Review: Linksys SPA962 VoIP phone

The latest member of the Linksys family of business-class Voice over IP (VoIP) handsets, the SPA962 is a robust and professional-looking device with a clear colour display and support for up to six extensions.

However, some care is required before buying as it’s not the easiest of products to deploy.

It doesn’t take long to physically install the SPA962. Simply attach the corded handset to the base unit then clip on the stand provided to enable it to be positioned at a comfortable angle on the desk. Two 10/100 Ethernet ports are available, one to connect the phone to the host network, the other to enable a desktop PC to share the connection, with an integrated switch to maximise the bandwidth. This means you don’t need an extra network port.

Power can also be delivered over the Lan with support for 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) as standard. An optional AC adapter can be specified.

Having cabled up the phone it then takes just a few seconds to boot, the firmware using DHCP to obtain an IP address and other basic network settings automatically. From here on it gets more complicated.
Support for the Session Initiation Protocol (Sip) enables the SPA962 to be used with either a local VoIP exchange or public Sip services. Each line can also be configured with its own number or programmed to use a shared number assigned to multiple phones, with a browser-based interface provided to configure these and other settings. Unfortunately, this is far from easy to follow with a huge number of options that can be fiddled with if you want, none particularly well explained. As with a lot of VoIP products, documentation is minimal and a high level of technical knowledge assumed.

If you’re confident with the setup of Sip handsets then you may be able to work it all out. Otherwise we’d strongly recommend buying from a specialist reseller able to configure the phone for you. Linksys provides resellers with tools to enable them to remotely set up and manage this and other handsets.

On the positive side, once it’s configured the SPA962 is very easy to use, thanks to the large colour display and accompanying soft keys plus a directional control button to help navigate the menus. Voicemail support is built in, with a message-waiting indicator and a dedicated message retrieval button. Speakerphone capability comes as standard and a headset can be plugged in if required.

Users can set up their own personal calling directory and custom ring tones, with distinctive ringing based on calling and called number a standard feature. The background picture on the display can be customised, although the screen remains fully lit at all times with no facilities to automatically dim the display or shut it off when not needed.

Call handling options are dependent on the PBX or service involved, but the firmware supports an impressive range of business telephony features. This ranges from call on hold with selective or automatic forwarding, through call pickup and music on hold, to group paging and intercom facilities. A call timer is built in along with call logging facilities.

Call quality will depend on the service and network infrastructure used. However, with a good choice of codecs available (the firmware that does the digital voice encoding/decoding) we achieved excellent results and, overall, were impressed with what the SPA962 had to offer.