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Before you make any decisions to buy it is important to understand the differences between the services available in the UK to enable you to make an informed decision to ensure you achieve the best match for your business requirements. For a PDF version of this document click on the image on the left.
 
 
1. Ethernet in the First Mile is a technology to deliver high speed Ethernet services from the local telephone exchange to the customers’ premises. This local exchange to customer link was generically referred to as the ‘last mile’ even though the actual distance could be several miles. There are optical fibre and copper variants of EFM.

2. The most common uses for EFM are for public network connectivity such as:

• High speed access to the public Internet
• Access circuits to wide area networks such as MPLS
• SIP trunk connections to your Internet Telephone Service Provider (ITSP)
• Dedicated videoconferencing connectivity

3. For public EFM services for WAN or Internet services your ability to obtain EFM services will also depend on the availability of equipment within the local telephone exchange.

4. Currently there are two providers of Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) in the UK:

• BT Wholesale (BTW)
• Talk Talk Business (TTB)

The EFM services provided by BTW and TTB are fundamentally different. The only obvious difference between the two providers’ services is likely to be the cost of the service.

5. Both BTW and TTB deliver an industry standard Ethernet interface thus making it very easy and cost effective to connect to your equipment.

6. BTW and TTB EFM services are delivered over multiple copper pairs between the local telephone exchange and your site delivering an uncontended, symmetrical service. These copper pairs are supplied, installed and maintained by Openreach.

7. Within the local telephone exchange the copper pairs are terminated onto BTW or TTB owned and managed equipment.

8. In the event of a fault on your EFM service, it is the responsibility of BTW or TTB to diagnose the fault and determine whether it is equipment or line related. In the event of a line fault, it is the responsibility of Openreach to localise and fix the fault.

9. BTW have deployed separate, dedicated EFM switches provisioning each customer service across multiple switches. In the event of a switch failure, the customer service continues at a reduced bandwidth until the failed switch is restored.

BTW EFM with resilient switches within the local exchange

10. TTB are capitalising on their existing investment by adding EFM cards to their Multi-Service Access Nodes (MSAN) already supporting their telephony and xDSL services within their local telephone exchanges. Customer EFM services are installed to only one of these cards. In the event of a card or MSAN chassis failure the customer service will be offline until the card or chassis is repaired or replaced.

11. BTW have built a backhaul network for EFM that consists of two separate routes from each exchange into their core network.

12. TTB have two separate backhaul routes to their core network in some of their major exchanges, but this is not universal across all of their exchanges.

TTB EFM terminates on a single MSAN in the local telephone exchange

13. The SLA repair target for BTW and TTB is 6 hours. The SLG penalty from both operators is the same.

14. TTB state their bandwidth offerings as “up to 10Mbit/s or up to 20Mbit/s”. Every TTB EFM service is priced based and delivered based on using either two copper pairs or four copper pairs. The availability checker will tell you the minimum bandwidth that you will achieve and if the service doesn’t deliver this then you can obtain a full refund. It’s a pragmatic approach that means for a fixed low price, you know up front, as a minimum what the service can deliver.

15. BTW treat EFM as just like any of the more traditional optical Ethernet services. You specify a bandwidth and a location and if the price comes back, it means that BTW are guaranteeing that for that price, you will get that bandwidth.

For example, if you require a 10Mbit/s guaranteed service for your business BTW will use 8 copper pairs and will guarantee the service. TTB may say that the minimum expected bandwidth for the location is 2Mbit/s and the expected (but not guaranteed) bandwidth is 10Mbit/s and they would be delivering that using 4 pairs. TTB’s price would be much lower, and might deliver 10Mbit/s or close to 10Mbit/s, but the only guarantee is that it will deliver 2Mbit/s. BTW’s price would be more expensive but the performance of the service would be guaranteed to meet your requirements.

We agree with Griffin Information Services conclusion that the products are not equivalent and each has their merits. As a result it is important to make your EFM buying decision based on a proper evaluation of the two providers’ services and their suitability for your business needs rather than consider EFM generically and choose the supplier based on the lowest quote.

Retail PCI Compliance Webinar

Installing Guest WiFi Webinar

Meraki PCI Compliance Reports

Prepare your network for the iPad Webinar

Systems Manager

Teleworker VPN

Dashboard Demo

Traffic Shaper Webinar

Surviving the iPad Crush Webinar

Introducing 100% Cloud Managed Switching and Security

LifeSize Connections Tour

Video Infrastructure Reinvented

Introducing the LifeSize® UVC Platform™

LifeSize ClearSea

LifeSize Video Center – Be everwhere. Live or on demand.

