Analogue phones, IP phones and mobile devices are equal in stature and will remain that way for some time to come, despite the march of next generation comms, according to Robin Hayman, SpliceCom's Director of Marketing and Product Management.
"There is a significant number of analogue phones in everyday use, particularly in the public sector," he said.
"Many of these organisations still aren't in the position to migrate their voice systems to IP. This is typically a result of budgetary constraints, meaning that they will depend on existing phones for a long time yet."
He cited Unify's decision to withdraw system support for 'legacy' devices as the basis for an argument in favour of extending the life of such end points and their cabling.
He added: "By deploying our latest Intelligent Gateway Modules we have many significant customers' in the central, local and quasi-government sectors who have been able to retain their legacy phone cabling, in addition to their existing analogue phones.
"They've also been able to save on the costs associated with adding or replacing LAN switches to support voice prioritisation and Power over Ethernet, both of which are pre-requisites for deploying IP phones on the desktop."
According to Hayman, a 'flexible approach' puts the customer back in control. "It allows them to migrate any aspect of their voice solution, including phones, underlying infrastructure and system location, as and when business needs dictate and budgets are available, to provide true investment protection," he added.