A couple of weeks ago I was told that our corporate HQ in Cambridge UK was starting to think about adding new conference room. Since I oversee the hosted IP-PBX that we use in the US they sought my suggestion for a suitable new conference phone. The requirements for the new device are a little odd, making device selection something of a challenge.
You will find references to Junction Networks’ OnSIP hosted IP-PBX service scattered all over this site. I’ve use them since the summer of 2007 for my home office phones. They’re extremely reliable, 100% SIP based and even wideband capable in many respects.
The basics of the OnSIP service are pretty simple. If you are a company and need the usual services you establish an OnSIP account, selecting one of their monthly service bundles. These run from $39.95/mo to $199.95/mo, scaling up to suit companies of various sizes. They offer a 30 day free trial to let you get your feet wet.
After announcements back at CES2009 in January the Gigaset line of cordless SIP/DECT are finally starting to become available in the US. The A580IP model is the entry-level system in the line-up, which we’ve been using around here for the past couple of months.
At the outset of the review process I was a little skeptical about installing an entry-level consumer cordless phone in the house. We’ve tried a lot of hardware and have some fairly clear ideas about what we need from it. However, the A580IP brings with it the possibility of wideband calling over IP into the cordless domain. That proved just too to attractive to not give it a try.
The A580IP system that we have installed consists of one DECT base and a set of three A58H handsets. A starter system comes with the base and one handset. You can add up to five additional handsets to suit your specific needs. In fact, you can mix and match handsets, using the entry level A58H, middle of the range S67H or high-end SL78H all on the same DECT base.
As part of their US product launch Gigaset Communications are importing their DE380IPR SIP desk phone. At first glance this seems like a relatively unremarkable lower-end desk phone. However, it does support the G.722 wideband codec.
I had a quick look at the device in May at the HDComms Summit. It’s looks like a decent little phone, possibly comparable to the lower-end Polycom IP320/330s.
During last weeks VUC call someone mentioned that there was a new service called UKDDI offering free DIDs in the UK. They offer ten free numbers from locations all around the UK, where each can be mapped to a SIP URI.
It took a couple of minutes for the utility of this to really sink in. Given that I have a factory full of coworkers in the UK, and I’ll be traveling there this coming week there just has to be something useful that I can accomplish with such a resource.
Thanks to Engadget for pointing out Jabra’s latest product offerings for the uppity office dweller. OMG, these look nice! Most especially the DECT version pictured here.
As they so rightly point out, these are fairly over-the-top kinds of devices for most people. But remember that nothing succeeds like excess!