LifeSize Video Conferencing – superior experience at any bandwidth

Mobilise to Rightsize Your Network
How enterprise mobility can reduce the total cost of network ownership by 70 percent (White Paper) – 679KB
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Aruba MOVE Easy and Secure BYOD

Aruba MOVE Architecture Overview

Aruba Mobility Controller Video Data Sheet

Aruba Mobile Device Access Control
The End Of The Line: Desk Phones Take To The Air. In an otherwise wireless world filled with smartphones, laptops, and tablets, the wired desk phone is a throwback. In fact, in a growing number of enterprises today the desk phone is the only office tool with a wired connection. Is it the end of the line for the desk phone? (White Paper) – 1,434KB
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What is MDAC?

Bringing QoS Over Wireless LAN Into Focus
The reliable delivery of latency-sensitive voice and video streams mandates the use of transport mechanisms with very low packet loss, jitter, and delay. The introduction of corporate Wi-Fi introduces a number of threats to voice quality and must be properly managed and controlled to provide a satisfactory user experience. (White Paper) – 1,773KB
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Bring Your Own iPad to Work
The technology is here, it is available but in most cases it is not yet adapted for corporate use, nor is the corporate infrastructure ready. So, what do we do next? (White Paper) – 1,400KB
DOWNLOAD Convergence of Enterprise Telecom

Enabling High Performance for Apple iPads in Enterprise
(White Paper) – 4,101KB
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Apple FaceTime on Multimedia-Grade Aruba Networks WLAN
(White Paper) – 859KB
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In Store Mobility – mobile applications in retail
(White Paper) – 1,044KB
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The Convergence of Enterprise Telecom Services
RIM Fixed Mobile Convergence – BlackBerry Mobile Voice System on the Aruba Networks Wireless LAN Infrastructure (White Paper) – 1,485KB
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Signs Of Trouble
Locating Emergency Callers Over Wi-Fi. (White Paper) – 997KB
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Raising The Call
Integrating Aruba Wireless LANs With Microsoft Lync’s Emergency Call Architecture. Identifying the location of a wireless network telephony user who has made an emergency call is not as easy as for legacy TDM phone systems. This white paper explores Aruba Network’s solution for Microsoft Lync installations. (White Paper) – 1,380KB
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Microsoft Lync over Wi-Fi: Aruba vs. Cisco

Remote Access & Virtual Branch Networking

Rethinking Remote Access
Pervasive Enterprise Mobility Using Remote Access Points (White Paper) – 738KB
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Virtual Branch Networking (VBN) 2.0…
…and the Emergence of Cloud-Based Branch Ofices. (Solution Guide) – 924KB
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Aruba Virtual Branch Networks Data Sheet

Designed for Speed
Network Infrastructure in an 802.11n World. (White Paper) – 1,847KB
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Interoperability Considerations for Today’s Wi-Fi Networks
This paper addresses some of the deployment issues users might face with IEEE802.11 Wi-Fi deployments and methods to avoid these issues. (White Paper) – 1,012KB
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WLAN RF Architecture Primer
Single-Channel and Adaptive Multi-Channel Models. (White Paper) – 2,424KB
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The All-Wireless Workplace
The all-wireless workplace is now open for business: using 802.11n as your primary network. (White Paper) – 1,279KB
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Aruba Networks ARM
ARM Yourself to Increase Enterprise WLAN Data Capacity. (White Paper) – 4,902KB
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Operating Wireless LANs for High Reliability and Performance
Six Best Practices That You Can Implement Today. (White Paper) – 743KB
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Industrial, External and Mesh Networking

The Indestructible Network
Wireless LANs for Industrial and Outdoor Applications. (White Paper) – 2,569KB
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Using Wireless Mesh Networks for Video Surveillance
With IP video surveillance, organisations can leverage their existing data networks for transport rather than relying on a single-purpose, proprietary network. With a high-performance, multiservice wireless network, organisations can support multiple applications and user groups on the same infrastructure, while simplifying the network and lowering operational expenses. (White Paper) – 911KB
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The Next Step in the Evolution of Wireless Mesh Networking
An all-wireless network mesh brings the convenience of easy installation and lower deployment costs. Wireless mesh networks must meet the same standards for scalable capacity, reliability and security as do their wireless LAN (WLAN) counterparts. (White Paper) – 555KB
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AirMesh Multiservice Wireless Mesh Routers

Education

The Whys and Hows of Deploying Large-Scale Campus-wide Wi-Fi Networks
Ubiquitous Wi-Fi across an enterprise or campus is a very positive and exciting experience for your students, faculty, staff and visitors to your institution. This white paper explores the whys and hows of deploying large-scale campus-wide Wi-Fi networks. (White Paper) – 539KB
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Interactive Learning 2.0
How Wi-Fi Enhances Learning and Improves Student/Teacher Interaction. (White Paper) – 446KB
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Hospitality

