We recently purchased two Avaya/Nortel 1220 IP phones for testing in our environment as a possible replacement to the manufacture discontinued i2002/i2004 IP phones. We’re evaluating whether we should purchase the 1120e/1140e or the 1220/1230 as our standard IP phone going forward. An obvious concern going forward is that the phone support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) so that it will be potentially capable of inter-operating with whatever soft switch or PBX we might have in the backend, be it the Avaya Aura or the legacy Avaya/Nortel Call Server 1000.
I should warn folks that the phone is sold with different SKUs depending if you want it running the UNIStim or SIP protocol. Upgrading the phone between the UNIStim and SIP firmwares is not supported by Avaya/Nortel. With that said I was successful in upgrading/converting a UNIStim SKU’d phone with the SIP firmware available from Avaya/Nortel’s Software Communication System (SCS). I did have some issues downgrading/converting the same set back to UNIStim, although I eventually found the workaround that was needed to trick the SIP firmware into believing I had newer firmware. I can share that with anyone that is interested or if anyone is stuck in a similar position.
The default configuration password is:
26567*738
Cheers!
Update: Monday February 22, 2010
It might be easier to remember the password as follows:
COLOR*SET
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#1 by DaveTheRave on January 27, 2010 - 7:29 am
We have been using a mixture of 1120’s and 1140’s since they were released, about 1000 in total. We were informed that we were one of the first UK based companies to use them. The first version of these phones came with an advisory that the “on hook” switch would get stuck and we did see a spate of this. Having said that though our users really like them. In small meeting rooms they work very well as a conference type of device. Quality is good and numerous firmware updates have kept them current and bug free. Not tried the 1200 series yet but can vouch for the 1100 series.
#2 by Michael McNamara on January 27, 2010 - 7:49 pm
Thanks for the feedback Dave.
We have a handful of 1140e IP phones and around 100 1150e (Contact Center) IP phones. They’ve worked great but were difficult to fit into previous project budgets. Hopefully the price has come down over the past few years, especially now that the 2002/2004 models have been discontinued.
I forgot to mention that the Nortel 1200 series phones were developed and manufactured in partnership with LG. With the Nortel’s acquisition by Avaya it’s also possible that they may terminate that agreement with LG. Although all we’ve heard from Avaya/Nortel is the line that “everything will stay the same..”, sooner or later it needs to change or Avaya will end up like Nortel.
Thanks for the feedback!
#3 by Tony Bigby on February 21, 2010 - 5:00 pm
Hi Michael, if you could briefly mention the workaround for going between SIP and UNIStim that would be interesting- I don’t have any plans for this at the moment but I’m sure we will want to trial the SIP firmware in the future. I’m guessing this is about forcing the firmware load even though it is a ‘downgrade’?
Thanks!
#4 by Gord on February 22, 2010 - 12:26 pm
Conversion process for IP Phone 1120E/1140E between SIP UNISTim is documented in the SIP Administration Guilde. It is accomplished using TFTP/HTTP servers and config files to change the firmware loads.
#5 by Michael McNamara on February 22, 2010 - 7:31 pm
Hi Tony & Gord,
I had a problem downgrading the phone back to a UNIStim firmware after I had upgraded/converted the 1220 IP phone to SIP. The phone would not downgrade/convert back to the UNIStim firmware because the SIP firmware thought it was “newer” than the UNIStim firmware I had configured in the configuration files on the TFTP server. I was able to trick the SIP firmware by using a newer SIP firmware to get the phone into BOOTPC mode and then replaced the 1200.cfg configuration file so it pointed to the UNIStim firmware as opposed to the SIP firmware.
This might have been resolved with the latest SIP firmware release although I haven’t had the opportunity to test it again.
Cheers!
#6 by Gord on February 23, 2010 - 9:26 am
Using DOWNLOAD_MODE FORCED in the [FW] section of the TFTP/HTTP config file will override version checking.
#7 by Molodus on February 23, 2010 - 12:07 pm
We have a mixture of around 400 1220’s and 1230’s (mostly 1220’s) in our newest facilities. So far we have been very happy with them and have all but stopped buying the 1100 series.
The 1200’s are significantly cheaper than the 1100 series, but for a good reason. They only have a 2 point adjustable base (which i find to be mildly annoying), a lower res screen that is not backlit, and no bluetooth.
Still, they have their pros as well. The 1200 series is solid color molded plastic unlike the painted 1100 series (which scratches easily). You also have discrete navigation buttons (thank you!!) and with the 1230, you have ten discrete line keys as opposed to six with the 1140.
If the cons mentioned above do not matter to you, the cost difference should make your purchasing decision a no brainer.
Avaya claims in their roadmap that both the 1100 and 1200 series phones would be SIP supported. We’ll see how that plays out.
One item of note. In my own personal experience I have seen the off hook button problem with *many* of our 1100 series phones. I got so frustrated that I tore apart one of our affected sets to see exactly what was causing the problem.
It turns out that the U-shaped spring/clip that sits underneath the off hook button loses its ’spring’ after repeated use. I compared this clip to those used in the 200x series and it ‘appears’ identical. The only conclusion I was able to reach is that material & manufacturing differences allowed an inferior part to be used in their newest handsets.
We have several thousand barney phones in use and in the eight years I’ve been working with them I’ve seen maybe ten of them fail due to an off hook button.
I have yet to see this issue in the 1200 series in a little over a year of heavy use.
We have about 5250 IP phones. A mixture of 1120, 1140, 1220, 1230, 2210, 2211, 2004P1, 2004P2, and 2050 soft clients.
- Wes
#8 by Michael McNamara on February 23, 2010 - 6:54 pm
I’m pretty sure we set that option and it didn’t work either but I could be wrong.
I’ll test again since we’ve spent so much time talking about it just to set the record straight. It’s quite possible I missed that option or botched something else while we were testing the two 1220 IP phones.
Thanks!
#9 by Evan Gottlieb on February 25, 2010 - 11:59 am
I just recently got my hands on several 1200 sets from a customer who changed to the 1100’s for Gig and BT, and I want to convert these 1200’s to SIP firmware. Is the 1100 SIP firmware the same, or is there a different formware for the 1200’s? And if so, where can I find the firmware to convert from the UNIStim? I checked the Nortel site with no luck.
Thanks,
#10 by Michael McNamara on February 25, 2010 - 12:12 pm
You’ll find the SIP software for the 1200 series under the Software Communication System.
Home > Technical Support > Voice, Multimedia & Unified Communications > Software Communication System
Good Luck!