AT&T 1040 4-Line Expandable Corded Phone System with Speakerphone & Caller ID - 1 Handset (Black/Silver) - Ideal for Home Office, Small Business & Conference Rooms

Updated 4/23/11Further to the comments below. In our own AT&T 1070 vs. the Panasonic KX-TS4200B bake-off, we ultimately went with the AT&T 1070. But for intercom speaker/line quality issues, both phones have this problem, which since the intercom works using radio frequencies, is typically caused by outside interference. So in addition to my earlier comments below, 2 recommendations for isolating the cause:1. Make sure your cell phone is typically not placed on your desk right beside the phone2. Check out this link to track down interference problems - especially making sure your power adapter is plugged into the wall and not into a power board:[...]There have been several similar reviews on this phone, which I would echo, for intercom users only. From our experience, having tested both AT&T and Panasonic 4 line phones, we have found that both phones have similar issues, with Panasonic being the better of the two. Some contributors here reported the AT&T speakers failing after a few days, others two out of three were bad, etc. Here is our experienceWe first owned AT&T's older 974 phones for several years. Eventually after several years, they failed, not on telephone calls but on intercom calls. A loud, unacceptable screech developed. So we purchased two 1070's and found that while the loud screech problem was gone, on one phone the speaker on intercom was unintelligible. Swapped phone positions, the problem traveled with the phone. Ordered a 3rd phone. Same problem to a lesser degree. Returned all three and purchased 2 Panasonic KX-TS4200's.We purchased the Panasonics knowing from the AMZN review board that there was going to be delay in the phone recognizing key presses. Some users couldn't stand it. Others could. We found same, although with a medium-paced, deliberate dial, it was fine. However, in the end, we concluded we could live with it either. But the speaker problem on intercom calls re-emerged, to a lesser, but still not good, level.The AT&T and Panasonic techs won't help you on this. They will just tell you to try doing a hard reset of the phone. But I think we may have fixed it, or at least alleviated it on the Panasonics. The solution, we think, no matter which phone you buy, is to try configuring non-adjacent extension numbers, which are presumably working on just different frequencies and possibly interfering with each other. For example, rather than setting up Ext 11, 12, 13 and 14, try 12, 16, 20 and 24. Can't guarantee it will help, but try it.Of course if you are not an intercom user, or even if you are and don't mind connecting by intercom with either the handset or the earphone, either the AT&T or Panasonic are great phones. But I do believe, with AT&T, there is a higher risk of the intercom speaker system eventually failing - just based on our own 974/1070 experience, plus the reviews on this board. AT&T needs more robust electronics here, and you may have to return a phone, or two, or three to get one that works. Once you do get it right - great system.