The AT&T SB67118 and similar phones is of a classification of phones known as “ordinary”, “analog” or “POTS” (plain old telephone service). These phones are low-cost solutions for the home office or very small office setting. In order to accommodate the needs of a small office, some “big phone system” features are being added to ordinary phones, such as auto-attendant and music on hold.
We Do Not Endorse Use Of the Internal Hold Music Feature
We at Easy On Hold do not recommend use of the internal music on hold feature on these phones, for several reasons. Among them:
1)Poor sound quality, a result of signal compression necessary due to memory limits.
2)A time limit of 3 minutes.
3)Method of recording is by sending an analog “real time” audio feed into the phone, which is inconvenient, poses volume problems and requires an audio cable that is not provided with the phone.
4)The more difficult it is to update your music on hold message, the less likely you will be to keep it current. No one likes to be on hold, a condition made worse with irrelevant hold message content.
Easy On Hold Recommends Use Of The SKUTCH Electronics CK-6Suggested List Price:$330.00
The CK-1A6 "Hold Button" Adapter was designed to provide Music On Hold "Specifically" for the AT&T SB67118 telephones. This Music On Hold unit sits easily under the main SB67118 base phone and has a small light board that attaches nicely to the top of the base phone to give you continued line indication on the base phone. This unit can be used by all of the phones in a SB67118 system; it doesn't matter how many phones you have, one CK-1A6 Music On Hold unit will work with all of them.
If you would like to try the internal music function anyway, here are the instructions provided by the AT&T manual for the model SB67118. I have added some helpful notes along the way.
The manual can be found at:
Audio Transfer
The way to put prerecorded audio into the AT&T phone is to use the telephone as a recorder, capturing actual audio as it is being played. There is no way to “transfer” an audio file into the phone. You will probably use a laptop computer (headphone output) and play the audio file on an audio player such as Microsoft Media Player or Zune or Quicktime.
Obtain Optional Audio Cable
You will need to purchase a mono type audio cable with a 2.5mm plug on one end and a 3.5mm plug on the other at an electronics store in your area.
The diagram below is shown in the user manual for the phone. This shows that the audio cable runs between your audio source (laptop) and the phone (headset jack).
Change Setting in Phone to Play Music On Hold
Your phone can play an existing internal music file or play the audio file you place into the phone. The following instructions, from the user manual, describes the process for setting the phone to play the music you are going to record into the phone.
Record Music From an External Source Into The Phone
The next set of instructions describes how to transfer recorded audio into the phone. I am not sure how the phone will control the volume of the recording, so I suggest starting with a playback volume of 50%.
Check the Recording
Of course, you should call in and get placed on hold to test the recording. You may also use the following guide for reviewing the recording. Be careful not to change any other settings in the process.