asterisk users - Oct 2005 - ADSI -- is it dead? Worth bothering with?

Since Colin Anderson -- in a previous thread -- asked the question about
whether ADSI was dead, I thought it was worth discussing.

We've been using Nortel Vista 350s in our office up until now. The
phones are from Telus, I don't know if there's any way to unlock them.
It would appear Telus hasn't done much in the way of updating software
for these phones; or if they have, they haven't told us about it.

Personally -- the features on this phone have never really worked to my
satisfaction, and the only feature I consistently use is the "Message
Waiting" flashing LED. The other ones are just like "speed dial"
functions, and you have to press so many buttons you might as well dial
it yourself.

Does anybody else have anything to add?

-Stephen-

Stephen Bosch wrote:
> Since Colin Anderson -- in a previous thread -- asked the question about
> whether ADSI was dead, I thought it was worth discussing.
> 
> 
> Does anybody else have anything to add?
> 
> -Stephen-
I hope ADSI is not dead! We have 100 Aastra 390 ADSI phones with 20 of 
them in service.

We have locations where the infrastructure will not support packet based 
phones, even if we wanted to use them, yet we would like to give people 
some menus to lesson the learning curve.

Having a menu that changes based on context is great. I really like the 
voice mail menu where you do not need to remember any of the keys to 
press but just read the item and press the button by your selection. The 
only problem is the length of time it takes to load the menu. I believe 
there is really no need to load the stuff every time voicemail is 
dialed. The local phone company offers ADSI service. They have a number 
to dial to program the ADSI menus. This number only needs to be dialed 
once. After that things are pretty snappy.

I will soon start work on converting the rest of our company to 
primarily ADSI phones.

Don Pobanz

On 10/5/05, Don Pobanz <asterisk@hastingsutilities.com>
wrote:
> Stephen Bosch wrote:
> > Since Colin Anderson -- in a previous thread -- asked the question
about
> > whether ADSI was dead, I thought it was worth discussing.
> >
> >
> > Does anybody else have anything to add?
> >
> > -Stephen-
>
> I hope ADSI is not dead! We have 100 Aastra 390 ADSI phones with 20 of
> them in service.
>
> We have locations where the infrastructure will not support packet based
> phones, even if we wanted to use them, yet we would like to give people
> some menus to lesson the learning curve.
>
> Having a menu that changes based on context is great. I really like the
> voice mail menu where you do not need to remember any of the keys to
> press but just read the item and press the button by your selection. The
> only problem is the length of time it takes to load the menu. I believe
> there is really no need to load the stuff every time voicemail is
> dialed. The local phone company offers ADSI service. They have a number
> to dial to program the ADSI menus. This number only needs to be dialed
> once. After that things are pretty snappy.
>
> I will soon start work on converting the rest of our company to
> primarily ADSI phones.
>
> Don Pobanz
First my disclaimer, "I have never done anything with ADSI" beyond
theory.
I have always thought that ADSI is the best approach for RJ11
connections that require PBX type features on the phone (mostly
support for keys such as "call log", "messages",
"options",
"applications", "mute" and so on).
May be due to my own ignorance, I tried CISCO IP phones (sccp) and SIP
IP phones and found some of the features were supported.  Granted, not
as rich as ADSI or my Merridian PBX desk phone but sufficient for 80%
of the cases.
I have also discovered to my satisfaction that through tftp I can
manage a large number of CISCO sccp and SIP phones with a one time
effort.
I would be curious about what other members of this list think about
the best practices for giving clients functionality on their desk
phones.

>I would be curious about what other members of this list think about
>the best practices for giving clients functionality on their desk
>phones.
See, I have a dirty little secret. One of the primary justifications that is
used for VoIP PBX is consolidated physical network - I mean, it's supposed
to be easier, right? One network and all that. But you know, I've found
myself muttering sometimes: "Man, if this was a *regular* phone I
wouldn't
be having these problems" and by that I mean things like bandwidth issues,
latency, no spare Ethernet port, vlan'ing, router's messed up today,
blabla,
all of those considerations go *away* when you use a PSTN emulation or ADSI.
Plus you use a phone that the *user* is familiar with. Who doesn't have a
Vista phone? This, to me, is a "best practice" : make sure your user
interface is consistent and instantly familiar. 
ADSI I find interesting because you can still do all of the VoIP goodness
with a legacy phone. I was just wondering if there was a future for it,
since the ILEC here in Edmonton I don't think even gives out a Vista for
residential anymore, they try to sell you a cordless phone. I would
seriously consider it if I could get really nice unlocked phones for under
$100 and I could deal with the number of ports required. Hell, I still have
kilometers of Cat 3 in place from the Meridian.