Chester,
We have a relatively new (1999) NEC NEAX 2400. You’re right about the PBX, I’ve worked on them a long time and NEC makes a very good switch.
We are now a 3Com shop and are looking at replacing all our network hardware with Cisco, so I’ve been studying Cisco’s VoIP solution too.
With the very stable telecommunications network we have on campus (6550 pair cable plant to 64 buildings, 1700 analog sets and 750 Dterms), it
makes this a difficult decision. After much deliberation, we have concluded that for standard dial tone, which is what most users need, VoIP
is still too expensive. Our modern system on our campus is one of the reasons we came to this conclusion.
However, we have a few users, Admissions office, that could benefit from some of the new technologies like screen pops
and others. So we are now looking at researching what Cisco offers in this area, and possibly bringing this technology
to them. We can’t sell them on dial tone, so maybe we can sell them on these new applications that will increase their
productivity. I beleive this is where VoIP is at. VoIP(via LAN only) seems to be a pretty reliable service, but its only
as good as your network, including power backup, so for POTS, one should stick with the PBX, but its the facny new applications
that will push VoIP into deployment.
NEC has a very good VoIP solution(they are worldwide partners with Cisco) and we are also comparing NEC’s solution with Cisco’s
to see which one would beter fit us.
Hope this helps,
Greg Stahl
Communication Systems Administrator
St. Lawrence University