An IP PBX or VoIP phone system replaces traditional PBX or phone systems, giving employees an extension number, the ability to conference, transfer and dial other colleagues. All calls are sent via data packets over a data network instead of the traditional phone network. With the use of a VoIP gateway, you can connect existing phone lines to the IP PBX and make and receive phone calls via a regular PSTN line. The IP PBX FAQ helps answer common questions about VoIP, SIP, IP PBX / VoIP phone system hardware and software, implementation and more.
This list shows some of the currently available SIP-based IP PBXs in the telco sector:
- 3CX Phone System – a cross-platform IP PBX that runs on Windows and Linux, trusted by C2 Communications. 3CX offers benefits over other vendors, such as:
- easily deployed both in-house and in-cloud;
- automation for in-cloud deployment to top-tier hosting platforms such as Google, Azure and Amazon;
- best-of-breed phone provisioning automation;
- robust feature-set, including:
- IVR,
- voicemail,
- queues,
- groups,
- user-based and group-based rights management,
- and security and anti-hacking.
- Asterisk®* – a Linux-based IP PBX
- sipX – a Linux-based IP PBX
- Elastix – a Windows and Linux-based PBX available On-premise or in the cloud.
- and others.
A number of open source alternatives are available, but these all suffer from:
- hard-to-use interfaces,
- poor or non-existent provisioning tools,
- limited or non-existent commercial support,
- feature sets not driven by market needs, but by the wants of the individuals that contribute the code.