[ILUG] Views on IP phones

[Ole Tange]

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005, Niall O Broin wrote:

> Now I'm wondering about VOIP desk phones. The Cisco devices are clearly 
> the creme de la creme but they are probably going to be seen as a 
> little expensive. The target users are anyway not really very heavy 
> phone users, so the additional fancy features of the Cisco would 
> probably be unused. At the other end of the spectrum, the Grandstream 
> BudgeTone 100 series phones are quite inexpensive, but I have heard 
> mixed views about them. I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has 
> used any of the available phones with their opinions of them.

I have a BudgeTone 100 (or 102?). It stopped working for no apparent
reason. It can no longer boot. It is remote controlled by web, but you
cannot talk while using the web interface. The handset is made heavy by a
huge lump of iron inside the bad quality plastic. I cannot recomend using
BudgeTone 100.

Grandstream also makes small adapters. It seems it uses same firmware as
BudgeTone. A friend of my has had no problems with that.

I bought a Sipura SPA-2100 which I am fairly satisfied with.  SPA-2100 has
bandwidth prioritization but this does not work, but may work after a
firmware upgrade. The SPA gives me the freedom to use any handset I like
(which means I can use a small handset when traveling and a DECT phone
when at home). The fancy IP-phone possibilites are available through a web
interface which can be accessed when the phone is in use. SPA-2100 does
not have VSP[1], however, the cheaper SPA-1001 has VSP.

If I were to buy an IP-phone today I would go for SPA-1001.


/Ole
[1] To have multiple phone numbers on a single phone.