Nortel m7310

General Help
1

Hi guys,

I’ve got respectable experience with deploying FreePBX based systems and IP Phones from Polycom or Digium.

Now there’s someone I know who was asking me if it was somehow possible to launch a FreePBX system and “connect it” with it’s existing infrastructure of Nortel m7310 phones.

He has over 30 Nortel m7310 phones, and all the wiring (two-wires phone cables) is in place in 30 offices, which do not all have ethernet plugs…

I’ve been looking around and don’t find much of a solution!

I saw an old post in this forum talking about “Citel”, that would provide some type of gateway which would actually make it work very well to connect Nortel phones with an Asterisk PBX system… almost plug and play! but the conclusion was that the cost of this so called “gateway” was so great that in the end it was better off to buy new IP phones… and of course benefit of the advanced features that those old Nortel phones are fare from offering…

I’m wondering if, as of today, there would be a cost effective solution to recycle those numerous Nortel m7310, at least for a while, and connect them to a FreePBX system?

Thanks !

2

We run into this with our customers all the time, and the short answer is nope there is no cost effective method to do it. Technically you can achieve it with the Citel Portico gateways, but as you mentioned it’s barely cost effective since the gateway works out to around $100-150/per port. Going down that road may save the cost of adding new cabling (if for some reason there is no existing LAN infrastructure in place), but it also ties you to having to support the legacy Nortel/Avaya equipment and limited set of features.

We’ve laid out all the options for customers like this in the past, but in the end have always ended up going with new IP phones as the advantages far outweigh any benefits of keeping the legacy stuff. If the customer is that tied to their Nortel sets, the only other option is to get an Avaya IP Office which has direct hardware support for them (Avaya bought part of Nortel to gain that ability).

3

Thanks

Precisely the answer I was looking for!

I heard about AVAYA IP OFFICE, looked into it and… not interested.

Therefore if the cost of this Citel Portico gateway is so expensive, I guess there is no solution.

Then I guess I’ll fill up a few recycle bins with those phones because I don’t think their is much potential in selling them…

But your answer confirms what I thought so thanks a lot!!

jolouis > what kind of phones (brand and model) do you recommend your clients?

4

jolouis > what kind of phones (brand and model) do you recommend your clients?

Nobody can properly answer that without knowing your parameters, requirements and budget.

5

If they’re the old M series phones yea, they’re pretty much worthless (last batch we had brought in $3/each from the scrap metal/electronic recycling guys we deal with).

Generally we use Yealink sets for our customers, but as Skyking says you really need to make a decision based on your requirements and budget. For customers who are used to the Nortel M7310s the Yealink T26 or T28 are good “comparable” phones as they have roughly the same foot print and include 10 BLF/speed dial buttons that users may be used on the Nortels. (Price wise for us at least they also tend to be the most bang for the buck)