Seimens Gigaset A580 Cordless PSTN/SIP Phone

I just purchased a new cordless phone for home and decided on a Siemens Gigaset A580 cordless phone.

This phone is a regular PSTN cordless coupled with a SIP/VOIP phone base station that allows up to 6 SIP accounts to be configured for inbound/outbound calls. The base station also supports up to 6 handsets and can support 3 simultaneous calls (1 PSTN/2 VOIP).

I purchased a single handset bundle but it comes in single, double and triple bundle packs with the single bundle pack only costing me $175 on eBay brand new from a wholesale supplier. Additional handsets are only $65 from the same supplier.

Installation was smooth with just a power, PSTN and Ethernet cables to plug in on the base station and just a plug pack for the handset charging base, I had everything up and running in 5 minutes.

I disabled my NodePhone SIP account on my router and re-enabled it on the A580 and made a few adjustments to the online settings via web browser and set it for a static IP and also did a firmware update which consisted of me being logged out of the browser session whilst it rebooted and updated which took about 2 minutes, most of which I suspect was downloading the firmware file.

Calls work flawlessly either by NodePhone (VOIP service from my ISP Internode) or by PSTN and you can select which is the default outbound service as well as select at dial which you wish to use.

You can access your voicemail by one touch as well as set up directories both locally on the phone and use online directories.

It has a built in speaker phone which works well and sounds good, you can also transfer calls between handsets as well as use the intercom and group call functions built into the system.

You can access voicemail and directory messages as well as email on the handsets and send SMS’s if you have a service set up to use.

As always you can configure dial plans and other VOIP settings, there are many advanced settings which will make the tinkerer happy in all of us.

Overall I’m impressed at the quality of the phone, the power and yet ease of setting up and the price I paid was a bargain. I intend to purchase a couple of more handsets shortly to put around the house and retire our aging Oricom cordless.