WiFi Phone Reccomendations?

[thewisp]

Hello Everyone,

Looking to try out a few WiFi Phones on our campuses. I am completely aware of their downfalls, so no discouraging needed.

However, I would really like to hear what people have to say about their WiFi phone.

What are your suggestions?

 

[jroper]

They are all rubbish !

My advice would be to put in a proper DECT system, giving you full roaming, and proper hand off, with good quality and proper battery life - aastra do a nice system.

Alternatively, you could do worse that to simply let people use SIP clients on their smartphones.

Joe

 

[thewisp]

They are all rubbish !

My advice would be to put in a proper DECT system, giving you full roaming, and proper hand off, with good quality and proper battery life - aastra do a nice system.

Alternatively, you could do worse that to simply let people use SIP clients on their smartphones.

Joe

Thanks Joe - I know they have that reputation.

Not a bad idea with the smart phones, but we are a k-12 public district, and cell phones are strictly prohibited.

As for the DECT system, I have 5 seperate campuses, all with really great wireless networks. I would like to try out some of the WiFi phones first, as they could easily be taken from campus to campus.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[hkgonra]

I have had pretty good luck with the quickphones qa-342 from Voip Supply.
http://www.voipsupply.com/quickphones-qa-342-wifi-sip-phone

But I will say the snom m3 dect has been the best voip cordless so far.

 

[jroper]

Hi

The Aastra DECT system will allow you to roam across campuses as well, as long as the base station is connected to the main PBX, so don't let that be a factor in the decision making.

The issue with wifi phones is that they do not roam from AP to AP, so you have something that looks like a mobile phone but does not work like one.

Personally, I'd by the cheapest you can find, so when you find the only way you can make the phone work reliably is by either attaching a 4ft dipole to the top of the phone, or wearing a tin foil hat, while dancing round chicken bones, naked, when the sun and the stars are correctly aligned, you won't have spent too much when you throw them away (or because they've all been nicked)

Joe

 

[jmullinix]

I have to agree with Joe here. I have a ZyXel wifi phone. It works perfectly when I wear a tin hat with a 4-foot dipole, while dancing around chicken bones naked.

In all seriousness, WIFI phones are not for prime time in a campus environment. Use a SIP DECT solution from either Snom or Aastra.

 

[frontline]

Where is a good source of information on the SIP DECT solution?

 

[jroper]

http://www.aastratelecom.com/cps/rde/xchg/03/hs.xsl/21540.htm