Nortel Meridian End of Life & Replacement

System type

Enterprise PBX (Meridian 1 / CS1000)

Status

Discontinued / EOL

Manufacturer support

Sunsetting (Avaya)

In service

1975–2010s

The Nortel Meridian 1 — Options 11 through 81, later rebranded CS1000 — carried enterprise voice for a generation. After Nortel's 2009 collapse the line passed to Avaya, which has since ended sales and is sunsetting support. Meanwhile carriers are retiring the TDM trunks these systems depend on.

Keeping a Meridian alive means feeding a power-hungry cabinet, hoarding spare cards, and paying specialists who are increasingly hard to find. fvoip replaces all of it with a cloud platform that scales from one site to many without new hardware.

Why it's time to move.

End of the road at AvayaCS1000 sales have ended and support is sunsetting — the platform has no future roadmap.
TDM trunks going awayCarriers are decommissioning the digital and analog trunks Meridian relies on, forcing gateways and workarounds.
Heavy footprintLarge cabinets draw power and rack space and need environmental controls a cloud system simply eliminates.
Scarce, costly expertiseMeridian programming is a niche skill, and both techs and spare cards command a premium.

End-of-life and support details reflect published information at the time of writing and can change — always confirm current status with the vendor.

Your migration, step by step.

We rebuild your call flows on fvoip — auto-attendant menus, ring groups, business hours, and voicemail boxes — while Nortel Meridian keeps answering. You test everything on temporary numbers, and we port the real numbers only once you sign off. If anything looks wrong, the old system is still there.

See our full Nortel migration guide →

What you keep

Your phone numbersWe port every direct-dial and main line to fvoip — callers keep reaching you at the same numbers, with no gap in service.
Your extensions & menusWe rebuild the extension map, auto-attendant, ring groups, and business hours your team already knows.
Business continuityfvoip runs in parallel with the old system and cuts over only when you approve — phones never stop ringing.
Compatible SIP phonesReuse standards-based SIP desk phones where possible, or rent auto-provisioned handsets from $8.99/mo.

Other retired systems we migrate.

See all migration paths →

Frequently asked questions

Is Nortel Meridian / CS1000 still supported?

Nortel dissolved in 2009. Avaya, which acquired the line, has ended sales of CS1000 and is winding support down. Confirm your exact support status with Avaya, but there is no forward roadmap.

Can fvoip handle a multi-site Meridian deployment?

Yes. Cloud PBX centralizes call routing across all your sites, with per-site numbers, auto-attendants, and hours — no inter-site tie trunks or cabinets required.

Do we have to cut over everything at once?

No. We can migrate site by site, running fvoip alongside the Meridian and porting numbers in stages so the business keeps running.

Ready for a phone system that just works?

Set up in a day. Keep your numbers. Cancel anytime — every plan is month-to-month with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Get started with fvoip →

Time to retire Nortel Meridian.