The WLAN in the Hospitality Industry
Hotels, conference/convention facilities, cruise ships and other hospitality venues host an increasingly “connected” customer base. This white paper examines hospitality applications and associated wireless network solution requirements. (White Paper) – 616KB
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Aruba Amigopod Video Data Sheet

 
 

Healthcare

Doctors Without Wires
Secure Wi-Fi For Healthcare Applications. (White Paper) – 1,253KB
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Mobility transforms healthcare delivery at The Ottawa Hospital

 
 

Government

Requirements for Building Effective Government WLANs
With governments just now beginning the adoption of wireless LANs as a key component of their network connectivity strategy, the purpose of this White Paper is to enumerate the issues and solutions now available that lead to successful government WLAN installations. (White Paper) – 1,029KB
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Aruba S3500 Story

Aruba S3500 Series Overview

Secure Enterprise Mobility for Government Teleworkers
The ability to remotely connect to all resources in a reliable and secure manner is of paramount concern for central and local government. Regardless of location, teleworkers connection to central resources must be highly secure and meet policy objectives. This white paper takes a look at the issues (US perspective). (White Paper) – 721KB
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Retail and PCI

Technology Advances in Retail: Improving Margins using Wireless Networks
Today, a new wave of opportunity exists for retail industries to improve margins through the use of wireless technology. This white paper discusses the applications for this technology, the security requirements in a retail environment, and considerations when selecting the right architecture for mobile network deployments. (White Paper) – 621KB
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Best Practices to Simplify Retail Mobility Operations
Enterprise mobility has been and continues to be essential to retail operations. This white paper examines a number of factors that create significant complexity for network management in retail environments. (White Paper) – 814KB
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PCI 1.2 Requirements Mapping for Aruba Networks’ Endpoint Compliance System (ECS)
How Aruba Networks ECS Helps Organisations Achieve Compliance with PCI DSS. (White Paper) – 510KB
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Security & Management

Cloud-Based Content Security Service (CSS)
A Technical Overview (White Paper) – 1,089KB
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Content Security Service Data Sheet

Security Is In The Air
Complying With The PCI DSS v1.2 Standard. (White Paper) – 568KB
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Secure Wi-Fi: “Magical”

Integrating Wired IDS with Wi-Fi
Using Open-Source IDS to Complement a Wireless IDS/IPS Deployment. (White Paper) – 1,083KB
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A Closer Look at Wireless Intrusion Detection
How to benefit from a hybrid deployment model. (White Paper) – 646KB
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Banning Wireless Doesn’t Stop Users
Understand how to protect your network and support Wi-Fi enthusiasts. (White Paper) – 671KB
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ArubaOS RFProtect Data Sheet

Network Access Control for Mobile Networks
The threat of an infected device gaining access to a healthy enterprise network is becoming a significant concern, especially with the increase in demand for personal devices to have access to the corporate network. As a result, Network Access Control is becoming more and more important. (White Paper) – 2,004KB
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Building Global Security Policy for Wireless LANs
(White Paper) – 455KB
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AirWave RAPIDS Rogue Detection
Using AirWave RAPIDS Rogue Detection to Implement Your Wireless Security and PCI Compliance Strategy (White Paper) – 983KB
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Driving Operational Efficiency
A guide to using AirWave wireless management suite for service desk troubleshooting. (White Paper) – 1,017KB
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AirWave VisualRF
Location and Mapping: Improving Operations Efficiency Throughout the Wireless Network Lifecycle with Aruba Network’s AirWave Network Management platform (White Paper) – 708KB
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AirWave Network Management Data Sheet

AirWave® User-Centric Network Management

Some Aruba Networks Fun…

Help Desk: “Big Baby”

The CEO and his iPad — “Hold on, Let Me Check”

Going to Brazil – “Second Life”

The CEO and his iPad — “Anything Else?”

Going to Brazil — “Time Machine”

The CEO and his iPad – “Meow”

ShoreTel Unified Communications Platform
ShoreTel’s unique architecture distributes intelligence throughout the system and offers modular scalability – 1,238KB
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Brilliantly Simple Business Communications Presentation

The Case Against Complexity
the root cause of IT complexity in business is easily identifiable, and its elimination from IT systems, including those concerning IP telephony, is highly plausible. Yet, extenuating factors among leading technology providers remain an obstacle. (White Paper) – 753KB
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ShoreTel Overview Video (Cost of Complexity)

How Unified Communications Pays For Itself
best practice tips on building a comprehensive business case for unified communications (White Paper) – 647KB
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From Voice Over IP To Unified Communications
Simplify system management – architecture matters (White Paper) – 827KB
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Demystifying Unified Communications
How IP telephony systems enable businesses to leverage fully the power of UC (White Paper) – 634KB
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Assessing The Business And Financial Impact Of IP Unified Communications Systems
The ShoreTel TCO tool as a comprehensive analytical guide to the decision-making process (White Paper) – 622KB
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ShoreTel System Management
Manage all enterprise communication needs from a single point (Solution Brief) – 989KB
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ShoreTel Communicator
Transforming the way people work with brilliantly simple communications (Solution Brief) – 1,606KB
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ShoreTel Communicator Demo

