Hi,

I have been asked to look in to upgrading my company's office phone system to a VoIP solution.  We currently use a Nortel Norstar PBX with eight phone lines.  Rather than upgrade our entire infrastructure at once, I was hoping to find out if it was possible to upgrade our system using an ATA like the Cisco SPA8000 (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10026/index.html) on the trunk lines to convert the lines to VoIP before they leave the office and Vice Versa.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your help.

cm3000

What is your company's ultimate goal with regards to the telecommunications system?  The SPA8000 acts as an ATA from a VoIP server to FXS ports.  This will only change your PSTN lines as opposed to changing your entire solution.

If you would like to migrate to an ITSP, VoIP handsets and advanced Unified Communications, I would change the entire platform.  If you would like to change the trunks only (cost savings on the PSTN), you can leverage an ITSP (Internet Trunk Service Provider) and a Cisco VG224 or a similar AudioCodes gateway to convert the SIP trunks to analog and terminate into the Norstar system.  One gateway versus several ATAs will keep administration to one management interface.

There are also other, feature rich, solutions which are completely VoIP and can provide great TCO and ROI...I.E. the ShoreTel Small Business Edition platform.

Yes you can use Voip lines if converted to analogs.
 

=----(((((((((()----=
curlycord
www.curlycord.com

 

Thank you for your responses.

@rrosadovds:
Our company's ultimate goal is to move to a VoIP service at the lowest possible cost.  Right now there is not enough in the budget to replace our existing handsets (14) with new IP phones, so I wanted to look into the possibility of converting the trunk lines.  That would reduce the required lines with a new ITSP while we were still able to use our Nortel PBX.  Since there are eight outgoing lines I thought we would only need one SPA8000 since they have 8 inputs, but is an input required for each handset?

Thank you

Input is for Trunks/Lines.

If your handsets all have a private line then that is a Trunk/Line


 

=----(((((((((()----=
curlycord
www.curlycord.com

 

The handset all share lines - some use six while others have access to all eight.

Sounds like 8 lines on system.

 

=----(((((((((()----=
curlycord
www.curlycord.com

 

Or you can migrate to Avaya IPO and reuse all the Norstar handset  

You can also migrate to an Emetrotel UCX50 system which allows you to use meridian and t series sets and then you can upgrade to Unistim IP sets or SIP sets.

For inexpensive means, the Cisco spa unit will work just fine.  I set up a buddies home office DR1 8x24 Norstar system up with a Cisco ATA and it works flawlessly.  It's pretty amazing to be able to use 1988 KSU technology with VoIP.

 

VoIP and "lowest possible cost" is a nightmare waiting to happen.  You CANNOT do VoIP right and do it on the cheap.  VoIP is expensive to install and it is expensive to administer.  That is why you must know that you NEED VoIP and that it is not just the latest shiney and cool thing to have.  Done wrong VoIP is a disaster.  Whenever I hear the word cheap used in conjunction with VoIP my blood goes cold.