NORTEL VS CISCO

[matatan]

Hello, My company is actually involved y several changes and one off them is tha backbone equipment, basically we are comparing the passport 8010 vs the cisco 6513. does any one knows a link where I can read more info about the 8010 passport.

 

[biglebowski]

try this question in forum902

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

 

[johnpoole]

not that i am a pro on either, i have installed both and been through the basic schools. i work as a nortel tech for the phone company, so take what i say with that in mind. i've programed nortel for 20 plus, cisco for almost 10. (off and on)... i would always recogmend nortel for a tdm switch.. sl1 opt 81 is a proven box for up to 10000 stations and chances are your home phone works on a nortel switch. and if your like most of us don't pick up your home phone and hear a downed switch.. that said, for voip, cisco is by far the better of the two. ease of programing, and with a solid cisco network you have a solid cisco support team. it's very hard to find anyone that knows both nortel and cisco equiptment. because your voip is just that, it has to work with all apps up and every new server data people can dream up. by going with cisco the same network team you depend on can maintain both.. the company sells both so i am kept up to date on the changes. at my site we have a nortel opt 81 but went with cisco for soft and wireless voip.. so that is one long vote for cisco

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[netmanrick]

How do you sell relief ?..........NORTEL!

Rick Harris
SC Dept of Motor Vehicles
Network Operations

 

[mextera]

SL1 OPT 81 is good as long as its older revision SW. Now you guys that really work on this stuff now that.
On Cisco VOIP good infact a Very Good Option. Not much on features and lets face it users want features.
Johnpoole stated that chances are your home switch is a Nortel Yes its either a DMS 100,250 or 500 But now who besides the military uses these in a office scenario not a real scenario.
So what about the MIX of Traditional Phones and VOIP who does this with quality NEC and Avaya both of these do Very good Old style dialtone with VOIP so the users get Features and the people in charge can say they are saving money using VOIP.
Hybrid systems are the real future!
Hybrid Phones and Cars the future is all around us...
Mextera

 

[johnpoole]

the switch i usually work on is a sl1 opt 81, i've installed 40 81's and countless opt 11's.. started with nortel back in 78. i am also certified in a dozen other switches. mostly because the network side of the house knows data, cisco installs have went a lot cleaner then nortel voip. and i haven't played with voip on rls 4 yet. like everything else, if your confortable with a switch, it tends to be your favorite. i perfer rolm, but simmons trashed that switch. mitel, fugi nec all avaya all make good switches but for a large application, nortel would always be my choice. at this site we have 7000 plus stations interfaced with 5 offsite switches and 2 cisco call managers, mosttly used just for wireless. the roll out on those wnet almost unnoticed...

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[jneiberger]

This is a very interesting discussion. The company I work for is an all Nortel shop for voice but we're researching our options regarding VoIP. We've received responses from Mitel, Nortel, and Cisco, and we're waiting on a response from Avaya.

The tricky part to our decision is that only brand new sites would be IP to the phone. The remainder of our sites would have to keep their Nortel phones and Opt 11 for a few years, and we just need something to do trunk replacement at those sites.

It's an interesting project. All of the vendors have their advantages and disadvantages. It's going to be fun to see how things shake out as we go along.