[asterisk-users] using analog phones

[Steve Totaro]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:37 PM, Noam Birnbaum
<noam at maccentricsolutions.com> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> A client wants to keep their old Inter-Tel KTS analog phones for budget
> reasons. Two questions:
>
> 1. How could they use these with FreePBX?
> 2. Would they be losing any features that they currently have with their
> analog PBX?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Noam Birnbaum
> Mac Daddy
> http://www.maccentricsolutions.com
> 877.luv.macs x666
> tweet @noamb
>
> Tech support —> 877.luv.macs or support at maccentricsolutions.com
>

I have done a good deal installations where analog handsets, headsets,
or many faxes just made sense.  I have used T1 cards to connect to 24
port channel banks to provide true analog dialtone.

I have also used SIP based channel banks with great success but never
bothered messing with the fax issues.

FreePBX should give you way more functionality than their current PBX,
sometimes it just takes a little creativity and doing things
differently.  Always get the details of what they currently use.  An
admin assistant or secretary is usually the person that knows what
bells and whistles everyone uses.  That is the person that you really
want to befriend for a smooth implementation.

Finally, I have installed a handful of Inter Tel/Mitel PBXen along the
way, and the phones I installed were infact digital and proprietary.
Check the model number of the phones to see if they are truly analog,
which I doubt.  In that case, you can still use a FreePBX box, but you
are going to have to integrate it with the Inter Tel, I usually put
Asterisk in front and just timeout your ring to VM a little bit
shorter on the Asterisk box than the Inter Tel.

With phone prices what they are, and a very good Polycom (or whatever
you like) SIP phone so cheap, I would seriously consider ditching the
phones if you find that they are digital.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro