This is not confused to another 7970 that was in production prior to. As of 2025, the aging 79x0s do not age well and the set is physically broken.
This Cisco 7970 is different than one that I’ve shared previously. A close dear friend of mine had given this to me a while back. I don’t remember which to be quite honest the last four years has been a blur and at the same time vaporized.
The phone was given to me because her day job is a job trainer for people with developmental delays. I used to work for her and the company as well*.
The client had found this Cisco 7970 at a yard sale and thoguht to look like everyone else, he could literally Bring Your Own Device to the company. But as you know they can’t hook up any Cisco set that they don’t own and in order to hook it up, a license on their end would be required.
As a result the attraction was lost, and the set was given to me for the Museum.
This set is very old, firmware is just over 15 years old to the time of recording and it’s very likely this could’ve been a corporate phone likely at a New England Cisco branch office. I cannot confirm.
*To show how long ago, they were using a Cisco CallManager 3.1 that was still running off Windows 2000 Server edition. In the late 2000s, Windows 2000 was the default operating system in many enterprises. Windows XP SP2 was only 3 years old. SP1 was End of Life and the original XP was already EOL’d. (I tend to obsess on the technicality of the lifecycle of Windows XP, arguementively the last best Windows NT grade operating system from Microsoft.
Obviously their systems have been refreshed and I have been told they are using OS X Yosemite at the desk. (When I was there I was using a pre Compaq era HP workstation with Windows 2000 Workstation. Same with the Cisco CallManager.
The 7900 series IP Phones from Cisco has now been in the market for 20 years this year! These sets were the first after the acquisition of Selius Systems, the publisher of CallManager.
These are the classic, default choice for the true Cisco install base, while newer versions, the 6900, the 9900 and 8900 (and in the last couple years, the 7800, and 8800s, 6800s those “second generation” Cisco sets will appear at a later post.) Also this site attempts to conform to Plain English and so over uses of “79xx” will not be tolerated.
From Cisco’s website circa 2004 featuring most of the first generation of Cisco 79×0 series sets.
79×0 Series (1st Generation)
(where x indicates solely on it’s functionality, that latter “0” implies generation)
The first round of options at that time included
7902 (blank set), a display, single appearance (realistically);
7905 (a 7902 with a display) Both known by Cisco as “cubicle” sets
the 7910 (a black colored set, that looked like half the size of a full blown 7900s, but functions similar to a 7902 and 7905)
The infamous large screen sets known as the 7940, the 7960. The 7914 sidecar was available.)
And the 7970 (a Java based set with color and other goodies would roll out later in time; not available originally.) The LCD display had very low resolution, with a display for text; and graphics were primitive icons. Worse, these sets age, they don’t age well, due to its black and black display (I can’t say white per se, but the reader should understand.)
Cisco strongly sold these sets for their Skinny Call Control Protocol (SCCP or Skinny), as SIP and MGCP were available for downloadable firmware as an option. The SIP versions of this generation would not have the visual straight lines to separate appearances or features like Skinny, instead looking like softkey buttons. Also a SIP icon appeared on the top right with the S resembling a snake.
When the 7970 was released, it was a luxury set for executives or conferencing; as time would go one, each little feature in the 7970 would become standard in newer models with lower entry points. This “screen phone” was running with a Java applet to allow it to surf the web and do other fancy things.
Regardless, from the start, they licensed Polycom’s conferencing technology, according to archived pages, which was probably the strongest selling point of the Cisco IP Phones. In fact Polycom wouldn’t make VOIP sets till after the year 2000, of course they had the great sound quality on crappy software and flimsy hardware.
Cisco sold their 7920 mobile set, but the set wasn’t well used because of its dependence on WLAN, later WiFi. Wireless LAN at the time went so far, and could carry much less data and to extend the signal would be cumbersome. Many opted to stay with DECT (despite it being politically incorrect in the world of Cisco – because anything “digital” was deemed “analog”) ether using analog sets or IP (such as SIP) as the base unit. It wasn’t until 2013, Cisco settled on DECT – but offered such sets to the small market.
