VoIP News - Hold the Phone !

Aastra have just released a firmware update for their AastraLink Pro 160 IP-PBX.

We’ve been testing here in our labs for the last few weeks, and it brings a few nice additions to this excellent PBX.

Here’s the changes:

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We just love it when prices go down! Effective immediately, all Sangoma PCI-Express cards have been reduced in price so that they’re now the same price as PCI cards.

Enjoy!

We’re running a promo on NGT service. With immediate effect, if you sign up for a 2 or 3 year commitment, we will provide the required Quality Assurance Device to you FREE! Our usual price for this device is $495. This device is a specially-SKU’d Edgemarc 4500 - a very nice device. You will own this device and it is NOT locked to NGT service. Get them while they last!

Exciting news! - we’ve added PayPal as a payment mechanism here at ipPhoneShack.com. With immediate effect, you may use PayPal at checkout to pay for your purchases. We still accept all 4 major credit-cards (Amex, Visa, MasterCard and Discover) as well.

Here’s a useful little gadget that you can use with your Response Point system.  It allows you to use an analog conference phone with your Response Point system.  Very useful.

The device is called the Konexx Konference and it’s available now.

New Global Telecom (NGT) were the first company authorized by Microsoft to offer SIP trunking for the Microsoft Response Point solution.  We’ve been working with them on a number of initiatives, and we’re very pleased to say that we’re now offering their Digital Voice Service for Response Point product online, right here at ipPhoneShack.com.

The service offers both Voice and Fax solutions.   You use your existing broadband internet connection along with a device NGT calls the “Quality Assurance Device” (actually a specially provisioned EdgeMarc 4500) to provide crystal-clear calls.  Long-distance rates are as low as $0.02/min.

NGT’s service offering has some innovative options, including a pay-as-you-go Voice and/or Web-based conferencing/meeting service. 

Check out our product page for more information, and as always - feel free to pick up the phone (call 877 4 VOIP STORE) and call us if you have any questions.

Cbeyond - a data and voice service provider, is now available at ipPhoneShack.com. We’re very excited about our new relationship with Cbeyond (who serve 11 major markets nationwide). We think that our customers are going to love this product!

Check it out here.

We’ve been working hard with the guys over at PIKA to bring their Asterisk-supported analog and digital cards to ipPhoneShack.com.  I’m pleased to say that this is about to happen!

We’ll be making a product announcement over the next few days, and we’ve got some exciting news to share with you, so keep checking back in with us often.

PIKA is a very well respected Canadian manufacturer of TDM/IP interconnectivity solutions.  We are proud to be working with such a distinguished manufacturer.

We received our first AastraLink Pro 160 last week. I’ll be posting much more about this rather interesting unit in the next few weeks, but first impressions are:
1. The hardware implementation is top-notch. A small form-factor wall-mountable case is supplied with a brief but useable getting-started guide, and all the cables that you’ll need. There are 6 FXO slots, an FXS failover slot, an additional FXS slot suitable for fax use, music-in and out, a microSD card slot for backups/voicemail etc., a 100BaseTX ethernet port and a number of contacts for monitoring/controlling door contacts, bell-pushes etc.. It is well built and functional.

2. This Asterisk-based appliance has a custom web-based GUI that’s a little awkward to get around, but certainly useable. Certain features such as the advanced Auto-Attendant configuration could use some more work, but I’ve seen worse implementations.

3. The AastraLink Pro 160 requires certain Aastra phones - it’s not like many products out there that can use generic SIP phones. A principal reason for this is that the solution does fully automatic handset provisioning. Currently, the 53i, 55i, 57i, 57iCT, 9143i, 9480i and 9480iCT models are supported. You buy the standard version of these phones and the first time you plug them in with an AastraLink Pro 160 on the network they download revised firmware from the appliance. From that point on they can take advantage of all the features that the appliance has to offer. Auto-provisioning includes the ability for an end-user to input their personal details right on the handset. Very nice.

We’ll be posting a more in-depth review over the coming days. It’s not perfect, but considering that this is Aastra’s first stab at an Asterisk-based appliance I have to say that they’ve done rather well.

It’s no surprise to people nowadays that computers are pervasive in just about everything we do. Telephony is no exception. For many years the telephone companies have used computers to send people’s voices around the world. In more recent years people have started to talk to each other around the world using a computer at each end of the conversation, instead of a telephone. But what if you could combine the two, and talk using telephones, with the internet in the middle instead of your phone company? How cool would that be? The answer is - very…. sometimes…

Here’s the thing. Although this ‘VoIP’ stuff works across the internet sometimes, it also doesn’t work sometimes. This can get very frustrating very quickly. I said as much in a recent interview for CRN.

So we need a better solution. This answer comes with hybrid solutions such as the uber-cool Response Point system that Microsoft has built. This little beauty uses normal telephone lines and normal-looking telephones, but it allows you to plug your telephone into your computer network, giving you awesome flexibility.

There are other options available such as a special internet connection that guarantees your calls don’t break up. Don’t expect this to come for free however, these things can be fairly expensive for small and micro businesses.

But the point I’m trying to make here is that in the phone world things are changing - they’re changing fast. It’s wise to take advantage of some of these technologies, but as usual it’s buyer beware. Don’t spend a bunch of money on something you’ll regret later. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean that you’ll be satisfied.