[CarSalesman]

Here's the plan for my SPA9000 installation. Tell me your thoughts.

We currently have a very old PBX with 28 phones, 12 PSTN lines. Goals in making a change are:
- more lines
- new equipment
- features such as voicemail, forwarding, call park, auto attendant, phone groups (sales, service, etc)
- reduced cost (currently $1k/mo for basic service, local, long distance)

I have been working with Zingotel.com for about a month, getting comfortable with the whole system idea. I really liked Packet8's offering, but they are one-line-one-phone only (centrex), so I'd have to subscribe to 28 lines each month. Cost would be over $1k/mo.

The SPA9000 looks like a neat deal for non-techies like me. I don't mind going into the configuration and making minor stuff, but I'm not an SIP expert like many here. I have a business to run.

Zingotel advises (and linksys confirms) that two SPA9000s can be linked together to form a 32-phone system. Anyone done that?

Zongotel sells their lines at $50/mo. They call that one line, but actually provides 2. If I subscribe to 8 of those, my bill is $400/mo, and that gives me 16 simultaneous OUTGOING conversations. I'm told that incoming lines are basically unlimited, as far as Zingotel is concerned. Many of our calls are inbound, so I would think that all 28 phones could simultaneously be in use, although that is a very unrealistic situation in our business. Remember we only have 12 lines now, and rarely are they all in use.

Time Warner Cable is upgrading our data service to 3M/2M. Of course the bandwidth isn't guaranteed, but in our location there are very few other users, and none of them like us, so both they and we agree we should rarely have any problem with bandwidth. That will be shared with data use, of course. Time will tell on that.

I've read all the Linksys documentation on the SPA9000. Its very limited. There is no user manual online for the SPA941. I don't understand how to assign extension numbers, and group numbers. Not sure how many groups I can have (would like to have 5, but could live with 4).

Comments?

[PhoneBoy]

I'd love to see a configuration guide on how to link two SPA9000s together. I have some ideas about how that might work, but I'd love to see the canonical approach to that.

The big issue you're going to run into is bandwidth if all the lines are in use, unless you use G729 for everything. However, the SPA9000 only supports two G729 calls to the IVR, which means you'll still potentially have lots of G711 floating around.

[CarSalesman]

Linksys says there is an option in the web based setup, where you put in the IP address of the primary unit, and everything rolls over. I don't know if 2 boxes are the limit, or if you could go further.

I agree that bandwidth will be the limiting issue. Funny how right now 12 lines will be enough, and all of a sudden people will be using 20 because they are there. Just have to see how that goes. Zingotel advises that 80k per line is the max required. Does that sound right?

[PhoneBoy]

80-90k is about right.

[gremln007]

Originally Posted by CarSalesman

Here's the plan for my SPA9000 installation. Tell me your thoughts.

We currently have a very old PBX with 28 phones, 12 PSTN lines. Goals in making a change are:
- more lines
- new equipment
- features such as voicemail, forwarding, call park, auto attendant, phone groups (sales, service, etc)
- reduced cost (currently $1k/mo for basic service, local, long distance)

I have been working with Zingotel.com for about a month, getting comfortable with the whole system idea. I really liked Packet8's offering, but they are one-line-one-phone only (centrex), so I'd have to subscribe to 28 lines each month. Cost would be over $1k/mo.

The SPA9000 looks like a neat deal for non-techies like me. I don't mind going into the configuration and making minor stuff, but I'm not an SIP expert like many here. I have a business to run.

Zingotel advises (and linksys confirms) that two SPA9000s can be linked together to form a 32-phone system. Anyone done that?

Zongotel sells their lines at $50/mo. They call that one line, but actually provides 2. If I subscribe to 8 of those, my bill is $400/mo, and that gives me 16 simultaneous OUTGOING conversations. I'm told that incoming lines are basically unlimited, as far as Zingotel is concerned. Many of our calls are inbound, so I would think that all 28 phones could simultaneously be in use, although that is a very unrealistic situation in our business. Remember we only have 12 lines now, and rarely are they all in use.

Time Warner Cable is upgrading our data service to 3M/2M. Of course the bandwidth isn't guaranteed, but in our location there are very few other users, and none of them like us, so both they and we agree we should rarely have any problem with bandwidth. That will be shared with data use, of course. Time will tell on that.

I've read all the Linksys documentation on the SPA9000. Its very limited. There is no user manual online for the SPA941. I don't understand how to assign extension numbers, and group numbers. Not sure how many groups I can have (would like to have 5, but could live with 4).

Comments?

Am I reading their web site correctly? They give you the SPA9000?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[CarSalesman]

No... hahahaha The SPA is the regular price, $600 for each 16-user box.