Verizon and Yealink’s new One Talk T67LTE is the first wireless desk phone to be made available in the US, according to Verizon’s Senior Product Manager, Derek Peabody.
The device is available only with Verizon’s One Talk service and is designed to support hybrid working.
“No other wireless carrier has an embedded desk phone [like this],” Peabody told UC Today.
“This is part of Verizon’s standard supply chain process and standard network certification. It’s very much like a Verizon wireless smartphone in a desk phone’s body.
“I am aware that there are a few one-off solutions out there through third parties, but this is definitely the first carrier branded 4G/LTE connected desk phone in the United States”
A 4G desk phone was being considered by Verizon before the pandemic to address large areas of the US that still do not have reliable broadband options for VoIP services. The events of the past 19 months forced Verizon to “put the foot on the gas” to bring the One Talk T67LTE to market.
“We came up with so many more use cases after hearing feedback from our customers about all their challenges, such as working from home and sharing their broadband connection with a kid who would stream 4k videos. There just became so many more use cases fuelled by the pandemic that amplified the value prop of this device,” explained Peabody.
The new desk phone can connect through a LAN, WAN or Wi-Fi connection, or through an ethernet cable. The LTE connection enables a “failover”, so should the user lose their broadband connectivity at their office, the phone will fall back to an LTE connection. This makes it an attractive proposition for temporary offices, pop up offices on construction sites and regular offices, Peabody explained.
The One Talk T67LTE is not yet integrated with the recently launched BlueJeans Spaces, but it is on the roadmap for it to be used as a video endpoint for the VR platform, Peabody said.
“We’re trying to give our customers a lot of options for how and where they connect, and then make sure they’ve got the right third party or Verizon applications running on those connections to be able to do their business – no matter where they are,” he explained.
“We’re hyper-focused on the SMB part of the segment, giving those customers that endpoint flexibility, that ability to work and collaborate anywhere. That even extends up into public sector and enterprise as we all adjust to our new normal and the way that things are going to be working in the future.
“It’s one of the many arrows in Verizon’s quiver to help meet customers where they need their connectivity and their UC services.”
Peabody added that BlueJeans Spaces “levels the playing field” in hybrid working environments and that the industry will see many more solutions that bridge the divide between remote and office working.
“We’re going to see a lot more solutions that try to bridge that gap of people being dispersed but who are not always dispersed – some of them may be sitting in a conference room,” he elaborated.
“You’ll see Verizon – and BlueJeans Spaces is a good start on this – really trying to come up with solutions that make that a more cohesive experience. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to everybody piling into the office, so it’s probably a permanent hybrid work environment and the solutions that Verizon needs to focus on is to make that hybrid work as seamless as possible”
There is lots of opportunity for partners with the new device as well, especially when a combined One Talk and BlueJeans solution is launched in Q2 of next year, Peabody said.
“We think it will just help our partners and our own internal direct sales reps have an easier sales motion of being able to sell one thing that meets many communications needs versus having to sell the customer two different services and have them implement two different things,” he said.
“We’re trying to bring that One Talk and BlueJeans experience together, which will help our partners.”
