Review of “AastraLink RP” (Part 1)
A review of AastraLink RP - a Microsoft Response Point phone system.
Note: Because this review is quite lengthy we’ve had to split it up into three posts. This is Part 1 of 3.
On Tuesday of this week, Aastra Telecom released their “AastraLink RP” phone system. We’ve been living with this system for a while now so this review is based on our experiences.
Aastra Telecom is the North American buisiness unit of Aastra Technologies Limited - a Canadian company based in Concord, Ontario that’s been in the Telecom hardware business since 1995. They employ over 1,800 people and their revenues are well over $500M annually. Although you may not have heard of Aastra they are a serious player in the industry. For those of you that have used Nortel’s Meridian system, you’ve probably been using Aastra hardware. So it’s safe to say that these guys know what they’re doing.
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the “AastraLink RP” is NOT the same as the “AastraLink Pro 160 IP-PBX” that Aastra released last month. We’ll be posting a comparison of these two solutions in the near future.
So, let’s take a look at Aastra’s entry into the world of Response Point.
The solution is built around a base unit that holds the ‘brains’ of the system. You have your choice of three different phones, and there’s an analog gateway available. In addition, two ’sidecars’ are available that allow you to see the status of, and transfer to the various extensions defined in the system. We’ll look at all of these components during this review.
Our system is a late Beta version, so I should mention that the final version may differ slightly from what you see here. Also, I’m no photography whizz, so my apologies for the poor quality of the photos. You’ll get a better experience if you click on the photos and check out the full-size versions.
Base Unit - “AastraLink RP 500″ |
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The base unit is 11.5″w X 9.75″d X 2.5″h. It is quite stylish with a black plastic case and louvered metal sides. On the front are two LEDs - one for power, and the other for hard-drive activity. In the middle of the front panel is a power button. As our unit is a Beta unit there’s no logo on the top, but you can see the slot where the Aastra label will sit on the production models. We’d have liked to have seen the power button removed from the unit - a phone system is designed to be left on all the time. The system doesn’t start automatically at power-up which can lead to problems after a power outage. We’d recommend that you put the unit on a UPS to help avoid this. |
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Both sides are louvred to allow for airflow through the chassis. This is a fanless design, with no moving parts. The system case runs cool to the touch. I would advise keeping at least 1 inch between the sides of the case and any other objects. |
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The back of the system reveals:
Production units will have a ‘real’ label, and not the hand-written version seen here! |
Analog Gateway - “AastraLink RP 540″ |
 The front of the RP540 sports green LEDs for:
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 Here’s the back view showing the ports:
The gateway is physically stackable - there are small cutouts on the top in which the feet from the RP500 base unit can fit. Additional RP540’s can be stacked as necesssary. |
Aastra Response Point handsets |
6751i RP
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6753i RP
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6757i CT RP
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 The handset on the 6757i CT RP features:
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Expansion Modules |
M670i
The M670i is equipped with LED status indicators and supports a variety of programmable features including:
This expansion unit was previously known as the 536M. Line information is displayed using 2 paper strips. |
M675i
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In Part 2 we’ll look at the software components of AastraLink RP.
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