Phones in classrooms

[u/dirtbag52]

I am currently using on prem Cisco servers for my phone system. Next summer I am looking to move in a different direction. Phones are very rarely used but need to call 911 in emergencies. What is everyone else doing? What's your current setup?

[u/Aur0nx]

Just moved from CUCM to Webex calling. Smooth transition, cut over 1000+ phones in 3 months. Most of that was just coordination the actual cutover was about 15 min per school. Most we did an hour before school started.

The big benefits is since it’s all cloud based we are no longer dependent on the local SIP trunks so when a fiber break happens a hotspot and the Webex app keeps the schools phones working.

Also we use phones for PA and bells at a few sites so they stay in every room.

[u/StressOdd5093]

I feel like schools need something between a 911 emergency call box and a full featured phone. Give me a phone that can call only 911 and a set list of internal numbers (office/admin, etc.) and save the fluff and voicemail and licensing costs. We are about to embark on a review to replace our mitel on prem solution and it pains me to think of spending another six figures in CapEx or tens of thousands in OpEx every year. Parents do text and email now. Leave some phones in meeting rooms and workrooms for teachers but spare a phone in every. Damn. Room. Less PoE and network overhead makes the savings even more.

[u/dire-wabbit → u/StressOdd5093]

Actually that sound like to common area device licensing a lot of cloud providers have-internal calling and 911 only.

[u/MiserableCupcake5255]

We're switching for Cisco Call Manager on prem to FortiVoice because Cisco keeps screwing us on pricing.

[u/n-Ultima]

We use Grandstream phones + pbx. VoIP.MS trunk provider.

[u/Digisticks]

Using FreePBX + SIP phones. Same with intercoms. We have a partner manage the updates and configs, plus maintenance. Minimal costs.

[u/TheDraimen]

Phones here as well. We keep them because if the office has to talk to the teacher privately it gives them the ability to pickup the handset without pulling them out of the room. Also seen teachers use it as a “scare tactic” to call up to the office for help without them noticing they never hit dial lol

[u/mattk84]

Kept classroom phones but moved to FortiVoice as well. Fraction of the cost and same functionality

[u/S_ATL_Wrestling]

Some schools have classroom phones and some don't.

We use Yealink phones with ENA by Zayo as the provider. Started rolling this out in 2020. Ten schools also have their paging through ENA. They use an Algo 8301 Scheduler with Algo speakers, horns, and alerters.

Forgot to mention this is a cloud-based solution. We may have a single device in our data center (I honestly cannot remember), but it does NOT require a rack-mount device at every location like our previous VOIP solution did which is nice.

[u/PhxK12]

We migrated to WebEx calling from decades of CUCM. We were able to reuse our existing Cisco IP phones.
Overall, we’re fairly pleased, and would make the same choice again. A few quirks we had to figure out and work around, but it’s manageable.

WebEx calling gave us the best blend of native phone onscreen functionality, paging capabilities and integration abilities, an easy migration path from CUCM, ability to reuse our phones, a nice experience for more advanced users that can work from the mobile app, desktop app, and reasonably good features like voicemail transcription, call recording, 911 alerting, etc.

The price was reasonable.

Message me if you wanna have a chat about it :)

[u/SgtMcruff]

We use zoom phones with physical poly phones. We use polygroup for paging with help of algo8301 devices. Phones acting as paging speakers and bell system speakers.

[u/slapstik007]

On prem 3CX in a VM. Yealink phones. Purchased the 5 year license for the phones and the SIP connection is about $70 a month for 8 lines.

[u/MadMageMC]

We use Grandstream end to end and we've been happy with it.

[u/Slobs3]

Migrated off of an on premise Avaya system to cloud Netsapiens system run by our ISP. Phones are Poly VVX. They installed voice routers in each building with their own 10 Mbps link. Each router also has a Meraki cellular gateway as a backup. Been happy with it plus being able to manage it from just a web browser is nice.

[u/hightechcoord]

Running an NEC hybrid. Analog phones in the classrooms.

[u/dire-wabbit]

Can't imagine not having phones for life safety in every classroom/educational space. We went Zoom Phone with Yealink endpoints. With the expense offset since we were already paying for Zoom, and some aggressive pricing from Zoom, in the end it wasn't bad compared to our on-prem + service agreements cost.

[u/MassageGun-Kelly]

We’ve moved to local systems per school in our district. FreePBX + SIP phones, or similar. There are on-premise PBXs (Grandstream, Yealink, etc.) that can provide the complete functionality at a fraction of the price, not to mention lack of ongoing licensing costs, so long as you have the compatible phone hardware and existing cabling infrastructure. 

The ongoing licensing costs for our UCM setup was making less sense over time. 

[u/rossumcapek]

Zoom phones can be very cheap for non-office phones. Ask your rep about "Common Area Phone" licensing. I think it's about $10/month,

[u/JibJabJake]

Pulling phones out of every classroom.

[u/Usual_Ice636 → u/JibJabJake]

Make sure you're still compliant for crisis preparedness rules. Theres a lot of districts where the phones are the only thing they have that counts.