The 7980 was a video phone designed for the conferencing market. The set’s label on the front of the display indicates it used Tandberg technology, of which they acquired the company years later.
Formerly owned this 7960 which failed to register in a Call Manager Express. Partly because I didn’t realize “TFTP” in the Cisco world refers to the PBX/IP KSU the system will reside on.
79×1 Series (Second Generation)
(where “1” indicates the newer generation where the x indicates the set’s functionality as previously described.)
As time went on beginning in late 2005; Cisco introduced:
The 7941 and 7961 sets. Other than prettier text, and tri colored LEDs for lamp status, the set was in fact based on Java; of which was a critical difference unlike the first generation, except for the 7970 and 7980. This gave developers the ability to make your desk set check the weather, a package from UPS, etc. Whether it was widely used is debatable. Around this same time period, the 7971 was released, with slight improvements. A massive issue if you are not fully familiar to managing servers but managing traditional phone systems; was the inability to use the local Corporate Directory out of the box, requiring Cisco IP Phone Services server to run such feature as an app on some server or gateway and some experience in coding.
Gigabit models were available if you asked for a 79×1-GE part number.
The phone supported Power over Ethernet (POE) or Cisco’s Inline power standards natively.
Introduction of the 7912 set, similar to the 7905 but it runs the Java operating system to run the phone’s applications and services.
Not my Photo – Cisco 7961 with a 7915 Module
Cisco also introduced a graphical sidecar as well. The 7915 was a grayscale and the 7916 was color
Cisco 7975 with the 7916 sidecar
79×2 (3rd Generation)
Where “2” indicates the third generation where “x” indicates the type of sets in the series
In the mid 2007, Cisco introduced the 7942, 7962 and a new set 7931.
A Cisco 7931 taken at a local Nashua, NH Staples. This replaced a Vertical Networks solution which used 24 button sets. Most Staples on the East Coast had already dumped Norstar systems with Vertical in the last 7 years. Cisco originally sold these and marketed these sets for the retail market.
In 2008, Cisco released the 7931. It looks like a traditional Key or PBX set with the old fashioned desi key strips, most likely responding to a shock to the system of end users who wasn’t ready to let go of the tried and true solution of paper designation strips. The set can support up to 24 lines/feature/URL keys and cannot support any sidecars.
The 7942, the 7962 sets had bitmapped display (that could handle graphics similar to the 797x, just in grayscale.)
Model of a Cisco 7962 taken at the NH Telephone Museum in their modern day collection. This can run bitmapped graphics, Gigabit Ethernet and Power over Ethernet.
Given the “cubicle” version of the 7900s, Cisco went back 1 digit, and introduced the 7911 at this same time. In short, the Cisco 7911 is the “latest” generation of the “cubicle” line
The phone has a large, 4-bit grayscale graphical LCD (Figure 2) that provides features such as date and time, calling party name, calling party number, digits dialed, and presence information. The crisp graphic capability of the display allows for the inclusion of higher value, more visibly rich Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications, and support for localization requiring double-byte Unicode encoding for fonts.
By this point Cisco shipped these sets with dual image firmware of Skinny or SIP, as many decided SIP was the future or “standard”, but massive tradeoffs occur when going to SIP. In these versions, the SIP and Skinny screens are the same (horizontal lines separating the line/feature keys.) Tradeoffs include, a half-duplex speakerphone, the ring tones sounding tinny and the voice quality isn’t like talking to a sea shell compared to using SCCP. But you can’t fix stupid with everyone defending “open” systems.
79×5 Series (4th and Final generation)
Example of a Cisco 7965 set at a Citi bank in New York City, taken in Midtown Manhattan in April 2015 by this publisher.
