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From: hardarso@weiss.cs.unc.edu (Kari Hardarson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Small Telephone Switches
Message-ID: <8800@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 90 21:27:09 GMT
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Reply-To: hardarso@weiss.cs.unc.edu (Kari Hardarson)
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 421, Message 5 of 10


I work for a company that has ten employees, including the boss.  We
have a modem and a fax, and a Novell network. We started out with two
telephone lines and ordinary telephones. Needless to say, we quickly
bought a telephone switch. The manufacturer is a Japanese firm named
Kanda. It had five lines and a maximum of sixteen extensions. It
turned out not to be a wise choice -- after a while you get a craving
for all sorts of advanced features; this switch did not supply them
and it has no expansion capabilites. Right now we have four lines
connected to it, the fifth line is run throughout the building and
connected to ordinary phone sockets. If someone wants modem access, he
has to get the modem (physically) and plug it in. Same thing holds for
the answering machine.

So much for flaming. Here comes the question:
Has anyone seen a telephone switch which has the following features:

o  Cheap... < 5000$ (Why not? That should be possible...)

o  Hands-off-operation: speakers built into the handsets

o  Do-not-disturb: The Kanda switch required removing a link from the board..

o  Not too many wires in the connections to the phones. Also: standard
   type sockets: ours has three twisted pairs, star configuration.

o  Call-Forwarding, to an employee's home if neccessary

o  Makes the bell ring, first at the secretary's, then in preprogrammed
   locations one after another: Ours rings everywhere unless DND is on, and
   if it is the call cannot be forwarded there once someone else has answered.

o  Conference calls. Ours can make 2 to 1, 1 to 2.

o  Expandable for voice-mail

o  Allows RS-232 connections and/or Ethernet connections to be integrated,
   so that cables don't have to be run separately. I don't really know what
   I'm asking for here.. ;->

o  Knows about the existence of add-ons such as:
     Faxes,Modems,Answering Machines

o  Programmable from terminals, i.e. soft-configurable.
   I want to be able to say, for example: CALL JOHN. This would run a 
   batch job that told the switch to make a call, and ring my phone when 
   the connection is made. If I move, I don't want to open the switch 
   and mess around with circuit boards.

o  Expandable to ISDN when the time comes? How does X.25 fit into this 
   picture? 

Am I missing some features? Am I being unrealistic?  I would
appreciate hearing from small companies, the pros&cons of their
switches. I will compile the results and post them, of course.

PS: I am working in Iceland, our phone system confirms to CCITT
standards, so BELL systems may not work there, I wouldn't know.


Kari Hardarson         
217 Jackson Circle     
27514 Chapel Hill, NC