PBX And Phone Systems

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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

PBX and Phone Systems are essentially the same thing. PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange and it refers to a telephone exchange, or phone system, that serves a business or office, as opposed to a telephone company that services multiple business or offices. There are several other terms used to call a PBX; EPABX is an Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange, and PABX is used to describe a Private Automatic Branch Exchange.

Today, with the internet, there is a new type of phone system added to the mix, the Hosted PBX also referred to a Virtual PBX. The physically installed PBX telephone system requires trained techinicians to complete the installation, versus an online Hosted Connection where this is not necessary. With a hosted pbx there are plenty of benefits to the consumer, namely it is very affordable, set-up is instant, there’s no physical installation necessary, and the system can grow as the business grows.

PBX and Phone Systems have dramatically changed over the years from the time when the term PBX was actually used in reference to a switchboard operator. Telephone systems went from Key Systems, where the user would press an individual phone line or extension on the actual phone to access the call, to full blown installed PBX systems where a central operator transfers calls that come in to their appropriate extensions. Both of these systems exist today, however, as the saying goes, “the one thing you can count on is change”, and yes, PBX and Phone Systems are changing to include the internet.

A Hosted PBX system also includes another term that encompasses a new trend in phones, the VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) PBX sometimes referred to as a IP-PBX or an IPBX. Most PBX systems today support VoIP. The Hosted PBX of course supports VoIP as the digital aspect of this system and hosted online is meant to include remote extensions, known as VoIP phones. Phone systems and the pbx have advanced to service smaller and medium sized businesses by using the internet as a hosting facility.

By Barbara Cipak, My-Telework-Tools.com

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