The 3rd generation and 4th generation was release concurrently. At the same time, Cisco released the 6900 series. When Cisco released the 79×5 sets in late 2007, they basically giving everyone a 797x, but on a smaller footprint. You can set up applications similar to the 797x on a similar size of the 796xs and 794xs. Gigabit Ethernet was standard. The sets have full color and touchable screens, multi colored LED buttons and a 4 direction with a center OK button in the middle. The 7975 reflected that latter change, as the 4 way buttons before had no center key. Also the last generation of the video conferencing set, the 7980 was released under 7985 (but end of life notifications for that set was settled in 2015)
The sets were not seen in many desktops till the teens, perhaps enterprise cutbacks due to the Great Recession and the 2008 Financial Crisis, of which Cisco had taken a direct hit, as many UC customers were in the financial industry
In short, as time would go on, the only “7900” sets one could order and acquire a license was:
Cisco IP Phone 7945
Cisco IP Phone 7965
Cisco IP Phone 7975
Cisco IP Phone 7985 (End of Life circa 2011)
The End
Remarkably, the millions of 7900s came to an end in the summer of 2018 where Cisco announced the End of Sale. The final End of Support will occur in 2022. At the time of the E.O.S. announcement, only the “4th generation” except for the 7985 was still on the market.
The reasoning is the age. Inside the Cisco 7900 IP Phone is a specialized computer designed to make and receive telephone calls. The original CallManager, was essentially as primitive as a consumer POTS service. The Cisco 7900 Series IP Phones have used H323 to make the phone tick. However SIP is software based, and a lot of it’s magic lives inside the phone, and for SIP to work effectively it needs more memory and CPU cycles. This isn’t to be officially known to the customer, all VOIP set makers just tell customers to upgrade to later generations, and as time went on Cisco added more processing, Flash memory, etc to handle a desktop smartphone for the lack of a better word.
Perhaps the makers of the hardware are ether no longer making chips, resisters, etc., or perhaps issues with licensing with those companies; leading Cisco to move onto different lines concurrent to the lifespan of the Cisco 7900s:
Cisco 6900 Series IP Phones
Cisco 8900 Series IP Phones
Cisco 9900 Series IP Phones
But lately Cisco has focused on a few newer models
Cisco 7800 Series IP Phones
Cisco 8800 Series IP Phones
Cisco 6800 Series IP Phones, as they are a bit more open to allow customers to buy phones and run them on their own call platforms (or phone systems)
Most importantly Cisco has focused on security. While the 7900 Series was “secure” in theory using firmware and secure versions of CallManager, the newer sets focus on using “signed” Cisco firmware that cannot be tampered by third party or companies outside of Cisco. With this scheme, the lifecycles could be shorter given how “certificates” have certain shelf life, so no one can try to tamper with the secure code.
Despite these newer offerings the 7900s are still very popular and sell well in the thirdhand market. These are perfect for hobbyists, home users, small businesses that depend on phones still and can last a long time. Security wise, shouldn’t be a serious issue till a few years after 2020, but a well designed multimedia network should be based with security in mind. Even though these sets are extremely overpriced in the firsthand for what little it can do, it’s has become a status symbol just like how AT&T was the status symbol with the Merlin (small systems) and 7400 (the large system) sets (albeit more superior!)
Hello Direct is a Nashua based reseller of mostly headsets and POTS accessories. Early on, they competed with Polycom with headsets. In fact I do have one that is in my pile of junk. Their own products had 3.5mm plugs and jacks, while Plantronics had their RJ-9 connections.
Today, out of nostalgia, here is a recently acquired Model 500 telephone taken this past month but acquired in April 2016.
In the fall of 2017, Hurricane Maria made her strong presence leveling out Puerto Rico. My hairdressers parents moved from New Hampshire to Georgia to then move from the state to a territory just about a year before. While their home wasn’t totaled like what was seen in the media, reaching out back to the mainland was difficult, as cellular service was completely knocked off.
Since I had many, and it was asked by her parents for an “old rotary” set, I had some extras. However, I had a few that were actually not working. After constant swapping, and being a bit slow, I wasn’t able to sell it to her at a discount. So this stayed in the collection.
I have been talking to long lost family on my paternal side for the first time in literally ever in my life. One of the members I had video chatted on Messenger, remembered this type of set; and her children (or my blood cousins) are not old enough to remember or even understand this antiquated technology. Of course as you know my household from 1987 (remember the world begins when you’re born right? ;)) to 1996, my maternal grandmother’s house (where I also lived till 2010 ) had a green colored wall mount Model 554 which was my first exposure to the technology.
