One cannot help but figure Cisco’s IP phones inspired Yealink’s designers, by appearance only one would expect it to cost far more than it does. Its certainly a far cry from the ugliness of a Grandstream or the perhaps too space age design of the Aastra 6700 series.

Build quality was a disappointing – the bezel around the screen wasn’t seated properly, nor was the indicator on the top right. The handset shape is so-so and has a bit of flex if squeezed.

I was surprised by the lack of wall mount option, the handset itself lacks the lock to stay in place if upright, so don’t expect an accessory for this anytime soon.

My system came with firmware 6.60.0.100, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent web interface. The system had plenty of inline support and I had the phone configured to my Asterisk server within minutes. Probably the most pleasant surprise was the lack of reboots for changes – Polycom could learn a lot from Yealink here.

One of the great appeals of the T26p is the 10 programmable feature keys (PFKs) – plus the option to add sidecars. BLFs were easy to setup, but leads to a huge gripe – the button labels. The buttons themselves are in the strip, leaving little room for writing in and making professional printed labels the domain of annoying DESI strips. This terrible design makes me long for an Aastra or Allworx.

Of course people use phones to make calls, sound quality on the handset was good, speakerphone was okay. That’s all you can say about it. Certainly no worse than anything else in the price range.

Certainly I have a few gripes about the product, but kept in context of the price, its a decent package. If they work on quality control, Yealink could become a serious contender in the IP phone business.

Contract Term and Renewal

Most carriers do require a contract term for service, what varies is what happens at the end of the contract term – some go month to month, some renew for a year, and some renew for the original term duration. Yes, you read that right – you can sign up for a 3 year term and at the end of that term be automatically renewed for another 3 years!

Pricing

Believe it or not, having a contract doesn’t guarantee pricing! In 2010 both Qwest and XO raised prices on customers in contract. XO fortunately gives people a 30 day window to leave, but also places the only notification on the 2nd page of the bill where few are likely to notice.

Unlimited Isn’t Always Unlimited

While the word unlimited may have the definition of “not limited, unrestricted, without qualification or exception…” many carriers use their own dictionary. Qwest for example defines unlimited long distance as 3000 minutes. Many “unlimited” long distance packages have restrictions on type of businesses that can use unlimited service, maximum minutes used, etc. If you violate the policy carriers may cut off service, change your plan, or even retroactively bill you on a per-minute plan.

For internet service many carriers are instituting bandwidth caps and charging overage or slowing service after a (sometimes undefined) bandwidth utilization. Nearly every carrier has a fair usage policy, some are more restrictive than others.

Uptime and Repair Time

Every business wants their phone and internet service to work, but services fall into two categories: SLA’d services and “best effort.” With an SLA the carrier promises uptime, performance, and repair time. Best effort services just says the carrier will try to make things work. Needless to say its important to know what kind of service you’re getting and make sure it matches your expectations.

Surcharges

Surcharges may not be on the quote or the contract, but ask about them anyway. Surcharges are different from taxes as they’re not state or federally required but rather additional charges the carrier has levied. Surcharges can easily add 10-20% to a bill – leading to unpleasant surprises one the first bill arrives.

Bottom line: make sure you’re picking a good carrier, know the terms, and don’t be afraid to request an addendum to the contract if you like the carrier but not a specific contract item.

The 48x is a major evolution of the 24x, while they look the same in their rack-mountable 1U casing, the insides are far evolved. Note the Allworx isn’t another PC masquerading as a phone system – its an embedded system. This is an important distinction as PCs don’t last as long as phone systems. One big internal change from the 24x to the 48x is replacing the redundant hard drives with redundant solid state drives.

For phone service the 48x features dual T1/PRI interfaces, SIP trunking (VoIP), and a few PSTN ports for failover. No matter what kind of phone service you have – the Allworx 48x will accommodate it.

The optional conference bridge also gained capacity – 4 rooms with up to 30 attendees, with 60 total in all bridges simultaneously.

Though no there are no major changes in the optional ACD call center, but its worthy of note as the call center is site licensed – no per user or manager licenses making it one of the best call center values around.

The 48x continues the 24x’s great feature set, reliability, and value while bringing it to ever larger offices.

Its not to say those businesses who invested in Response Point can’t continue to use their systems, but over time they’ll find no local technicians for support, poor availability of replacement parts, limited out of warranty repair options, and no bug fixes for issues that crop up.

