I’m trying to setup a internal voip solution for a small school with 13 classrooms. This is probably the best and most cost effective solution. One thing I’d like to know is what is the cheapest SIP phone that is compatible with this system and if anyone knows of good reliable sellers, let me know.
This is not as simple question, any SIP phone will work however the level of integration will vary. Frankly you are going to be in at the $100 price point for anything worth while.
For a school you need to be very careful, requirements exist for e911 integration and one touch emergency access (it’s not just speed dial).
Certainly FreePBX has been successfully deployed in a K-12 environment.
Check out the Aastra line of phones. These are the phones that have been the object of much of the FreePBX development and integrate very well with the system.
I think the simpliest is the best in that environment. I agree with Scott on the emergency services aspect of this. Each locality handles this differently. There is a feature in FreePBX that traps a selected dialed number and notifies a specific location that that number has been dialed. So a teacher in a classroom can dial 911 and in addition to routing the call to the PSAP, it also sends it to an administrator’s office.