Contents

Introduction

Support Clarifications for IP Phone Firmware

Introduction

This document describes some aspects of support for Enterprise Cisco IP Phone firmware releases that are posted to cisco.com. Customers are strongly encouraged to keep Cisco IP Phones up to date with the latest firmware available on cisco.com so that they are protected with all available security patches and bug fixes.

This document is applicable to desktop and wireless Cisco IP Phones listed below.

- Cisco Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA) 190 Series

- Cisco IP Phones 7800 Series

- Cisco Unified IP Phones 6900 Series

- Cisco Unified IP Phones 7900 Series

- Cisco Unified IP Phones 8800 Series

- Cisco Unified IP Phones 8900 Series

- Cisco Unified IP Phones 9900 Series

- Cisco Unified Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Phones 3900 Series

This list may not be complete because new models are released from time to time and older models reach End of Life. In general, this document applies to all Enterprise desktop and wireless IP phones. This document does not apply to Cisco IP Phones with Multiplatform Software.

Note:  This document does not apply to Cisco Immersive TelePresence and Room Systems devices and endpoints such as the DX, EX, SX, MX and IX series of products.

Support Clarifications for IP Phone Firmware

This section clarifies the type of support that Cisco provides for IP Phone firmware.

When Cisco releases a new firmware version, customers are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest firmware version. Staying current with the latest firmware ensures Cisco customers are protected with all available security patches and bug fixes. The latest release for a particular phone model is always the highest-numbered version available for download on cisco.com. There is only one train for IP phone firmware. This means that software updates are cumulative from previous releases and only the latest version receives additional bug fixes.

Engineering Special firmware releases (ES releases) are created on an as needed basis to address software defects that may have significant impact to Cisco customers and therefore cannot  wait for the next maintenance release or feature release to be posted to CCO. ES releases typically address one or a few software defects and do NOT go through the same rigorous testing as firmware releases that are posted on cisco.com . ES releases are not available for customer download, they are only provided to customers through the Cisco TAC organization. ES releases are created on the latest release of firmware only.

When a customer encounters a problem on an older release of firmware (i.e. a release that preceded the latest release) it may be necessary to try the problem use case against the latest release on one or a few phones as part of the troubleshooting effort. This is usually necessary when the problem does not clearly match a known software defect, or if the problem is associated with a function or feature of the phone that may have changed significantly from one release to the next.

Note:  The support Cisco provides is contingent on customer maintenance of a current and fully-paid support contract with Cisco.