New admin taking over old Mitel system. Need assistance

[911delorean]

I've just gotten a job as a IT admin for a church. I am trying to do the best that I can just trying to find things out for myself. Doing as much research as I can, thanks to this forum. So here is my current situation.

About a month ago, had a massive snow storm that knocked out all power to our building. When the power came back I went around to check everything.
I believe I counted a total of 12+ dead phones. When I say dead, no life at all. Some even have electrical whining when plugged into a known good POE Mitel adapter or POE switch.
All of the dead phones are all Inter-tel branded 8622 models. We appear to have a mixture of 8622s branded as Mitel and Intertel, a handful of 8662s and a handful of 5320s and 5340s that are currently working.

So here is my dilemma, being a church our budgeting for tech is fairly small. I am unable to find any sizable amount of the 86xx phones. When I do come across them they are crazy expensive. 100-200+$ per phone. But I can find the 53xx series very easily, about 20-50$ depending on the exact model. I can afford the 53xx series, but not the 86xx series. I would rather not spend the money on the 86xx as I will be trying to get a newer phone system installed fairly soon. But I need something for them to use until I can budget the money for a VoIP overhaul.

Here is what I have figured out so far.
We have a Inter-Tel branded piece of rack equipment that I would obviously have to guess is the controller for all the phones.
I have the ability to log into the unit to change misc settings, add extensions, check active phones, licenses, etc.
The system reports it as a "5000 CP". I have no idea what version of software or firmware it is running. (If the information is needed I can find and post it.)

I was able to figure out that each phone requires a license. Here is our current break down of licenses.
Cat A: 49
Cat B: 0
Cat C: 2
Cat D: 12
Cat E: 48
Cat F: 1


From the information I have gathered each license is specific to a model of phone. I would have to guess that our 86xx are the Cat A or E, and the 53xx are the Cat D.
I can find new licenses for the Cat D but they are almost as expensive as the 86xx phones. 130$ a piece and I would need at least 15 of them.

Through looking at a few random forum posts, I get the impression that the 53xx phones can use any license? Or that there is a way to convert the licenses to be compatible.

So now to my questions.

1. What do each of the Categories mean? What phones fall into what category?
2. Is it actually possible to convert a preexisting license to a different category? EX E-D or A-D
3. What are some good retailers where I can find bulk of the 86xx phones? Or even the 53xx if I can get the license situation figured out. Or even licenses themselves if they are cheap enough.
4. Was there some kind of defect with the 86xx series where they die when powered back on?
5. If my controller can be updated, how would I do that?

Thanks

[Tech Electronics]

911delorean,

1. Here are the categories of licenses.

Category	Phone Type
A	86xx IP-Mode
B	8602 Softphone
C	86xx SIP-Mode
D	52xx/53xx IP-Mode
E	Digital Phones
F	SIP Phones

IF I remember correctly you could get some of the earlier 53xx phones up and working on a Category A license, but I think they fixed that later on; not sure about that though.

2. As far as converting a pre-existing Category License to a different one that is not really a thing a user can do. What could possibly happen is that Mitel might convert some of the licensing from one type to another for you, but you would have to pay for that.

3. I have no idea where to find older phones at; sorry. As for licensing you have to go through Mitel to do that or a Mitel Vendor who takes over your licensing account. Keep in mind that later this year they will not be selling any new licensing for this discontinued end-of-life system.

4. There was no defect with those symptoms that I am aware of. It sounds more like they took a power spike and were damaged or their power supply was.

5. There are two types of controllers:
    a. CS Controller - is a 1U controller typically blue or black; blue if it is Inter-Tel and black if it is Mitel. Mitel bought out Inter-Tel during that time so the color changed. This controller can only go to version 6.1 and be supported by Mitel.
    b. HX Controller - is a 2U controller that is black. This is the only controller that can go to the latest version, 6.3 SP7 and be supported by Mitel.
  In order to get it updated you would need to find a Mitel vendor to take over your account with Mitel and they will take care of the rest for you; it won't be cheap however.

Thanks,

TE

[DND ON]

This sounds like an insurance claim.

[911delorean]

Well thanks for the info. What I'm reading so far looks like no matter what, I am basically forced to spend money that I do not have in order to have the system maintained and updated by a vendor.

Looks like my unit is a CS. 1U, Blue, Branded Inter-Tel. Are there any kind of release notes for the different software versions I can look at to see if it's worth getting the unit updated at all?

I was able to find some more dirt cheap 53xx phones to see if I can get them to work on the Cat A licenses. So hopefully that goes well.

The Category E phones... Digital? Sounds like what DSL is to a phone line? Using older phone lines but instead of normal analog voice traffic it's digital voice traffic?
Unfortunately the previous admin ripped out all the old phone line infrastructure, which is a shame since I think I found some for cheap as well.

Looks like I'll try and contact a local vendor and see what information I can get from them. I hope the prices are "reasonable" and I can fit them in my budgeting. But I guess that would be up to the individual vendor?

Thanks for all the info.

[Tech Electronics]

911delorean,

Well with the old CS controller you can only go to version 6.1, but you might need to find out what you are currently at. On the front panel you press the circle button and then the down arrow button to go to the System Menu; press circle for enter. Once you are in the system menu you can use the arrow keys to navigate and find out what version you are at so you can tell the vendor. They may also want to get the ARID associated with your system as well and depending on your software version that may or may not be easy. There is a way to do it through a phone with a feature code I think, but I would have to look that up. If you have a green dongle plugged in to the system the vendor will want to know the number on it; otherwise you will need to shut down the controller and pull the compact flash to get the Hardware ID and size from it; most vendors will probably send someone out to do this.

Anyway, just like with any business the prices they charge based on Mitel's suggested pricing and their markup; some are high some are not. You can call Mitel direct and ask for vendors in the area and they will provide you a list you can contact.

Thanks,

TE