ShoreTel Communicator for Mac
(Specifications) – 981KB
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ShoreTel Communicator for Mac

ShoreTel Conferencing
Empower all users with real time collaboration (Solution Brief) – 879KB
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ShoreTel Conferencing and Instant Messaging
(Specifications) – 645KB
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ShoreTel Conferencing Overview

ShoreTel Voice Switches
(Specifications) – 1,820KB
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Building Reliable IP Telephony Systems
How architecture and design differentiate ShoreTel from the Competition. (White Paper) – 1,667KB
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IP Telephony: Reliability You Can Count On
Architecture matters (White Paper) – 849KB
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Reliability The ShoreTel Way
(White Paper) – 1,591KB
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ShoreTel Integration
ShoreTel integration with Microsoft Unified Communications (Solution Brief) – 2,926KB
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ShoreTel Ergonomic Phones
ShoreTel’s mission was to create a telephone that was a joy to use. The ShoreTel IP Phone was the result (we have seen our customers almost fighting to have them on their desks – I didn’t think I would ever see that when I started working with 700 series telephones in 1973!). (White Paper) – 1,097KB
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ShoreTel IP Phones
Simplifying communications for the way people work today (Solution Brief) – 3,335KB
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ShoreTel IP Phones
(Specifications) – 2,078KB
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Enterprise Contact Centre

ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center
Maximising customer satisfaction in the virtual call centre (Solution Brief) – 1,058KB
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The Consumer Credit Counselling Service, Leeds UK

Tearing Down the Walls
Using unified communications in the contact centre to improve customer satisfaction (White Paper) – 1,998KB
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Abandoned Calls Hurt
How high call volume and high abandon rates affect contact centres (White Paper) – 1,370KB
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What Happens When The Lights Go Out?
Building business continuity through ShoreTel distributed contact centre technology (White Paper) – 1,394KB
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Control Contact Centre Costs
Lower the time your IT group spends managing contact centre technology (White Paper) – 1,083KB
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Integrated Applications
ShoreTel offers a portfolio of software applications that deliver on the promise of unified communications (UC) and help increase the return on investment from both the ShoreTel UC system and the customer’s existing business applications. By effectively integrating with current business processes, these applications can help increase employee productivity, shorten response times, encourage collaboration, and improve customer satisfaction. – 10,784KB
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ShoreTel Cost Recovery Integration
For organisations that bill their clients by the project or hour, such as legal, architecture, accounting and professional services (Specifications) – 1,119KB
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ShoreTel NetSuite Integration
(Specifications) – 1,076KB
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ShoreTel Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com Call Center Adapter (Specifications) – 713KB
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ShoreTel Web Dialer
(Specifications) – 1,250KB
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Mobility

ShoreTel Mobility Solution
Integrate leading smartphones and tablets with existing enterprise communications applications and infrastructure securely, simply and cost effectively (Solution Brief) – 2,048KB
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ShoreTel Mobility – Solving Chaos

Addressing the Five Requirements of BYOD
For Mobile Unified Communications (White Paper) – 1,124KB
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Mobility on iPad

Reduce Cellular Spend With ShoreTel Mobility
(White Paper) – 1,419KB
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Security in Mobility Solutions
(White Paper) – 791KB
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ShoreTel RoamAnywhere Client
(Specifications) – 920KB
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Deploying Mobile Unified Communications for Avaya
(White Paper) – 1,042KB
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ShoreTel Mobility for Avaya
(Specifications) – 907KB
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Deploying Mobile Unified Communications for Cisco
(White Paper) – 777KB
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ShoreTel Mobility for Cisco
(Specifications) – 704KB
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ShoreTel Mobility for Nortel
(Specifications) – 868KB
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ShoreTel Mobility for Symbian/Nokia
(Specifications) – 1,177KB
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ShoreTel Mobility – How it Works

General

Virtualisation
How virtualisation complements ShoreTel’s highly reliable distributed architecture (White Paper) – 1,956KB
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Is Your Network Ready For IP Telephony?
Straight facts about IP telephony planning and deployment (White Paper) – 280KB
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SIP Trunks
Keeping your unified communications system secure (White Paper) – 889KB
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The Complete IP Telephony eBook
2,765KB
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Strategic Guide to Business Phone Systems
Practical advice for a successful IP telephony design and deployment – 1,809KB
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Unified Communications Buyer’s Guide
Asking the right questions up-front is essential for organisations to select the right solution for their needs – 360KB
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ShoreTel Emergency Notification
This applies to 999 and European standard emergency numbers too (Specifications) – 2,381KB
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