Toshiba Strata DK Competitive Notes page 4

Toshiba Strata DK & Nortel Norstar Product Comparison
Strata DK Advantages Over Norstar
Strata DK Advantages Over Norstar
Larger Maximum Capacity
Strata DK systems provide larger capacities than their Norstar counterparts. This allows the
Strata DK systems to address a larger segment of the market. It also protects the customer's
investment better because they are less likely to outgrow the Strata DK than the Norstar.
The Strata DK14 provides larger CO line and station capacity than the Norstar 3x8. The
Strata DK14 supports up to 4 CO lines and 10 stations, while the Norstar 3x8 supports
three CO lines and eight stations.
The Strata DK40i provides larger station capacity than the Norstar ICS Compact. The
Strata DK40i supports up to 12 CO lines and 28 stations, while the Norstar ICS Compact
supports 8 CO lines and 24 stations.
The Strata DK424 provides significantly larger capacities than the Norstar ICS Modular.
The DK424 supports up to 432 ports, while the Norstar only supports up to 272 ports.
Configuration Flexibility
Addition of CO lines and stations must be done in relatively large increments with the Norstar
ICS Modular. Each CO line expansion module holds three line cards, with each card
containing four CO line circuits (12 total per module). Each Station expansion module
contains either 12 or 16 station circuits. This makes small additions less cost effective than
larger additions. With the Strata DK424, CO lines are added in increments of four or eight, and
stations are added in increments of eight per card. Combo cards allow mixture of standard
ports and digital station ports. PCB slots are universal, allowing any mix or CO line or station
cards required. This provides better configuration flexibility and better resource utilization
with the Strata DK424.
Remote Expansion Cabinets
The Strata DK424 can be configured with expansion cabinets either co-located with the base
cabinet, connected by copper data cables, or remotely located, connected by fiber optic cables
in a distributed configuration. Remote expansion cabinets may be installed up to three cable
kilometers (1.8 miles) from the base cabinet, meeting the needs of distributed configurations
such as campuses, resort complexes, and skyscrapers with a single telephone system. This
greatly extends the effective station loop distances and can sometimes eliminate the need for
multiple telephone systems. Feature operation for all users in the system is the same regardless
of whether they are served by local or remote expansion cabinets. The Norstar lacks this
important capability.
Telephone Set Compatibility
Norstar telephone sets are not compatible with any other Nortel systems. If a customer is
upgrading from another smaller Nortel system the telephones are not compatible with the
Norstar, or if the customer outgrows the Norstar and migrates to a Nortel PBX, the telephones
are not compatible. All Toshiba telephones are compatible with all Strata DK systems. The
Toshiba telephone set migration provides growing businesses a significant cost savings, since
about half the cost of a telephone system is in the telephone sets. This is an extremely
important consideration in protecting the buyer's investment in any telephone system.
2
Strata DK 12/99