Polycom IP 300 Information Guide

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©2006 Polycom, Inc.  All rights reserved. 
Polycom and the Polycom logo are registered trademarks of Polycom, Inc.   All other trademarks are the property of Polycom, Inc. or their respective companies.
 
 Frequently Asked Questions
 
Polycom
®
 VoIP Products
 
General Questions on Polycom 
VoIP 
 
Why Polycom VoIP telephones? 
Polycom is a leading independent supplier 
of standards-based Voice over IP (VoIP) 
endpoints. Polycom VoIP phones are fully 
interoperable with leading IP PBX and 
Softswitch platforms
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, so that our customers 
can have a variety of end-to-end, fully 
integrated VoIP solutions to choose from. 
VoIP solutions that feature Polycom phones 
provide a high-quality, rich communications 
experience, deliver productivity-enhancing 
new applications, and offer significant cost 
savings through consolidation of network 
costs for voice and data, and elimination of 
costs of phone moves, adds, and changes. 
Polycom offers a wide range of VoIP 
endpoints to meet the unique business 
communication requirements of our 
customers. The Polycom VoIP product 
portfolio includes the SoundPoint
®
 IP family 
of desktop phones, an attendant console 
based on the SoundPoint IP 601 and 
Expansion Module, and the SoundStation
®
 
IP 4000 conference phone. Our phones are 
engineered to deliver a superb 
communications experience. They offer 
outstanding sound quality, advanced 
functionality, ease of use, security, tools for 
efficient provisioning and upgrades, and 
protection of your investment over time. 
Polycom IP telephones are your future-proof 
choice for business communications. 
 
What is a Technology / Interoperability 
Partner? 
Polycom Technology and Interoperability 
Partners
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 deliver industry-leading IP 
telephony servers that provide both 
traditional phone functionality and advanced 
features, like unified messaging, presence, 
and collaboration tools. Polycom’s strategy 
is to ensure that our phones are fully 
interoperable with Partner platforms, so that 
our joint customers can enjoy the benefits of 
an integrated end-to-end VoIP solution. 
 
Can the phones be used on a non-Partner 
platform? 
In order to ensure interoperability and full 
business telephony functionality, the 
SoundPoint IP and SoundStation IP 
telephones should be operated in 
conjunction with Partners' IP PBX (customer 
premise equipment similar to a legacy PBX 
or Key System) or Softswitch (hosted 
telephony similar to the traditional home 
phone service) solution. Polycom does not 
recommend using the phones in conjunction 
with call server platforms that have not been 
certified by Polycom. 
 
Will Polycom VoIP phones work with 
existing PBX or Key Systems? 
While many PBX and Key System vendors 
now provide optional VoIP gateways that are 
standards-based, interoperability testing 
must still be conducted between these 
systems and Polycom IP phones to ensure 
proper operation and feature support. 
Polycom cannot guarantee interoperability 
with a system that is not provided by one of 
our Partners. 
 
Which protocol is the best? 
There is no one protocol that is better than 
all the others.  Each protocol has different 
advantages over the others and the choice 
depends on your business communication 
needs. 
 
Does the phone have a different hardware 
design for each protocol? 
No. The phones can support various 
standards-based protocols by deploying 
different firmware on the same hardware.  
 
Can I reprogram a SoundPoint IP from SIP 
to MGCP and vice versa? 
No, this cannot be done in the field. Please 
make sure to order the right SoundPoint IP 
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 Please visit 
http://www.polycom.com/technpartners.htm
 for a full list of supported IP PBX and Softswitch solutions.