Just want to say we've had one of these phone systems in place for about a year and really love it but it hasn't been a perfect experience.

Put in about Jun 2010 to replace a Nortel system that died after 10 years or so. AT&T support was really terrible so decided not to use any system from them. While we were at it, put in Comcast phone lines shortly after.

Overall the system has been phenomenal. This is a church with 15 phones throughout the building. The staff loves the way the phones look and how easy they are to use. I love the fact that both the phones and the phone system are easy to program.

We had a KSU go bad last December, about 6 months after it was put in, which meant the system was down. At that point just ordered a spare and put that one in. Xblue phone support was really good and they sent the replacement right away but I didn't want to even wait the day for shipping.

The good news was that, during the time the phone system was down, it was easy to just put in a two line cordless system and the staff was only without phones for a short while, so it gave me a little extra time to really understand what was going on.

More good news is the fact that the Xblue handsets all retained their programming so, when the new KSU went in, was only about 5 minutes to get the system back up. All the staff lost was their voice-mail. Not a big deal since v-mail is being used less and less all the time with cell phones, email etc.

No problems at all for another 6 months then a second KSU went. To be fair to Xblue, the Comcast MTA also went bad at the same time so it is not clear what caused what to fail. A lot of lightning a couple days before so who knows what happened.

Once again, put in the replacement KSU and they were back in business in less than half an hour from the time Comcast replaced their MTA.

If you get one of these systems, highly recommend you buy a spare KSU since they are incredibly inexpensive, especially compared to the cost of being without a phone system for a couple days.

Write down the changes to the system from the default (and tape them to the spare box), which in our case was only about 6 or so things like to change the date & time, outgoing message, etc. If you do that, in the event you need to replace it, you are back so quickly that people may not even be aware that your system was down, other than lost v-mails!

So, believe it or not, despite the hiccups, we are extremely happy with the system! XBlue service is great but nothing beats being prepared. Also, if you don't want to tackle this yourself, have a knowledgeable person put it in who has a spare KSU.

Steve, I'd suggest you invest in some serious AC and C.O. protection. Even though Comcast is using an MTA to 'create' the lines, those lines CAN be the source of damaging surges! Then, the next time the KSU dies, you'll be an OOOOLLLDDD codger and the system will probably be replaced with something that is only a thought right now!

By serious AC & CO protection, that means avoid Kmart specials. Get one that costs a few bucks and I suspect your troubles will become a distant memory.

Panamax, Dytek are 2 that come to mind. (That's actually pretty good! The remember part, not the brand part! They're both good and so are several others)

"we are extremely happy with the system! XBlue service is great"

I am glad to hear the confirmation. I have installed 6 x16 systems and have had few issues. I installed one last week and got an email mildly complaining about issues such as the music on hold (just program EXTERNAL and add a source or not), System too feature rich and complicated for a small office (did everything they wanted better than any less expensive options), issues with not getting options between each received voicemail message while retreiving messages (the options are accessed via the up and down arrows and shown on the display while listening to received messages) and confusion over system and individual phone timers and programming. They backed off when they realized that their issues were mostly call handling differences between their old system and the new x16 that would have to be learned. For now they are willing to explore the system and try to make it work.

Thanks for your responses. Sorry, didn't realize I forgot to check the "Email Notification" option. Since I wrote the original post, have been doing some troubleshooting. Definitely problems with the wiring. We currently have a decent battery backup but nothing else.

Not exactly sure what I need to protect. A surge from the coax cable from the cable company into the MTA? Something in between the internal wiring and the KSU? Something between the KSU and the MTA?