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First in a series: this network PBX has terrific telephones and myriad features
ESI'S IP 200 PBX
ESI-Estech, Inc.
Headquarters: 2601 Summit Ave, Piano, TX 75074
Telephone: 972-422-9700
Fax: 972-422-9705
Homepage: www.esi-estech.com
Test MSRP per station for the IP 200 is $400-$600.
Architectural Overview: The IP 200 (which we tested - the other model in ESI's IP Series is the smaller IP 40) is simple enough to look at - a 19-inch rack-mountable black box with ten card slots for various T1/PRI (supports dual T1 spans) and analog trunk interfaces, and analog phone equipment (the analog extension ports can be configured as standard 2500-type phones, night bell, fax, modem or door phone).
It also comes with 198 internal call-- processing ports, 16 of which are for voicemail (internal memory module provides 140 hours of message storage) and auto attendant (the IP 40 contains 70 call-processing ports and two card slots and 16 VM ports).
Overall, a loaded IP 200 system (pictured with phones) can handle up to 66 CO lines and 30 analog station ports.
Being an IP-based PBX (actually, as already mentioned, more of a "hybrid" between traditional switch and next-gen IP-based machine), it also has an auto-- detecting 10/100 BaseT Ethernet port and can support up to 96 IP feature phones. There are also connections for power, optional music/message on-hold source, overhead paging system and a maintenance serial port (you can program the switch from a local or remote PC).
ESI also has a single port Remote Phone for its IP series (which CommWeb tested from its San Francisco homebase back to a switch in ESI's Plano, TX, office). This phone provides a fully functional off-site extension of an ESI IP-- enabled phone system - i.e. the same business phone features and functions of the in-office ESI Feature Phone.
It's identical in appearance to ESI's Feature Phone sets, but it does contain voice-compression circuitry that reduces its bandwidth requirements by approximately 80%, which is needed for obvious reasons in its application.
The main office and the remote site require a high-speed broadband connection. We ran it remotely on a DSL line in San Francisco back to a KSU in ESI's Plano headquarters; it worked fine. Again, all the same business-class phone features...