Cisco 9800 Series Phones (9841, 9851, 9861, 9871)

[NorCal-IT]

Cisco released their latest 9800 series phones over a year ago. Cisco markets the phone as, "use one device for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), Webex Calling, Broadworks, or other 3rd party cloud calling platforms. My Zoom rep has indicated that this phone might be certified in June 2025 and that it's on their roadmap but that no official ETA has been announced.

We are seriously considering switching from our legacy Avaya Aura PBX to Zoom Phone. We like the Poly Edge devices we've tested however the Cisco 8800 and newer 9800 series devices seem a little higher quality and more substantial.  I personally prefer the larger buttons. Has anyone heard anything about when these phones will be supported by Zoom and other cloud calling platforms? I've look at all the providers (Zoom, Nextiva, 8x8, RingCentral, Microsoft, etc.) and none of them support the 9800 series yet, even though it's been out a year.

[sparrow]

Yes, I asked our Zoom TAM recently to push on getting these certified sooner as Zoom's intended support date is Q4 of this year. I'm in need of a long term video intercom phone and Cisco called EOL on the 8865 a few weeks ago. The 8875 is still not certified by Zoom and it runs the same Cisco Phone OS as the 9800's. I suspect you can run the 8875 and 9800's as a generic SIP phone in Zoom, but that's all manual configuration on the device side. Unfortunately for me, I cannot do that because the video intercom function in Zoom will not recognize a generic sip phone for video intercom calls.

[NorCal-IT]

@sparrow Thanks for chiming in! I don't even think we can add the newest 9800's in any sort of mode. You are sort of stopped in your 

tracks by the user interface when adding the device. There is no "generic" option, only old 8800 models or older. I like the Cisco 8800's generally but the lack of Zoom Desktop App Call Control (making you desk phone dial by dialing in the Zoom app)  is the deal breaker for me I think.  If Zoom would just add support for the 9800's soon I would ink the deal with Zoom and buy a bunch of new 9800 Cisco phones! That's assuming though the new Cisco 9800 support Zoom Desktop App Call Control.  That would be good to know now, if not I might give up on them and stick with Poly Edge.  Is there another way to get phones on Zoom Phone without having to go through this dialog box?

[sparrow · Accepted solution]

Your not adding it as a Cisco device type. If you requested to Zoom that they enable Generic SIP on your account, you would use device type as other. See below. From here, you would gather the manual provisioning parameters and access the Cisco phones web interface to insert those credentials and SIP parameters. You are correct, with generic SIP, you will not get fully supported Zoom features such as desktop app call control and others.

 

 

[NorCal-IT]

Thanks, this is good to know, very helpful.

[NorCal-IT]

Happy to report, I was able to provision a Cisco 9861 on Zoom using the "Other" generic sip option when adding a device per @sparrow 's suggestion above. I had to contact Zoom support and request they enable the feature like you said. Took a few days, but now it's working. Of course, no advanced features like Call Control, Hot Desking, etc. I can only assume some of this will come when Zoom certifies this new Cisco series of phones. I wonder what the holdup is? If it works on Other/Generic SIP why not release a few of your crack engineers on it and get it certified like the 8800 series that is almost 10 years old.

[sparrow]

Awesome. I've personally not gotten my hands on any of the Cisco 9800's to go through the manual SIP provisioning process, but glad someone has. I wouldn't count on Zoom adding these features when they certify the 9800's. Certifying doesn't always gurantee feature support. The 7800's and 8800's are Zoom certified today and they don't support lots of Zoom phone feature. See the link below. 

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0061373

[NorCal-IT]

Is there something about the Cisco hardware that prevents the use of Call Control? Surely a brand-new Cisco phone doesn't lack some sophisticated tech the Poly has? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

[sparrow]

I suspect it's a difference in API.  

[Pancakes9000]

I hear you! I've been testing these 9861's since August of last year on RC and Zoom. Neither of which yet support this device. I've been told multiple times since September of '24 that the device will be supported "this quarter," yet they push it back everytime. They say June now...but I won't hold my breath...though I'm extremely hopeful. I'm moving from a very reliable ShoreTel/Mitel IP485G phone and this latest Cisco 9800 series & the Poly Edge 350 & 550 seem to be the next best thing. Fingers crossed.

[willw]

Just as an FYI for others, I was able to get a 9861 to "provision" and work using the Cisco 8861 manual process in Zoom.  After entering the device MAC info, and the using the provided URL, the phone did connect, and it works with some initial errors on boot.  We have been told it is due to be supported this summer, so I am guessing possibly in June with the 6.5 Zoom release.  The phone does work, from what it sounds like the 9800 series will not be a feature complete as the Poly Edge, but similar to the current Cisco phones.  That could change over time however as more work is done and depending on the needs. What I am not sure of is if the touchscreen 9800 phone is supported?  I do not have one of those to test. 

It is nice to have better ringers and a better "feeling" phone than the Poly Edge.  The Poly Edge is a nice phone, but changing the device via config files is a pain, and loading anything custom such as ringers and images takes an entire process.

[NorCal-IT]

Thanks for chiming in! I was able to get a 9861 and 9851 working as OTHER "Generic Sip" as well after @sparrow  provided the OTHER tip. The deal breaker feature, in case ZOOM or CISCO is listening seems to be CALL CONTROL for me. I need our attorneys to be able to dial the phone from Zoom app or click a number in Outlook and have their desktop phone dial, since I assume that is where their headset is going to be connected.

[willw]

Absolutely!  This is a feature, Call Control, we have not really used very much.  Do you know if this is supported with the Poly Edge series of phones?

We have a mix of Poly Edge SIP phones as well as some Yealink and Poly Zoom Appliance phones.  We would like to have a standard phone, and this Cisco 9800 might fit depending on what features are officially supported.

[NorCal-IT]

Yes - Call Control is supported on Poly Edge phones. Zoom has a Features page where they list what each device supports.