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Do Cisco / Lucent handsets just connest to standard landlines?

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6
Forum Member
in Landline Phones and VoIP Services #1
Hi,

Wonder if anyone can help? I am looking at handsets for a new office (just 1 or 2) and ideally I would like to stick to what I am familiar with - a lucent handset, or my old phone which was Cisco. I have noticed that when a lot of people sell them they say 'not suitable for home use' - why is that? Do they not connect up to a standard bt landline? All I have at the moment is the normal phone socket boxes on the wall... Do I need to have some sort of telecoms infrastructure in place?

I was just think of plugging it into the wall, possibly plugging in the power as the ones im looking at have nice colour screens, then away we go..

Am I totally and utterly wrong - is that not how it works?

Thanks,

Alex.

Comments

  • SteveMcKSteveMcK Posts: 5,457
    Forum Member
    ✭
    #2
    itstime222 wrote: »
    Hi,

    Wonder if anyone can help? I am looking at handsets for a new office (just 1 or 2) and ideally I would like to stick to what I am familiar with - a lucent handset, or my old phone which was Cisco. I have noticed that when a lot of people sell them they say 'not suitable for home use' - why is that? Do they not connect up to a standard bt landline? All I have at the moment is the normal phone socket boxes on the wall... Do I need to have some sort of telecoms infrastructure in place?

    I was just think of plugging it into the wall, possibly plugging in the power as the ones im looking at have nice colour screens, then away we go..

    Am I totally and utterly wrong - is that not how it works?

    Thanks,

    Alex.
    If those are the phones with display screens, lots of buttons, they're almost certainly digital and need to connect to a digital switchboard. The Lucent ones we used to have needed a digital switchboard, the Cisco ones are voice-over-IP (Internet protocol), they connect to an Ethernet network and then to a special computerized switchboard. In our case the whole company network, worldwide, is internet-based. Works well, except that the conference call phone quality is rubbish!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6
    Forum Member
    #3
    Hi Steve,

    Many thanks for the reply. That's sort of what I thought. I have the router close by so I could connect to the Ethernet, but I cant connect to any sort of switchboard. The thing is I really like office style phones - maybe I should just look at the BT range...

    That's a shame ;-(

    Longer term I was planning on getting a voip phone as ill need 2 lines anyway...
    SteveMcK wrote: »
    If those are the phones with display screens, lots of buttons, they're almost certainly digital and need to connect to a digital switchboard. The Lucent ones we used to have needed a digital switchboard, the Cisco ones are voice-over-IP (Internet protocol), they connect to an Ethernet network and then to a special computerized switchboard. In our case the whole company network, worldwide, is internet-based. Works well, except that the conference call phone quality is rubbish!
  • SteveMcKSteveMcK Posts: 5,457
    Forum Member
    ✭
    #4
    itstime222 wrote: »
    Hi Steve,

    Many thanks for the reply. That's sort of what I thought. I have the router close by so I could connect to the Ethernet, but I cant connect to any sort of switchboard. The thing is I really like office style phones - maybe I should just look at the BT range...

    That's a shame ;-(

    Longer term I was planning on getting a voip phone as ill need 2 lines anyway...

    There is an opensource framework called Asterisk that can be used to create your own VoIP switchboard, you could probably get it running on a RaspberryPi or similar. Not for the faint-hearted, you need to be comfortable with programming at that level, but it looks fun. I haven't tried it (yet) and don't know what phones you can make it work with. Have a look at: http://www.asterisk.org/get-started
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1
    Forum Member
    #5
    I have a Cisco SPA 303 as a phone in my home office. It does not connect to a standard landline but to the ethernet socket on my broadband router. It use a SIP account with a SIP provider and uses VOIP calling and supports 3 lines. There are other alternatives (SNOM Grandstream etc.). For a sip account i use sipgate.co.uk and make freecalls to other people on SIPGate. Also you can use applications like CSipSimple on android so that you can also take calls on your mobile and Sipgate sends my voicemail as emails which I pick up on my mobile. Great for small/home office.

    I have used Asterisk before but you don't need it for this type of solution.
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