While I like Costco for many things, I don’t think its the right place to buy an IP PBX. The last two IP PBXs at Costco have gone the way of the dodo bird. IP PBX manufacturers typically prefer to sell through local Partners so customers can get the installation help and ongoing support they need – selling through Costco appears to be a last resort for these businesses.

My best advice is think long term about the purchase of an IP Phone System. How long has the manufacturer been in the telecom business? Are they profitable enough to stay in business? Is this product important to their business plans or just a side project? The answers to questions like these can steer you away from the one-hit wonders and to a system that will serve your business for years to come.

The first step is making sure your internet access is good enough for VoIP. I recommend using both VoIPSpear and Visualware’s tools for checking your internet connection. If both come back good, then you’re ready to proceed, otherwise talk to your VoIP provider or telecom consultant about internet access options.

http://www.voipspear.com/
http://myvoipspeed.visualware.com/

The rest of the shopping should come down to picking plans and making sure the carrier has a good network. Plans typically come in three styles:

• Local lines – these lines include free local calling and inexpensive long distance.
• Unlimited LD lines – these lines include “unlimited” long distance typically in the continental US, sometimes Canada as well. “Unlimited” typically means 5000 minutes.
• Metered plans – these plans have very low base charges, then all calls are charged a low per minute fee.

While most businesses gravitate to the unlimited lines, we find most actually pay less on local or metered plans.

Its important to ask VoIP providers about their POP (point of presence) locations – if you’re in Seattle typically a carrier with a Seattle-area POP is a better bet than an East-Coast POP as the data has to travel less and cross fewer carriers. Its also important they have a redundant infrastructure – multiple POPs and redundant connections to each POP reduces the chances of an outage. Many carriers also offer “disaster recovery” routing so if your internet access goes down, calls can redirect to other numbers.

With a little shopping and planning VoIP can be as good if not better than traditional phone service – and the savings can be amazing.

Headset pickup/hangup: also known as “EHS” or electronic hook switch, this lets you pickup and hangup calls from a cordless headset without a lifter. Unlike many solutions no special cord or box is needed – just plug in most headsets and it just works.

911 Alerts: Allworx can now alert handsets, send emails, and send text messages whenever 911 is dialed from a handset, allowing you to respond internally while waiting for emergency services. This is particularly good for public areas like retail, churches, schools, clubs, etc.

Mobile Link: the new iPhone application to manage presence, voicemail, and conferences all from the iPhone. I believe its the first such solution in the SMB market and absolutely fantastic to use.

Advanced Multi-Site: Previous versions of Allworx had solid multisite abilities, but this release takes it to the next level. Directory and voicemail systems are integrated, call routes can ring handsets at any location, and you can see who’s on the phone at remote sites. Best of all its easier to manage than ever before!

Automatic Call Distribution: most businesses don’t run inbound call centers, but for those that do, Allworx ACD is among the best values I’ve seen and has an incredible richness of features.

Paperless Faxing: the Allworx can now integrate with a Multitech FaxFinder to allow for paperless faxing from the desktop. When used with a PRI on an Allworx 24x you can have personal fax numbers.

Anonymous Call Handling: The Allworx has long supported routing based off caller ID rules, but now there’s a rule just for handling blocked caller ID info.

Improved System Management: integrated filtering makes it easier to manage larger installs, improved import/export, and an easier system upgrade process make Allworx 7.1 easier and more affordable to maintain.

Presence management – presence is where you are or what you’re doing. Depending on presence, calls can be routed differently and receive a different voicemail greeting. So when you’re out of the office but want to get calls forwarded to your iPhone, just go into iAllworx and set your presence to “Away.”

The new visual voicemail is a huge step up from voicemail to email, as you can delete messages from the Allworx, forward them, reply to voicemails, and even create a new voicemail to send to other staff.

Conferences is another nice element as you can see upcoming meeting information including bridge number and passwords. Needless to say a nice reference when you’re out and about but need to call in for a conference.

You can download iAllworx and run it in demo mode now to give it a try, it will be functional at the release of 7.1 in January 2010 with the Mobile Link license. Given that Mobile Link is just $200 for a site license, I’m very pleased with the value for offices with iPhones. Word is we’ll see iAllworx on other platforms such as Android in the near future.

