[cisco-voip] Phone Replacments (was: Field Notice: ...)

[Pawlowski, Adam]

All,

We're in the middle of deciding how to replace phones as well. The various programs and incentives that are available make the hardware competitively priced with third party well enough to hopefully encourage the decision making process away from that avenue. Jabber as a softphone still needs that multi line (and I am beginning to doubt it will ever make it out into a release, though I've seen a screenshot, it seems priorities are not with Jabber), and the accessories like the DECT Handset cost as much as a phone anyways. We're still working to get it up and out and make it an option, if we can encourage users to give it a shot.

The 7940s and 7960s have been rock solid, but, I really want to be cautionary on falling back on those things in a network environment where the voice and data are converged on the same switching infrastructure. We have had enough problems with the 7941/61 series, and, to some extent, the 7942/45s as well, due to high background traffic, "too much" traffic, or certain types of traffic - and if that happens to your organization you're left with no way to deal with it, as these devices are no longer supported. For nothing else, if the phone is actually important for a given customer, and needs to work, then I would really recommend not waiting too much longer to begin your evaluations and determine the next course of action. I don't think we're the only group that is in the boat of not having replaced equipment, not by a long shot, nor are we the only ones who have run into "quirks", just pray yours aren't user affecting.

Regards,

Adam Pawlowski
SUNYAB NCS