phone recommendations?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 12, 2006 Posts: 5

Check out the Uniden UIP1869V. The desk set has the adapter built in and it comes with a cordless that you can add up to 9 more. I gave Vonage it's MAC address and it was working in 2 minutes. No problems at all. I ordered it from their website. It's relatively new. They originally made it for Packet 8 but now make it for Vonage too.

Posts: 85 · Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:01 pm Post subject:

I have to agree with the Uniden Tru 8XXX series. They are great phones!!

Posts: 533 · Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

UMP25 wrote:

Wow. I'm going to pick up a couple of these. After all, they're only two grand a piece! Eek

Absolutely, and you can use the phone's handset to control the volume on all your other overpriced Bang & Olufsen AV devices.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:27 am Post subject:

UMP25 wrote:

Wow. I'm going to pick up a couple of these. After all, they're only two grand a piece! Eek

They've more than paid for themselves. Just roughly, if <25% of my calls are business/billable, that's ~3500 minutes, and you better believe I'm charging more than $1/minute when people pester me at home. Smile

Posts: 533 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:07 pm Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

UMP25 wrote:

Wow. I'm going to pick up a couple of these. After all, they're only two grand a piece! Eek

They've more than paid for themselves. Just roughly, if <25% of my calls are business/billable, that's ~3500 minutes, and you better believe I'm charging more than $1/minute when people pester me at home. Smile

I'm trying to figure out the relivance of that. Did the B&O phones specifically help you bring in more business?

Posts: 4 · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:19 pm Post subject:

I really thought about going with the Uniden 5.8 Ghz phones everyone else here seems to love, but they were a bit too expensive for my tastes. Instead, my wife and I will be using two 900 Mhz Uniden phones with caller ID. They set us back around $15 each at our favorite closer of small local retail businesses. It definitely helps that I can easily run phone cords two the two places we want a phone.

Posts: 276 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 276

And your 900MHz will work with Voip? I've heard so many problems with anything less than 5.8GHz. Plus, 900MHz phones and wireless connections go together like oil and water.

Posts: 4 · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:38 pm Post subject:

UMP25 wrote:

And your 900MHz will work with Voip? I've heard so many problems with anything less than 5.8GHz. Plus, 900MHz phones and wireless connections go together like oil and water.

I have never had a problem with 900MHz, and I have been running 900 MHz it as long as I've had a wireless network up and running, which has been for a lot longer than I have had Vonage.

I have heard of trouble with 2.4 GHz, but this is the first I have heard of any trouble with 900 MHz. If there is trouble with that band, I hate to tell the Uniden folks that the packaging on every one of their 5.8 GHz phones points out that they also utilize the 900 MHz band in order to improve sound quality.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:19 pm Post subject:

[quote="EzCo"]

VonageTPA wrote:

I'm trying to figure out the relivance of that. Did the B&O phones specifically help you bring in more business?

I don't use B&O phones; I was assuming UMP was shocked at the price of the ClearOne teleconferencers, not B&O phones. Having the full-room teleconferencer setup has been a great help to me. The ClearOne's connected to my living room's permanently-installed sound system (with its own mics/amplifiers/eqs/mixers/etc). The setup is a cross between a corporate boardroom and a broadcast studio. So, literally, I can walk anywhere in the room and hear the caller clearly and they hear me as if I were using the hardwired handset of the telephone.

As to why I have all of this stuff, it's more of a hobby than anything. I occasionally will work from home rather than drive/fly out of town to do a project, which is when this stuff starts to pay for itself. $2k per teleconferencer/hybrid seems like a lot of money, but I've more than made it back by the number of minutes I've used them.

UMP25 There's nothing wrong with 900Mhz...if anything, 900Mhz phones usually outperform their 5.8Ghz equivalents. Unfortunately, many (if not all) of the 900Mhz phones I've seen in recent months are at the cheap end of the product line, so they've left out all of the performance-enhancing circuitry, but I have a few older (and loved) 900Mhz digital spread spectrum phones which have an amazing range. The only real "no-no" anymore are the 2.4Ghz phones, as they operate in (and often interfere with) the same 2.4Ghz band that wireless networking (802.11b/802.11g) operate in.

JimmyJames Not sure which phones you're looking at, but the Tru8xxx series only uses the 5.8Ghz band, no 900Mhz transmission/reception in them whatsoever. Maybe the cheaper analog 5.8Ghz phones Uniden sells use the 900Mhz band, but the Tru8xxx series often praised on this forum is a true 5.8. I forget which manufacturer it was, but one of them was promoting a phone as 5.8 when it really was a 5.8/2.4. Think it might have been Panasonic.

Also, I just picked up an Aastra 9120 (2-line replacement model for the Nortel/Aastra 9417CW. MUCH less expensive and it's virtually the same as the 9417CW. I only paid $67 for a brand-new, factory-sealed 9120 when the 9417CW runs $150 new, $80-90 refurbished. I have only put 200 minutes on it so far, but VERY happy -- it's a winner, especially at this price. I think Staples wanted $70 for a Panasonic 2-line speakerphone which isn't even close to this in quality. The message waiting light on the 9120 works flawlessly as well. The speakerphone is just as rich-sounding and as clear as the 9417, which has always been good on these phones. The handset & phone feel just as sturdy (read: absolutely solid), heavy feel that the Nortel phones have always had. Even the menus and ringtones on the 9417 & 9120 are very similar, exactly the same for the ringtones.

So, what's missing? Only a few things I could find so far: 1) the 9120 lacks the built-in data/fax switch, 2) the 9120 lacks the 3rd wire pair paging system. 3) No toll restrictions, 4) no directory copying between two similar phones. Paging is the only feature I wish was on there, but that also requires running 3-pair (6-conductor) wire everywhere. I did pull the power cord from it and the phone still works without AC power, but you lose all of the advanced features.

So, what's new? The shape/design of the phone & handset is different. Different, but still feels very familiar. The keypad has the same feel, line buttons in the same spot, screen is still backlit. The handset has the same feel & balance (easily cradled). They've changed the labels on a few keys. Link is now (properly) labelled as "Flash", Release is now a graphical "hang up". Not sure (can't remember) if the 9417CW understands call process signals or not, but the 9120 automatically disconnects at the end of the call without even hearing a single reorder/fast busy tone. I know my older 8314 doesn't.

For those looking for something a bit less expensive, there's a 9116 which is a single line version of the 9120, for $45. I see they make a line-powered non-display single phone for $25, but I'm not sure how good the speakerphone & handset sound would be without the extra transformer. FWIW, the 9110 (line-powered) phone has a voice mail light on it, BUT, I doubt it will work with Vonage. The 9116 & 9120 have no trouble with the voice mail light & Vonage however.

Yeah, I know, hardwired phones are old-skool, but I've yet to find a cordless phone with the same quality sound & feel as these Nortel/Aastra/Meridian phones.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 11, 2006 Posts: 5

UPDATE:

I almost bought the Uniden TRU 8860-2 at Amazon today for $94.99 + .

I went to my local Costco and they had it for $69!!!! A great deal, and I didn't even have to buy a years supply Cool

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