Phone Compatability

[wehttam]

I am very green in the Telecom field and was wanting to know if it is possible to use non-Mitel branded phones with a Mitel 5000 PBX? If so, can you make a recommendation for a VOIP or SIP phone?
I work at a church, and we have a house that we make available for traveling missionaries. I would like to add them to the church's network to give them a more reliable internet connection, and to save the cost of having an AT&T phone in the house. I can get them onto our network very easily, but I am trying to figure out how to get them a phone at a reasonable cost.

Thanks!!

[acejavelin]

The problem with getting a generic SIP phone is that although the system supports them (depending on software level), they need to be licensed individually and if you don't have any licenses already, this is usually not a good way to go since it will require a technicians involvement (and thus an service fee charge).

But if you are looking for a cheap phone to place in a house, search eBay/Amazon or an online refurb house for a Mitel 5304, 5312, or 5320 and you can probably come up with something for under $100 and then all you need is a Category D license (the most common) to make the phone work.