Phone Systems - Any Good Ones?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I've been researching Phone Systems for my Home/Home Business and everything I read is disconcerting. Unless I invest thousands into a professional PDX system, there doesn't seem anything out there that is reliable or has any decent features. Here's what I want, and what I have in place to work with. I have cat-5e home run wiring to every room for the phone system, so I'd prefer to take advantage of this and not use the base station + cordless type setup. Plus I've heard bad stories on both the Panasonic 4000B and the Siemens Gigaset 2040 units.

A. I would need separate answering machine messages based on the line called. I could do this through the Phone Company, but then I would like an indicator on the phone to indicate a message present, instead of having to pick the phone up to hear the fast dial tone. I would like to be able to use internal intercom and paging features, and to have Caller ID on the phone. I would like the system to support both corded and cordless phones of different colors. Why do all the AT&T phones have to be Black?!? I like the AT&T 954 system, but it doesn't support Caller ID or cordless. The 964 system seems to royally suck even though it adds caller ID and an answering machine to the 954. The Panasonic 4000B systems have lots of complaints with the cordless batteries dying and they only come in black. I'd like to stay in the $500 dollar range which would give me at least one decent office phone and a couple of cordless phones, one of which needs to be WHITE for the kitchen area. Take a look at the Panasonic KX-TA624 I think it's great and have installed quite a few for SOHO's. It will take up to six outside lines and up to 24 inside phones or devices. It is a small PBX type system with intercom, speed dial, door answer boxes, etc. The proprietary phones like the KX-T7431 have display and all the buttons for easy use but the system lets you plug in regular phones, fax machines, answer machines, plain white cordless phones, etc. They dial 9 or a code to get outside line. Make your business sound professional with music on hold. If you buy the Panasonic voice mail system you will get all that you asked for and more. Be careful in choosing a phone company voice mail. Some phone areas charge for every local call so you run up a bill retrieving your messages. Find out for sure. And then you might have the line busy while retrieving so the next call goes to voice mail and you cycle again. I don't think you will get what you want for that price. I looked around and ended up with a Panasonic KXTD-1232 but for more money. It is a hybrid and can use either proprietary digital or regular analog phones - you can use one digital and one analog per port. I added a VPS-50 for answering and two door phones. Since there are some 30 extensions, we needed two expansion modules. Some of the benefits include complete intercom facilities, as well as paging (both via the phone and via a small PA system), various music on hold sources, voice processing including interview capabilities, and a really cool facility which lets you program the PBX to take advantage of all those low-priced 10-10 services automatically. There is also both system and station speed dialing, multiple forms of forwarding to pagers or cell phones or other systems. We have a small home-based business. 4 CO lines, setup as personal incoming, business incoming, a fax (also used for outgoing voice), and a data line (also used for outgoing voice). You could leave your fax line out of the system, but then you couldn't have the PBX manage it for you. I think you might take another look at Larry's suggestion of the TA-624. It's a bit more than you want to spend, but I doubt you'll find what you want for the money you want to spend.

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