Carlos is head of sales at a local cloud-based VoIP service provider. Their customer base has been growing steadily under his leadership, and he’s built trust with his clients over the years.
Recently, some previous clients have called to let him know that their old ATAs are starting to show their age. They want to take advantage of the simplified management and effortless scalability of cloud-based VoIP. Their old Cisco and Linksys ATAs don't cut it in the world of the cloud.
You can manage Polycom ATAs through the cloud. They work excellently for residential or business deployment. If Carlos wants to connect a business’s fax machines, paging system, or door entry phones, they work brilliantly. If he wants to connect a family’s single home phone, they do the job just as well. To replace aging ATAs with modern ones, look to Polycom.
Polycom ATAs or analog telephone adapters are simple, inexpensive devices that connect analog telephones to IP networks. You plug the phone into the ATA, then connect the ATA to your Ethernet network and provision it to work with your chosen phone system. After this simple process, your analog phone is now a VoIP endpoint with an expanded feature-set.
Polycom Analog Telephone Adapters
Earlier this year, Polycom acquired Obihai, a leading manufacturer of ATAs and VoIP gateways. The combination of Obihai’s adapter expertise and Polycom’s IP phone expertise means you get a professional VoIP solution for bringing legacy devices into your VoIP system.
Not just phones: connect analog fax machines using ATAs, too. They support the T.38 Fax Over IP protocol. They work with security alarm systems that connect to the PSTN, analog paging systems, and analog POS systems as well.
For connecting to your VoIP phone system, Polycom ATAs support SIP. SIP is by far the most popular open VoIP protocol, so they’re compatible with an enormous range of VoIP platforms.
They also support OBiTALK, which is, according to themselves, “a web port and OBi configuration utility which helps OBi users configure devices and access applications.”
Polycom OBi300 Series of ATAs
Polycom OBi300 Series adapters include Polycom OBi300 with one FXS port, Polycom OBi302 with two FXS ports, and Polycom OBi312 with one FXS port and one FXO ports. They offer cloud-based management to simplify your life.
If you want to connect a single phone to your VoIP phone system, OBi300 is your answer. If you want to connect two phones, for example when there are two phones in one hotel room, OBi302 is your answer.
OBi312 is a bit different. It has one FXS port and FXO port, which means you can connect a phone to the VoIP system and to the PSTN using a single device.
All OBi3 ATAs support multi-proxy redundancy for stabilizing your communications with dual registration of primary and secondary proxies.
Polycom OBi500 Series of ATAs
Polycom OBi500 Series adapters are designed for the enterprise. They offer an expanded number of FXS ports, as well as PSTN failover ports, Gigabit Ethernet speed, and more. All of them support SIP, T.38, and OBiTALK. They can be mounted on the desktop or wall, or in a standard 19” rack.
Polycom OBi504 has four FXS ports plus a single PSTN failover port, three USB ports, and four Ethernet ports, one of which is Gigabit. Using the OBiBT USB Bluetooth Adapter, you can have up to three Bluetooth connections, too.
Polycom OBi508 has eight FXS ports, and is stackable up to four devices, so you can have an incredible 32 FXS ports in a single virtual unit. As with the OBi504, OBi508 has a PSTN failover port, three USB ports, and four Ethernet ports, including one Gigabit Ethernet port. OBi508 greatly simplifies migrating large fleets of analog devices to VoIP.
Polycom ATA Accessories
In addition to ATAs themselves, Polycom also offers accessories to expand what you can do with the ATAs.
Polycom OBiBT
Polycom OBiBT USB Bluetooth Adapter enables Bluetooth connectivity between your ATA and a mobile phone. So you can answer or make phone calls on an analog telephone through your VoIP system using a smartphone.
Polycom OBIWiFi5G
Polycom OBiWiFi5G USB WiFi Adapter connects your ATA to your WiFi network. The dual-band adapter supports WiFi 5 (802.11ac) and both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi. When you use OBiWiFi5G, you no longer have to worry about running cable to the adapter, so you have expanded location of installation choices. OBiWiFi5G is also compatible with Polycom VVX IP phones.
Polycom OBiLINE
Polycom OBiLINE FXO to USB Phone Line Adapter connects your ATA to the PSTN (or POTS). If you want to have your phones connected to a VoIP phone system and the PSTN simultaneously, OBiLINE is your ticket. It lets you make call to landline services from phones or bridge landline calls with VoIP services.
Polycom Device Management Service for Service Providers
Polycom ATAs work with Polycom Device Management Service for Service Providers (PDMS-SP). PDMS-SP is a new cloud-based service for managing Polycom voice devices like phones and ATAs.
PDMS-SP works alongside your cloud-based VoIP phone service. The service provider controls “in-band” call control and other functions. PDMS-SP provides “out-of-band” management of your Polycom endpoints and rich, detailed analytics for maximizing ROI.
Managing devices through PDMS-SP gives you a simple way to check registration information and software/firmware updates. This simple step is a proven method of guaranteeing you’re getting peak performance from your communications system.
PDMS-SP makes your initial deployments are faster, your on-going operating expenses are reduced, and your device lifecycle is lengthened. Designed to be incredibly scalable, PDMS-SP can work with fleets of literally millions of devices.
The detailed analytics provided by PDMS-SP allows you to troubleshoot your system from a single, central interface, which can be remote securely. PDMS-SP lets you identify, trace, and diagnose errors or problems quickly, resulting in reduced downtime and increasing customer satisfaction.
Polycom Device Management Service for Service Providers is an amazing step forward in the realm of cloud-based VoIP phone systems.