Combined Technology KE1020A/1021A Review
This product was made available to me by a local re-seller. As IP telephony products are difficult to acquire in my location, I took the opportunity to buy it at a cost of about $135 US, which might be about twice the price that it is available for in the USA. It is a Euro design SIP phone. Unfortunately, the phone is lacking in support. The two models of this phone are different only in that one has two ethernet ports, and the other only one.
Features
The following lists the features found in the version 3.00.16 firmware that was loaded into my phone. I understand that newer firware may have newer features, but I haven't been able to get hold of it yet. It supports:
Codecs; G7.11u, G729, G723.1 (more codecs on newer firmware)
Although there appears to be a speakerphone function, complete with buttons, it seems to work only for dialing, you cannot hear the ringback, nor the caller answer. There also appears to be a microphone on the front of the unit. I suspect this is a firmweare limitation.
Caller ID, which when tested with incoming calls Via IPKALL, and FWD seemed to work. Call waiting ID however was displayed for about 1/2 second before it disappeared. The call waiting tone is heard one time at the onset of the incoming call, and never is repeated. I was never able to sucessfully get a call waiting call off the FWD network with this phone.
There appear to be two lights on the unit which have never lit under any circumstances. The included manual has no description of the lights.
Firmware
The firmware version that mine had was old and although it was clear after various web searches that newer firmware was available, the manufacturer http://www.combined-tech.com refused to make it available to me. They claimed it was the resposibility of the reseller to support end users. Not a good start.
The firmware in my unit lacks support for STUN or NAT proxy. This is no big deal if you can open the required ports, however on a connection like mine where the cable company puts me behind their firewall, I have no acess to those ports to open, making STUN or a NAT proxy critical. The reseller continued assuring me that the firmware was not an issue, despite its lack of features.
Testing
I tested this unit on Sip services from net2phone, FWD, and Deltathree. I tested incoming only through the FWD network, and received POTS calls via an IP call number directed to FWD. In most cases there seemed to be no problem with outbound calling. After leaving the phone on net2phone for a couple of days, I could no longer hear the party on the other end on outgoing calls. I then switcewd the phone to FWD, and it worked. It has since not worked at all on Net2phone. No matter how long the phone was left on FWD, I never seemed to loose outgoing call audio, however incoming calls via my IPKall number sometimes suffered from no audio. My testing on the deltathree network was more limited, and no quirks were noticed there.
Advantages
Great design, nice looking ergonomics, excellent sound quality. Perhaps one of the best designed low cost phones I have tested!
Disadvantages
No technical support, nor firmware upgrades available via the web. Un-helpful tecnical support department. Their USA number is an IP phone that never has adequate bandwidth, and terminates in New Zealand. The New Zealand number is frequently not answered. They did not respond to my initial emails, requiring me to call them, first on their IP phone line that did not work, then on their New Zealand number.
Comparison with Grandstream SIP Phone:-
This phone has a better design, and better feel than the Grandstream. It seems somehow more rugged, and lacks the cheap Chinese telephone feel of the handytone. This phone has no STUN or NAT proxy setting available and lacks the firmware availability of the Grandstream products, which directly affects its functionality for many configurations.
I recommend that any user considering purchasing this phone to make sure you can get firmware updates, otherwise, dont buy it!
Like most newer phones and IP Phones this could use a weight placed in the base to keep it from sliding off the table, as it is too lightweight!
It's also sold as the Koncept, MamaKall, and Talkpro.
Added: Sunday, April 17, 2005
Reviewer: Mark de Leon
Score:
Related web link: Combined Technology website
hits: 9122
Language: eng
[ VoIP Reviews Main ]
Posted by Anonymous on Dec 26, 2008 - 04:35 AM
Your rating:
This is a good product for Residential VOIP customers. Make sure you have a good Voip Providers though. |
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