Featured Articles from IP Phones

Sangoma (News - Alert) Technologies Corp. this week launched a new family of IP phones designed exclusively to work with FreePBX and PBXact.

The phones feature the company’s Zero Touch technology, which allows for quick and easy out-of-the-box operation. Here’s how it works: When a customer installs the phones, a redirection server send the phone line to the Sangoma Private Brand eXchange for configuration. Unlike competing solutions, preprogramming the phones with the IP PBX (News - Alert) is not required.

The phones also have Power over Ethernet capability, meaning there’s no need for power cable or outlets. Other features include dual Ethernet ports, full duplex speakerphones, high-definition voice, multi-way conference calling, and virtual private network capabilities. Sangoma will be displaying its IP phones at ITEXPO next week, as well as participating in the conference program.

Customers can access phone apps directly from these devices and without the use of feature codes. Some of the available phone apps are call forwarding, call parking, conferencing rooms, do not disturb, follow me, log in/out, presence, queues, queue agents, time conditions, transfer to voicemail, and visual voicemail.

This new phone product line includes solutions for all requirements, be they the entry-level users, mid-range users, or the most demanding business environments. The s300, which is offered as a list price of $89, has two SIP accounts, dual Ethernet capability, and is headset compatible. The s500, which is list priced at $149, offers four SIP accounts, a 3.5-inch color display, 28 soft keys, and dual gigabit Ethernet capability. And the s700, which is list priced at $229, features six SIP accounts, a 4.3-inch color display, 45 soft keys, is headset compatible, and also has dual gigabit Ethernet capability.

As I reported in the June 2015 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, a few years back Sangoma announced its strategy to deliver turnkey solutions in addition to the voice and data boards that have been its traditional bailiwick. To forward that strategy, the company last year brought Schmooze (News - Alert). That enabled Sangoma to expand its solutions portfolio with FreePBX Distro, an open source platform used to create phone system solutions, which is already in use in hundreds of thousands of deployments in 220 countries and territories; and SIPStation, a SIP trunking service that can be accessed via the FreePBX user interface to get a SIP trunk in service within minutes.