Home > Consumer Reviews > AT&T 954 Expandable 4-Line Corded Speakerphone with Intercom (Black)

When I was renovating my house, I considered installing an expensive phone system. My alarm contractor suggested that I save my money and by several AT&T 854/954 phones (both models are basically the same phone). It has paging and intercom, conference calling, call transfer etc. Everything that the expensive systems have... without the high cost. I have these all over my house and I love this system; especially the paging - I hate having to go upstairs to tell my daughter that she has a phone call! I highly recommend buying several (two or more) of these phones over an expensive phone system. It does the same thing for a lot less. Note, however, one difference is that with these phones, you need an AC plug for each unit; on a system you don't. The only draw-back, but if you can live with that minor difference, you'll save yourself over $1000 compared to a professional system.

This phone is Lucent quality through and through. Good features, sound quality and reliabilty. If this unit had caller ID and a dot matrix display, I would give it 5 stars! However, you may have trouble with the intercom feature. This is not a Lucent problem, just a quirk of all multiline, stand-alone phones that have intercom. Intercom works by sending a high frequency signal on the same wires as line one and line one MUST be connected to all phones in your system. There must be less than 600 feet of phone wire between the sets and it is best to disconnect all other equipment (fax, modems, dsl, radio interference filters)from line one. Poor phone wiring can also cause a problem, but not usually. I highly recommend the Lucent Z800A isolation filter to improve intercom operation. You will have to call Lucent to buy it(see your instruction manual). Overall, this phone is professional quality and a great value for the buck!

I have 12 of these phones and they all work great! As with any phone installation is key. Making sure that all the same phone lines are hooked up the same way on each phone was the trickiest part. Once I got that down, it was a easy!

Love them, that is why I've max'd out my home with 12 of them.

Another piece of advice, add line filters onto your incoming lines before you connect them to the phones. The newer telco phone switches sometimes causes the phone to intercom one another. I added the phone line filters and all of that went away.

The intercom is great! No more screaming for someone else to answer the phone. The "all page" feature works wonders when it comes to dinner time. Transferring calls between phones works like a PBX system.

The speakerphone on is great. Everyone I speak to tells me it sounds great. I only wish it was duplex. :(

All in all ... I've had this phone and its previous models for almost 10 years now ... I've only had one phone go bad on me, the speaker started to crack.

Great phone, will buy more if the system can handle more. I almost have a phone in every room now.

I have been shopping for two line telephones. Everyone I looked at just didn't have what I needed. I purchased three 954's and am completely sold. They are every bit as good as the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya telephones we have at our office. The transfer and conference features are simple and perfect. Anyone who uses an AT&T phone system at work will discover these phones are just as intuitive. Like the other review, buy two or more of these phones. Once you have become accustomed to the features you'll wonder why you didn't buy them before.

I tried 3 (count 'em, three) of these phones, thinking my first two were duds, but all three had poor handset quality. When speaking louder than a whisper, I heard my voice "break up" -- similar to the sound of a blown sterio speaker. I called AT&T's troubleshooting line and they suggested I try the phone in other jacks, in other configurations, etc., but the handset quality was still poor. Other features and displays on the 954 were great -- but not great enough to offset the bad handset sound.