<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> the general business push, at least in larger shops (100+ phones) are towards an IP Core system - right, wrong or ignorant - it is where the market is headed.</font>
You are very correct --- and IP Core is not mature enough for what a lot of organizations really need --- 5 9s. The powers that be think it's a computer so the IT guy gets stuck with it, doesn't want it and it is unstable --- even with a robust data network. There is one in a local prison --- more down time than up time. It's a good thing they have radios to keep operating. One car dealer with three local locations and six in the metro area went VoIP and no one likes it, it hasn't lived up to the salesman's promises, and even the auto sales people use their cell phones instead of the furnished phones. Two local banks, HQed out of town, and one local credit union with three locations went VoIP. Keeping it going was only accomplished by oversizing the data "pipe". ---right, wrong, or ignorant--- I'll vote for the last one.
[edited. fixed tags]
[This message has been edited by test-ok (edited January 03, 2005).]