Graves On SOHO VoIP

There’s just way too much interesting gear out there for me to try all of it. That’s at least part of the reason why I was happy to read Ruben’s review of the Citel C-4100 IP phone. Back in May he won the phone in a contest on the VoIP Supply blog.

I hope that he makes good on his intention to use the phone to join a VUC call in G.722. At $99 it just might be a good low-end solution to providing a basic wideband capable desk phone. That is, if the handset truly delivers the call quality.

Beyond merely a wideband codec the physical device matters. It needs to be solidly build, with high-quality transducers. I guess we’ll see, or should I say hear, next week.

Just a few days ago VoIP Supply announced a new desk phone that’s capable of both SIP and IAX2. Not much has been forthcoming in the way of IAX2 capable end-points, even though the protocol has wound its way through a lengthy standards process. Digium has dropped the little IAXy (aka S101i)  ATA device a while back. Last year Zeeek tried the Allnet 7960 which is IAX2 capable but lacking in some ways. So it seems that to date there just haven’t been any truly business class IAX2 phones to be had.

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Earlier today John Todd let it be known that Digium’s IAX2 protocol had been officially accepted as RFC5456. This news comes to me by way of The Daily Asterisk News.

Someone over at Broadband Reports VoIP Forum has posted on successfully using IAX2 via a soft phone on a laptop tethered to a Blackberry Bold. This doesn’t seem like the most practical of approaches to mobile VoIP, but it’s certainly a neat experiment.

Randy (aka Zeeek or Randulo), founder of the VOIP Users Conference, was able to get his hands on a sample of the Allnet 7960 today and sent his initial thoughts on the device to the conference mailing list. This prompted another reader to pose the simple question, “Why does this matter?” (or something similar) More specifically, why does IAX2 matter in the light of a larger trends toward widespread SIP and IMS?

It’s a good question. So here’s my response.

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The weekly VOIP Users Conference calls have often mentioned the Chinese made IAX phones, including both their strengths and weaknesses. Jared Smith posted a brief but positive comment on the Asterisk Users mailing list today with respect to a new SIP/IAX2 capable phone from Allnet in Germany.

With a little digging I was able to find an image (seen left, click for larger) which looks promising. Also a link to a brochure on the product web page here. The brochure describes the phone as SIP only, but Jared’s post says it’s SIP & IAX capable.

I’m not certain that this is a new device. With a little further digging I’ve found the phone offered by a VOIP Solutions, a European reseller. for 73 Euro. That’s about $107 USD. Their web site reports the phone as capable of 4 SIP and 1 IAX registration.

Further, Allnet is listed as a formal Digium partner. Perhaps we finally have a higher quality option for an IAX2 phone?