Nortel Phones Overview

Nortel phones supported by the UCx fall into four categories:

  1. IP phones that can use either UNISTIM or SIP firmware (11xx and 12xx series)
  2. IP phones that use the UNISTIM protocol (i2xxx series including the i2050 soft phone, Nortel IP Audio Conference Phone 2033)
  3. Digital phones (M7xxx and T7xxx series phones used for Norstar and BCM product lines)
  4. Digital phones (M39xx and M2xxx series phones used for Meridian/CS1000 product lines)

The steps to configure Nortel phones with the SIP firmware are identical to any other SIP phones. Please follow the instructions in the section Third Party SIP Phones if you want to use a Nortel IP phone with SIP firmware.

Using the UNISTIM firmware for Nortel 11xx and 12xx series phones allows users to use several advanced features such as
  • Hotdesking (the option to change the extension used by the phone)
  • Feature button support (the ability to use Norstar and BCM features codes)
  • Phone status monitoring (busy lamp field functionality - currently available for UNISTIM and digital phones only)
  • Advanced Call Center agent features (agent login/logout button with status indication, agent ready/not ready button with status indication, etc.)
  • Proper reporting of Caller ID with advanced features such as call parking, transfers and conferencing

The Nortel 11xx and 12xx series phones support the use of a provisioning server for their configuration and firmware updates. If you want to use the provisioning server to configure or update your phones using TFTP, please refer to the documentation for these phones for information about the required configuration files and their contents.

The following pages describe configuration of the different categories of Nortel phones: