VoIP & Gadget News – Panasonic Launches Line of Desktop SIP Phones

Today, Panasonic launched a line of new desktop SIP phones pitting them against Aastra, Cisco, Polycom, snom, and other SIP desktop phone vendors. I spoke with Panasonic to learn more about their new offering. First, it’s worth pointing out that Panasonic already has a desktop phone called the KX-TGP550, which also supports DECT, allowing up to 6 DECT phones to register to the desktop phone. Panasonic mentioned this particular product is useful in small businesses and gave the example of a salon which needs a desktop phone at the receptionist desk, but the hair stylists and salon owner can have a DECT phone on their belt clip and freely roam, while still taking calls. It even supports up to 3 simultaneous conversations all handled by the desktop phone. Certainly, Panasonic is renowned for their consumer DECT offerings and is considered the industry-leader in that area, so the KX-TGP550 is an interesting solution that marries consumer DECT technology with enterprise SIP/VoIP capabilities.

Now, Panasonic is launching traditional SIP desktop phones without the embedded DECT feature. The new models, which are called the UT Series include KX-UT136-B, KX-UT133-B, KX-UT123-B and KX-UT113-B. All of them are certified by BroadSoft on Broadworks and Digium’s Asterisk and all support Power over Ethernet and HD voice/wideband audio (G.722). The KX-UT123-B and KX-UT113-B are their basic low-cost models. The KX-UT113-B is a single Ethernet port phone with no backlight designed for kitchenettes or lobbies, while the KX-UT123-B has a backlight and two Ethernet ports. Both basic models have a 3-line display.

KX-UT113-B phone

KX-UT123-B phone

The top models, KX-UT136-B and KX-UT133-B, sport 24 programmable feature/functionality keys. The KX-UT136-B displays a six-line backlit graphical LCD and 2 Ethernet ports, while the KX-UT133-B offers a three-line backlit graphical LCD and 2 Ethernet ports.

KX-UT136-B phone

Panasonic told me all of their SIP phones are “eco-friendly” and will go into a sleep mode, turning off the backlight display and drawing less than 1 watt of power. Impressive! On an incoming call or an outbound call it returns to full power and the backlight turns back on.

Features include:

Easy configuration with extensive provisioning options
High Definition audio (G.722 codec) for wideband voice quality on all models
Power over Ethernet (PoE) in all models
Electric Hook Switch (EHS) for Plantronics headsets
LCD Display Monochrome Graphical
LCD Size 242 x 109 pixels – 6 line; 242 x 55 pixels – 3 lines
LCD Contrast 6 levels
LCD Backlight On/Auto/Off None
Audio Codec G.711, G.722, G.726, G.729a
Handset, Speaker, Headset Volume 8 levels (includes echo cancellation and distortion prevention) 15 levels
Ringtones 27
Ringer Volume 6 levels + Off
Phone Book Entries 500 or 100 (depending on model) – each with 5 numbers
Call Log Entries 30 incoming calls + 30 outgoing calls
Conferencing 3 parties (within terminal – multi-party dependent on server)
SIP Accounts 4 or 2 (depends on model)
DHCP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, SNTP
VLAN (802.1q)
QoS (DiffServ)
Plug & Play Configuration Server based configuration, TR-069, BroadSoft® Device Management Server
Manual Configuration Internal web Configurator, Local (LCD based) network configuration

Panasonic offers a two-year limited warranty on all UT Series models. The MSRP ranges from $119 to $269 depending on the model. To check out Panasonic’s line of SIP telephones, here over to www.panasonic.com/sip.

Tags: asterisk, broadsoft, broadworks, desktop phone, digium, KX-UT113-B, KX-UT123-B, KX-UT133-B, KX-UT136-B, panasonic, sip, voip
Related tags: desktop phone, ethernet ports, volume levels, depending model, power ethernet, panasonic