If you’ve just started looking for telephone solutions for your company, you may have come across the PBX acronym. What is PBX phone system?
PBX is simply a term for a business-class telephone system. Business telephone systems offer key voice features that businesses need to conduct day-to-day operations. Such features include: internal dialing, working hours settings to route calls outside of working hours, customer waiting queues, hanging music and call conferences. Home telephone lines and mobile phone services do not offer those features that in a nutshell connect people at work.
Traditional analog PBX phone system
These systems have been available for a long time and connect to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) via the regular old telephone service lines (POTS). The PBX manages the connections between telephones and faxes by physically connecting them with copper cabling. Incoming calls are routed through the PBX and to the phones, and calls can be forwarded between the phones via the PBX. The PBX itself usually lives in the office’s telecommunications closet.
PBX functions
The equipment you need depends on the complexity and use of a PBX – for example, the types of phones used on a particular site. Generally:
- telephone lines (many phones) that end in a PBX;
- a computer with memory that manages the switching of calls inside and outside the PBX;
- network of lines at the PBX;
- Unified Communications Router (UC) – wireless and wired;
- telephone handset – Universal Serial Bus (USB), VoIP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP);
- VoIP gateway;
- IP PBX;
- internet router;
- cables, cabinets, uninterruptible power supply (UPS); and
- telephony application server.
The transition to IP PBX offers many benefits
In an IP telephony system, all your internal telephony is routed through an existing LAN (local area network). In this way, a separate telephony network is not required. Although internal telephony is routed through a LAN, it is also possible to connect IP-PBX through gateways to the PSTN network. Of course, VoIP (Voice over IP, Internet telephony) is also possible.
Because IP telephony mainly uses the open SIP standard, the IP telephony system gives much more freedom in choosing phones. Basically, any SIP compatible telephone (VoIP telephone) will work with IP PBX. In addition, IP PBX does not limit the company’s development. Because VoIP phones do not have to be physically connected to the telephone system, it does not require a free port on the telephone system, as was the case with traditional telephone systems. IP phones can be connected not only via LAN, but also via the Internet, for example using a VPN connection. Because of this, you can easily connect multiple locations and offices.
Customize your PBX to suit your business – not the other way around
No matter which PBX you choose, you should try to make it meet your company’s requirements. The way we work has changed a lot in two decades. Should your PBX not be able to keep up with you?
One of the basic things about this is that you can’t decide just on the basis of the price of your company’s telephone system sticker.