I am looking at implementing an IP phone system in our small business (about 20 users). Do I need to run additional CAT-5 cabling to each office for IP phones?
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The standards recommend two fully terminated outlets per work area. You can utilize the switch in the phone, however, if you have to replace the phone once, you are upside down on your savings over running an additional cable. Also, if you only have one cable you have a single point of failure per work area. I would recommend that you run an additional cable for both redundancy and overall savings. The cable will last a lot longer than the phone.
This was first published in July 2007