U.S. Phone Purchase Advice (Plantronics Calisto Pro)

BarakaBloke · 20 March 2010 at 4:24PM

I've been thinking of getting a Plantronics Calisto Pro Telephone but it's mainly available in the USA and not the UK.

If I bought one from the USA would it be compatible with the UK telephone system?
(If the power adapter isn't compatible I will just buy my own UK version, so that's not a problem).

I've also noticed it on eBay from China for half the price, but with the battery cover missing!
See eBay item 280476739702

Any idea what's going on here? I imagine I could buy a spare battery cover if that's the only problem.

Thanks
BB

jay1976 · 20 March 2010 at 4:46PM

hi you will need the uk adaptor, universal one may work, you will also need a us to uk phone plug. ive converted very old telephones from the us for restoration. not too sure if the new ones and all the features will work though.
hope this helps

BarakaBloke · 20 March 2010 at 7:26PM

Thanks. Has anyone got experience with modern US phones?

DVardysShadow · 20 March 2010 at 10:37PM

Watch out with foreign phones. Japanese market phones are a fire hazard here, because our transmission voltage is much higher than the Japanese system.

BarakaBloke · 21 March 2010 at 3:39AM

Thanks for the warning, but this is from China and intended for the US market, as far a I can tell, so hopefully that's not a problem!

Does anyone know what the 'missing battery cover' thing is all about? I'm guessing that either these have failed production line tests and where intended for recycling and so had the battery covers removed to prevent (unsuccessfully) them being sold as functioning products, or that they've been 'diverted' from the normal production run and removing the battery cover is intended to pacify the manufacturer since the product is a 'severe second' (to say the least).

Buzby · 22 March 2010 at 3:21PM

If the system supports caller ID, it will probably NOT work with the ETSI standard used within Europe, but take the FCC standard instead. A phone without this facility is a pretty major omission!

BarakaBloke · 22 March 2010 at 3:58PM

Thanks. I don't use caller ID, but I might in the future.

BexTech · 23 March 2010 at 3:59PM

USA DECT uses different channel allocations and only half the channel allocations too.

The PSU will definitely need to be replaced, as it seems it's 120v input only, so you'll need to find either a 230v or wide-coverage (100v - 250v for example) one with 9v DC output and at least 700mA.

BexTech · 23 March 2010 at 4:00PM

BarakaBloke wrote: »

Thanks for the warning, but this is from China and intended for the US market, as far a I can tell, so hopefully that's not a problem!

Same problem, USA is roughly 110v, Japan 100v, whilst here roughly 230v

BarakaBloke · 23 March 2010 at 6:02PM

DVardysShadow said that our 'Transmission Voltage' is higher than in Japan and as I am only interested in the US phones compatibility with the UK telephone network and not concerned about mains compatibilty (see original post) I read 'Transmission Voltage' as the voltage used on the telephone network as opposed to 'Mains Voltage'. Either way it doesn't apply.
I will just use a UK power supply rated for the same output voltage and current as the US one, so this is not a major issue.

Has anyone got any idea why those eBay phones are all missing their battery covers?