Back in 2013, I acquired an Avaya 4610 IP set. However, not to long after the acquisition, I’ve found out that this was a special version. A very strange one to say the least. I would’ve retuned this to the eBay seller as a “Not as Described” claim but I don’t like pulling that unless I really have to.
For a period of time from 2006 to 2008, Avaya marketed (albeit with limited fanfare) a peer to peer IP phone system called the One-X Quick Edition. To be honest, I never understood the brand.
The original series that lived through four versions included a special version of the following plus two external devices:
- 4610SW IP
- 4620SW IP
- At least the 1616 IP
- G10 (Analog FXO Gateway, sometimes known as a Netgear VG2004), later versions was a G11
- G20 ISDN gateway
By release 4.0 (released in 2008) it supported up to 40 terminals. This could be considered to be a modern day ComKey system. Unlike the ComKey, there was no such thing as “slave” vs “master” set. The system was from what I believe to be SIP. A few phone systems had used peer to peer along a SIP stack, however this requires special software and a network environment. The system depending on the locale had various fixed dial plans. It was like having a Partner, where a three digit extension dial plan, for the US, one was required to dial 9 for outside line whether you like it or not. For emergency numbers, the customer could just dial 112 or 911.
The Netgear voice gateway was designed to also plug in an emergency transfer POTS set; and there was ports for music on hold and loudspeaker paging. However if you didn’t need MOH or paging, or even analog trunking, one could tie it to an SBC or SIP trunking. Netgear did not produce these outside of Avaya, and Netgear did not and has not marketed any VOIP or Telephony products since.
The most interesting thing was it’s internals. The ring tones were similar to Nortel/Aastra and not Avaya Red, despite it being bought a few years later. Also the voice over in the voicemail system was not of AUDIX ether.
I own a 4602 I got at my local Savers a few years back and noticed how low quality the traditional Avaya Red ring tone is, and wondered if these series of models were software heavy and had weaker hardware to store firmware.
If you wanted to upgrade the set to the typical 4610 that could be used as a H323 or SIP, there was a tool only for the Business Partners that could flash phone out of the One-X QE to the traditional firmware.
Because of the incompatibilities and that 4600 was kinda EOL and I had no privileges to get the converter, I then sold the set to the NH Telephone Museum in 2015 to get it off my load, however as of May of 2017, I’ve yet to see my stuff in the post 1960s exhibits.
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