Coverage is the only downside if applicable, while 3G blankets most of the populous areas of the US, 4G is still being rolled out and is only in a few cities. Seattle-Metro coverage is quite strong – everywhere I’ve been between Everett to Tacoma has been covered and running 6-10Mb (DSL is commonly 3-6). For those that travel outside the area Clear also offers a 3G/4G combo card which picks the fastest network available.

As for cost, Clear mobile costs at worst $45/mo for unlimited transfer, while 3G services typically cost $60/mo for 5GB of transfer. Clear also has a number of bundle packages offering better pricing as well as business packages with pools of transfer.

My favorite part of all this is VoIP is now easy and reliable over Clear’s network. In particular we like to use softphones (software phones) which connect across the internet back to the office.

If you’re thinking mobile internet, I’d strongly recommend looking at the new Clear service for more speed and better value than 3G.

These phones are Talkswitch’s second generation IP phones and definitely improved from the quite good first generation. Both phones are a step up in ergonomics, audio quality, and value.

350i
The 350i is the new standard desk phone featuring six programmable multicolored buttons, speakerphone, headset jack, a nicely sized LCD. The phone is PoE powered for $149 or with AC adapter for $174.

The 350i is a great successor to the 9133i – it actually has more functional buttons, a larger screen, better sound and feel, and a lower price point especially when PoE powered.

550i
The 550i is a great phone for receptionists and those accustomed to key system unit style phones (older generation systems like the Merlin, Partner, Comdials, etc). The 550i features 22 programmable multicolored buttons built-in and can add 2 12 button sidecars for up to 46 buttons. Like the 350i it has speakerphone, headset jack, and a larger LCD. The phone is PoE powered for $249 or with AC adapter for $264.

The 550i in many ways in a new class of phone for Talkswitch and is fairly unique in the IP telephony world as few IP phones include 22 programmable buttons without a sidecar. Businesses with a receptionist or accustomed to older KSU systems will truly appreciate this phone and its incredible value.

Talkswitch 6.12
With new phones comes new Talkswitch software – as always a free upgrade. Labeling phones is now a snap as the new Talkswitch Configuration 6.12 software can print custom labels for both phones. Its a nice change from either being stuck with the default printed template, writing them in, or ordering DESI sheets.

Bottom Line
After spending some time with both phones I must say I really like them. The phones have a good solid feel, a nice handset shape, good button layout, and excellent acoustics. Both phones are a great value and really nicely fit the needs of the small business market.

Picking a great handset is a big part of picking a phone system – its the part of the system you’ll be seeing and using for years to come. So far I’m very pleased – these new phones definitely raise the appeal of the Talkswitch system.

Even if your office is up out of the valley floor you may have disruptions due to phone/internet services which route through flood areas, power outages, or simply have trouble getting to your office.

Power
Short power outages can of course be resolved by a battery backup, its just a matter of figuring out the power consumption of your phone system along with handsets. Modern systems from Allworx and Talkswitch consume less than 10 watts, making it easy to stay online during an outage. Keeping handsets online typically requires a PoE switch, which will draw a varied load depending on how many handsets are being powered – I recommend limiting the battery backup to only high priority handsets.

Phone Service
Traditional phone lines are highly reliable however falling trees can take down overhead lines and buried lines can become saturated during a flood. A few cheap and easy solutions for a small office include getting a voicemail box from your phone service provider and adding remote access call forwarding so you can forward lines to a home or cell phone during an outage.

SIP based phone services can often automatically reroute to a backup PBX or external phone number in an outage. This works particularly well for companies with branch offices – if one branch goes offline all calls can automatically reroute to another branch.

Internet Service
For businesses highly dependent upon internet access a backup internet connection can make a lot of sense. One mistake many businesses make is thinking two T1s from two different carriers is a backup – it doesn’t protect against problems like flooded lines, flooded central offices, or down utility lines/poles. Fixed wireless services offer true diversity and are often less expensive than a second T1.

Inaccessible Office
The most common problem is just that the office is inaccessible – down trees, closed roads, excess snow on roads, etc can leave you with the situation of a perfectly operational office that is unreachable. Having a phone system which can be remotely reconfigured to route calls to cell phones or having remote IP phones enables staff to continue to work from home as though they were in the office.