Fiber with VoIP

[Grant Curell]

Good Morning

I'm working on a construction project for my organization and due to security concerns would like to put fiber in throughout. However, from what I've seen online there are only a few VoIP phones outfitted with fiber jacks (the building we're renovating has ST jacks in it currently) and they look like custom jobs from small companies. Not something very "official" if you will. Does Cisco offer a voice solution for a fiber physical infrastructure?

We had also looked at using a media converter. Would there be any complications for doing so beyond the initial cost of a media converter?

If anyone has any additional thoughts feel free to weigh in.

[Wayne DeNardi · Accepted solution]

According to this site found with a quick Google search, you can get Cisco phones that have been modified to have fiber interfaces - I don't think that Cisco sell any that do it natively.

Media converters can be useful, but are also a pain - they need to be powered - so you not only have the media converter, but also a power pack to locate near the phone too (although some can be USB powered).  They add an additional point of failure in to the environment and can sometimes be a bit finicky with speed and duplex.  You'll still have copper between the Phone and the Media Converter too which your customer may not be happy with if they're insisting on fiber everywhere.

Wayne
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[Grant Curell]

Thanks my friend. I already delivered the solution and told the boss to just run with copper for the reasons you listed. The fiber phones I saw being offered (the same ones you looked at) looked pretty janky lol - certainly nothing my organization was going to buy off on using hahaha.