3. Access Devices

I found a few surprises in the area of ATAs and other VoIP adapters while trolling the show floor. The first was that Belkin had a large booth at the front of the hall where their line of ATAs as well as a few headsets were on display. I was surprised to find that the company has five ATAs supporting line configurations from dual FXS (F1PG200EN) up to 8 FXS and 4 FXO (F1PG802EN).

Figure 1: Belkin F1PG211EN ATA
(click image to enlarge)

The Belkin person I spoke with said so far the company has signed up Quest (Figure 1) to use their products and will be the ATA vendor of choice for a November - December service launch by a "big nationwide ISP". Other tidbits are that ATAs with wireless are in the works for the end of this year and that the company has no plans to get into the SIP handset or terminal business because it is too competitive.

I spied a nice display of numerous VoIP products while walking by the Linksys corner of Cisco's stand, during the Monday night pre-show exhibits opening.

Figure 2: Linksys SPA941 SIP phone
(click image to enlarge)

The SPA941 Business IP phone (Figure 2) comes with two lines, is upgradable to four and has a 10/100 Ethernet LAN port for data equipment attachment. It should be out in November priced around $150 for the two-line model.

The SPA941 is both attractive and seems more well-built than the typical SIP phone you get for $150, so I'm sure that Linksys will sell a bunch of them, maybe even eating into parent Cisco's sales of its higher-priced SIP phones.