Supported Phones

Polycom

We love Polycom. They are robust affordable phones. If you are not familiar with the brand they are world leaders in Voice and Video. babblevoice has tested lots of phones, including ones more expensive than the Polycom range, and the voice quality on this brand of phones is not bettered.

They have entry level devices such as 321, 331 and more beefy models such as 650 which is a very capable receptionist phone.

We recommend Plantronic's headsets with Polycom phones. Often users spend money on a good handset and then use a cheap headset and wonder why the quality os not so good! Polycom also work well with Jabra, we simply have no experience with this. For more information see Polycom Plantronics Headsets

Snom

Snom are a relative newcomer to the telecoms market and they are producing some good quality products. The quality (in our opinion) is not as good as Polycom, however they do tend to have a larger feature set for the money.

Counterpath (softphone)

Counterpath write software based phones. They are great for call centres and can substantially reduce the capital outlay in setting up. But they are not for the non-technical. Easy to break as users constantly play with microphone and sound levels or other settings they inevitably get involved with.

Voice Operator Panel

This is a very advanced receptionist console. It is a software based solution and in our opinion capable of handling a large number of calls in a busy office. Scales up nicely to multi-tenanted environments such as serviced offices. This has been fully integrated with babblevoice. One of its many benefits is it is easy to use after a small amount of training.

Siemens

• Siemens Gigaset A580IP: This is a very nice little phone. Not many great business features. But if you need mobility around the office and don't care too much about transfer; then this is the one. We have found WIFI phones simply drain the power much to fast running their batteries flat in less than a day. Because this phone uses DECT to achieve its wireless this was designed for phones and power in mind - so it ends up with a great battery life. Easy to configure to use on babblevoice simply use standard SIP settings, your domain, username and password and away you go.

• Siemens Gigaset SL400: Another cordless phone, it is much the same as the A580IP. Small, decent battery life due to DECT and you can transfer calls without too much fuss!

Yealink

• Yealink SIP-T20P: A low end phone judging by the price. However, although we have not tested it ourselves, we have had positive feedback from a user. A comment about suburb sound quality was amongst the best feedback.

• Yealink SIP-T26P: A follow on to the Yealink SIP-T20P. Another working phone that has been tested by customers and done well with Babblevoice, with good quality audio and a relatively simple setup.

• Yealink SIP-T22P: A similar phone to the Yealink SIP-T20P and is configured in the same way. The firmware used was 7.61.23.16 but it may work on older versions.

Cisco

• Cisco SPA 303
• Cisco 7905G: A Simple and easy to configure phone. Picked up a DHCP address out of the box and setting up the SIP settings took about 5 minutes. Good call quality, but a slightly lacking web interface.
• Cisco 509SPA: Another good solid phone from Cisco, here are the instructions to configure it;

Android Phones

Soft phones which are available in the Google Android market place. You may already use an Android phone when you are out and about, turn your phone into your office extension in the office as well.

Jitsi (softphone)

A great little free softphone. It is compatible with Windows, Apple and even Linux. The quality in our testing appeared good and the configuration was VERY simple. [1]

Under the SIP account section enter the details:

SIP id: yourextension@yourdomain.babblevoice.com

Password: this is your secret from Babblevoice

Panasonic

Our first experience of a Panasonic phone and it was a DECT one (KX-TGP500), very nice looking, sturdy with a bit of brushed aluminium - nice!

So to configure one;

1. Find the IP address of the phone you can do this by: Selecting menu > IP Service > Network Setting > IP Settings

2. Enable embedded web this can be found the Network settings page under IP service.

3. Navigate to the web configuration page

You will need credentials to access the page by deafult these are

Username: Admin Password: adminpass

a. Select VoIP along the top tabs to access the SIP and VoIP settings.

b. Select Line 1 to configure the extension

c. To be able to register the extension you need to enter a phone number, this could be your babblevoice extension or a telephone number, for the purpose of testing i have entered an extension.

d. Under the SIP Server category you will need to fill out the following:

Registrar Server Address - This is your babblevoice domain (yourdomain.babblevoice.com) Proxy Server Address - This again is your babblevoice domain

e. The next section which will require user input is the SIP Authentication catagory, in here you will need to fill out the authentication ID along with the password (this is your babblevoice secret).

Authentication ID is the extension number you would like the phone to be e.g. 9007

Zoiper (Softphone and Iphone / Android)

This manufacturer has quite a few offerings for smartphones and PC's alike. We have had experience of the Iphone and Android apps and these are great - even in areas where you can only get 3G.

To configure either the PC or Iphone client you just need to fill in the following account details;

In SIP Options:

Account name: 3004@omniis

Domain: omniis.babblevoice.com

Username: 3004

password: xxxxx

Caller id: 3004

In Advanced Settings

Auth Username: 3004

Use Outbound Proxy: on

Outbound Proxy: omniis.babblevoice.com

• NB, SUBSTITUTE omniis for your switchboard name.