The Syspine product comes in two versions, one which supports 4 lines and another which supports 8.  As this is not a modular platform there currently is no way to either upgrade the 4-port unit to 8 ports, no less expand above 8 ports.  We have heard from CMPTel (the primary Syspine distributor in the U.S.) that they do intend to have an ability to expand later this year (Q4, 2008) using some sort of gateway adapter which presumably would sit next to the main base station.

D-Link’s VoiceCenter product is a bit different in that the base station does not directly support any  phone lines; it exclusively uses an external gateway adapter called the DVG-3104MS.  This gateway supports 4 phone lines, and then uses the data network (there is an ethernet port on the gateway) to move the calls on towards the base station using the SIP network protocol.  Up to 13 of these gateways can be conected to a single base station providing access to 50 lines connecting the Response Point system to the public telephone system.

Be sure to understand that this is the number of phone lines coming from your telephone company.  Both of these Microsoft Response Point base stations can support up to 50 extensions/handsets attached to them regardless of the number of “outside lines” available.  It’s just that not all of the handsets can handle an outside call at the same time, the number of simultanious call being limited by the number of outside lines available. 

As the Syspine system is a fixed configuration, the confusion has mostly been around the DLink VoiceCenter and its external gateways.  To clear the matter up we got in touch with one of our insiders on the DLink VoiceCenter product team.  (It’s certainly beneficial to being just across town from their corporate headquarters!)  Anyways, he made it clear that yes the VoiceCenter will currently support up to 50 analog lines using 13 gateways.  He also hinted that when Service Pack 1 comes out this summer it will support a single SIP trunk to an internet telephone service provider. 

John