
 1. the spa3k will sometimes interpret some voices as tones which cause
 a little disturbance to any conversation going on. It is sort of like
 the old telephony "talk off" that existed years ago. Doesn't happen
 all that often and seems to be more sensitive to female voices based
 on my one-year of experience.
 2. sometimes it seems to operate in half-duplex mode, where if you try
 to talk at the same time as the other end is talking, the other end
 won't hear you.

Neither one of those have been all that objectionable to me, but they
happen and others have posted roughly the same issues. I've not heard
of anyone that has found a way to minimize those two issues.

The down side of the spa3k right now is that Cisco bought the company
and there likely won't be much advancement of the code until after the
ownership (and development efforts) are sorted out by both companies.
(The same kind of product delays has been seen with their Linksys
purchase, as well as when other companies are bought/sold.)

Its fairly common knowledge that ex-Cisco folks started Sipura for the
sole purpose of selling the company for a hugh profit. Their success
in accomplishing that objective could only be measured in terms of
producing Sipura products that had at least some acceptance of those 
products by end users. With those previous objectives accomplished,
how will Cisco handle the Sipura products in the future? (It's any-
one's guess at this point since Cisco also has at least some track
record of mismanaging purchased companies for whatever reason.)

>From an internal Cisco strategic perspective, they now own the assets
that can make a major dent in the mass-market end-user voip product
arena, and hopefully they'll take that in a positive direction.

Given the price of the spa3k, I don't have any issue with purchasing
more of them right now. Excellent choice for the one-to-three pstn-fxo
market space.