[Wups. Re-sending 'cause the first one was sent from my work account. Humble apologies if this winds up as a duplicate.]
Before rejecting VoIP on general principle, you should consider a few things: - It can be had relatively inexpensively, and solid-state - It's enormously flexible - It doesn't have vendor lock-in (since the PBX is relatively cheap, and the phones are open-standards compliant) - It's scalable for cheap money For example, let's take your hypothetical 8-person office. - Digium/3Com turnkey PBX: http://www.x100p.com/products/aa50.php - Polycom SoundPoint IP 430 phone The PBX is $700, and includes 4 POTS lines (as well as internal POTS connections for your analog phones); the SoundPoint IP 430 is a great phone, and runs you about $140/ea. Total cost (plus one 16-port Ethernet switch) would run you $1500, and be relatively easy to set up. Note that this *doesn't* use Power-over-Ethernet; the phones are PoE capable, but the switches run a bit more money -- these phones come with A/C adapters, though. (While you can get relatively inexpensive PoE switches, I strongly suggest avoiding D-Link. I used 'em for years, but a recent re-spin on their 24-port switch had me running 50% failure in six months, with complaint letters to customer service, etc., going unanswered. Using Dell, now.) -Ken On Wed, December 9, 2009 7:47 pm, Stanley Brinkerhoff wrote: > All, > > > What do small companies (5 people, 8 people max within 3 years) use these > days for single site PBX systems? Something that uses POTS lines > instead of special IP phones would be highly preferable from both a cost > perspective as well as a pure simplicity perspective. Something off the > shelf and solid state ideally. > > Stan > > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. > > -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