Hence why this site has been running for the most part since 2012. 🙂
More of part two than anything else, for the reason that this device came with the CallMaster I got a couple years ago. Despite the size and dimensions and other similarities, they cannot work together AT ALL.
This had not worked until I got a 302B in early 2017. Wether the 302B will work is still uncertain because it came in a sketchy condition when I received it in that same time.
These “lamps” lit up like a tree because I applied power before plugging them into the four wire DCP port.
This module is called the “Direct Extension Selector” or DXS. It also serves as a classic Direct Station Selector or DSS. What makes this module unique, is the Hundreds Selector. The row 20 buttons below the numbered buttons, is almost like pages. So if you have a 4 digit dialing plan, “31” would be the “3100” range, 32 would be “3200” range. (Ironically these were original to the module, 3100s have been the range for my museum wall for a while; actually the button at “31” is actually “2” because the dialing plan in the house is 3 digits, so for the handful of 200s would be labeled “2” If you have a five digit plan, the numbers would be 3 digits. For 52655, that label would have to be “526”.
Early on in the System 75 PBX era, there were only about 8 to 10 buttons, then later models had up to 20 HGS, short for the Hundreds Group Selector, since the port counts went up as the Definity G1 and G2 grew.
Other vendors have similar modules, and even in the Avaya world, since smaller ends are totally separate technologically than the larger PBX. In the ol Nortel world, they had DSS for their 2250 Attendant console, but it only had up to 100 stations. If you wanted to monitor a bunch of sets, there was this LCD screen that was very ahead of it’s time (the idea that is) but it really wasn’t that easy to manage.
Today’s Phone of the Day is a retake of the CallMaster IV terminal for the use of Avaya enterprise grade PBX systems. These are not telephones, and they are not attendant consoles and while there is an apparent resembelence of the Call Director, these sets would not be used for “answering centers” since Voice mail had taken many of those roles anyways.
This is the infamous Mitel 5220 IP Phone set to SIP Firmware. I say infamous because it has an artistic value to a photographer. You saw this one before…
Continuing on a photo only post of the Polycom VVX 310
despite the “HD” in the name, it really means “High Dynamic” as opposed to High Def, but it has a higher fidelity than ISDN or POTS just it’s more vulernable to jitters if things are not configured properly.
This is a revised post of the VVX SIP sets I got from the street of a business that relocated in fall of 2016. I was able to tell that they were using Comcast’s SIP services by looking at the config screens. Of which, I do not prefer if I wanted to use a cloud phone system with less than 20 phones. Security wise, it scares me. I recently acquired some SIP phones for work purposes, and they came from second hand complete with a Ring Central handle and password. The seller is lucky I wouldn’t do anything illegal like toll fraud. I always recommend SIP Proxy services when possible. SIP Proxies are basically the modern day “splitter” since VOIP is all software base. Even Free and Open Source Software can do this for free on existing store-bought routers.
Complete with the 6 call appearances, line appearances, but only up to 6! and 4 softkeys that can only go up to 4 features! Also a Gigabit connectivity is great if you want speed without sacrificing using Fast Ethernet.
This little fancy gadget is the 9650 IP Deskphone from Avaya. Introduced in 2006, to replace the 6 year old 4600 Series; these phones were initially thought of as clones to Cisco given some of the similarities. This was also Avaya’s first sets to move away from the simple to use user interface, to the flip phone like functionality (to change ringers, you do not press Conference when idling, and most one touch features doubled or doubled in a half.) Sadly the legacy AT&T, then Lucent to become Avaya’s simple, telephone line focused digital or IP sets were never applauded. (This is why I rave this company I used to kinda favor.)
In 2008, similar paper-desi sets came along as the 1600 Series, and digital sets 9500 and 9400 series and 1400 series for paper desis. In the Avaya world, people like to choose to express how they want to assign their buttons. In color and their own words. Some sets that use screens instead do not allow the systems administrator to use their own form of assigning buttons. If you want to put blame, blame the customer, but remember the customer is the one whose right, not the vendor at least in traditional American business norms.
