The HT502 is the old model we were using in the early days. I'm sure you remember that we did have some issues with it when it first came out, but once GS worked through them, it's been solid since and

The HT702 is a relatively new device which is the "next generation" of GS devices (HT70X series - 1, 2, and 4 line models).

The biggest difference in the two is that the HT502 has a built in router. The HT70X series devices don't have the router. Other than that, they're pretty similar.

The HT70X series is a lot cheaper due to the router not being in them and I think they're a little "cleaner" functionality wise. The HT502 back in the day was pretty much an entirely new area for Grandstream and I feel like the HT70X series incorporates a lot of the things they learned with the HT502. There are a lot of subtle changes that make me think that..just more polished.

This year, we've only been buying HT70X devices. In some rare situations, we may send out HT502s if we think the customer needs it in front of their router. This used to be our main recommendation, but more and more nearly all non-cable ISPs are now providing modems/router combos so the portion of our customer base that can even benefit from "putting it in front" is cut back. The cable companies still pretty much provide basic modems but we've found that our cable users typically are more advanced and are more concerned about throughput and prefer to use their own routers so it turns into a debate with them.

With that in mind, the fact that it's the new series which is getting the most development support, and the pretty drastic price difference, we're pretty happy with our choice of using the HT70X series and only using HT50X when we determine there is a need for it. The lack of a router is a con in some ways, but again a lot of people can't due to a combo unit, a lot won't put it in front anyway, support is lower due to it only having 1 ethernet port (hard to confuse the install), etc.

We're happy with the GS devices and recommend the HT70X series.

Linksys has some new devices out now that are supposed to be PAP2 replacements, but since Cisco bought them, they've shifted further and further away from the "consumer grade" stuff and their devices are not priced at a point where it makes sense for budget residential service. They've made it pretty clear that they only want to go enterprise and I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually phased out the consumer ATAs. Grandstream is putting a lot of effort into working with service providers and prices their devices much more competitively. Just from our experience, the overall build quality of Linksys vs Grandstream is pretty similar since we see about the same failure/problem rate with both brands in terms of equipment we have out.

Another brand to possibly consider for BYOD users would be the Obi devices. The guys behind Obi are the ones from Sipura before Linksys acquired it back in the day so they have a solid background and to a degree pioneered consumer ATAs. I don't think their devices are suited well for residential deployment on a mass scale, but for BYOD users they provide a lot of unique functionality, the build quality is excellent.


So overall....my ATA opinions...

Everyday User/Plug and Play: Grandstream HT70X Series

Power User/BYOD User/Tinkerer: Obihai

Hope that helps!