Review: Polycom Spectralink 8002 Wireless Telephone
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Originally published July 1, 2008 at Small Net Builder
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| Product | Polycom SpectraLink Wireless Telephone (8002) |
| Summary | Wi-Fi SIP phone designed for small business use |
| Pros | • Durable construction |
| • Supports strong Wi-Fi encryption | |
| • Centrally managed provisioning | |
| • Good voice quality | |
| • Reasonable battery life | |
| • WMM works as promised | |
| Cons | • Fiddly initial network configuration |
| • No support for compressed codecs like G.729 | |
| • Relatively expensive | |
Polycom is a leader in the IP communications space. Not only are their longstanding SoundPoint series of desktop IP phones class leaders, but their voice technology can be found in many products under many names.
Seeing a need to expand their product offering to include cordless mobility, Polycom recently acquired SpectraLink, a leading maker of Wi-Fi-based telephony systems, and Kirk Telecom, a leader in DECT-based cordless telephony systems. These acquisitions, now consolidated under the Polycom name, give the company a comprehensive product suite addressing the mobile IP communications needs of various vertical markets.
I hate to admit this, but on December 24th my wife and I went to Best Buy looking for a last minute gift. We decided that her younger brother needed a Tivo. Ours is a three Tivo household, although only TivoHD sees any real use these days. One you get used to having a DVR you want one on every TV, and radio too for that matter.
Today was the day that I finally got around to taking the Vera home automation system out of the box. It was a simple beginning as I have only one Z-wave device to control at present, a Monster Cable lamp dimmer. In about two hours I was able to get Vera on the network and upgraded to the latest firmware. I also had it controlling my one lamp. Woo Hoo!