New office bluetooth phone - Cisco 8851

At work I had the opportunity to upgrade to a bluetooth phone, the Cisco 8851. It has bluetooth built in so it connects to my hearing aid bluetooth device, the Phonak Compilot 2. It connects quickly and the quality is good. I previously used a Plantronics MDA200 with a bluetooth dongle, the SSP5714-01.

The description of the phone includes a tcoil handset, but mine came with a regular handset. Apparently I have to request that separately.

I can recommend the phone for office bluetooth phone use and Webex meetings.

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Hi Don

I wear the Phonak Bluetooth hearing aids. Walgreens is getting me the Cisco IP 8851. Will it connect directly to my hearing aids like my cell phone. I also use the Plantronics mda 200 Bluetooth hub.

Can you give me any details?

Regards
Scott

I don’t use Phonak aids but I do have an 8851 at work (Cisco phone system at a University).

My Oticon aids (OPN when I got the phone) use MFI rather than normal Bluetooth so I have to use a ConnectClip as an intermediary device between the Classic Bluetooth of the 8851 and the MFI of the Oticon aids. The ConnectClip has a microphone. The combination of the ConnectClip and the Oticon aids are seen as a Bluetooth “headset” by the 8851. Your aids may be seen as a headset also. In my case I paired the ConnectClip with the 8851. When powered on, the ConnectClip connects to the first paired Bluetooth device it finds so that may be my computer (MacBook Pro) or the 8851 phone. If the computer, I disconnect it using the computer Bluetooth control and use the phone setup menu to connect to the “headset”. After that I can use the ConnectClip or the phone buttons to answer the 8851. As you won’t have the intermediary device, maybe the 8851 will connect to you aids automatically if they aren’t connected to another device (computer or cell phone or whatever). I’ve read that some Phonak aids can pair with multiple devices but connect to either 1 or 2 bluetooth devices depending on the model of the aids.

I hope this helps a bit as I didn’t find much info when trying to use 8851 with my aids. You may find it useful to download the complete users manual for the 8851 if you don’t get one with the phone. It has some info about how to use Bluetooth :slight_smile:

Good luck with your new phone.

Stuart

Don

Thank you for the info

I was told by Cisco support that the reason Bluetooth Hubs such as the PLANTRONICS MDA 200 does not work well is that it’s not made for the phone itself. Built in Bluetooth such as the 8851 or IPHONE works well is because it’s made for that device.
I have the Phonak Pharadise which is blue and has mic built in.
Can you answer you Cisco 8851 when you not at phone or do u have to manually push a button on phone??

Thanks
Scott