PBX and VOIP : A comparative introduction

PBX or PABX has been widely used in many industries and it has become a standard telecom equipment for any office, big or small. For any hotel, it is a must now a days. Previously, people used only PSTN ( Public Switched Telephone Network) even to communicate between same building, The other option was to use an office peon to notify and talk face to face. It wasted office hours. With introduction of PABX in offices, inter office communication has improved and efficiency has gone up.

Another major advantage of PBX is facility to transfer calls from one extension to another. Strangely, call transfer is not available in PSTN, but for a valid reason. Number of PSTN subscribers are big and normally, no call transfer facility from one subscriber to another is required. Conferencing facility is available for group calls.

So, PBX has become the inter office communication system. But recently, PBX has become costly, as other cheaper alternative technology has arrived!

Another problem with PABX is its high maintenance. Upgrading PBX systems are also not easy and normally they are expensive. When new technologies arrive, they tend to become obsolete quickly and needs replacement which becomes cost to an organisation.

There comes VOIP! VOIP stands for Voice Over IP. Normally, every office now uses computer and computers are networked through LAN or wireless. So instead of using different wiring for telecom network, same Ethernet cables can be used to communication between people in office. Since it operates on IP technology, it is standardised all over the world. It has reduced cost, easy upgrade and adopt newer technologies. VOIP also offers easy administration of communication network.

Also VOIP has many more features like voicemail, data transfer, video call, conference call etc. The cost is also much lower. Since it is software driven, there are almost unlimited possibilities of features which will help people communicate, share and increase efficiency.

So, VOIP is the emerging technology and the way PBX has replaced PSTN for inter office, in-house communication, VOIP may replace PBX in future. And all major PBX manufacturer are already increasing their focus on VOIP.

Tagged as: Central Office, data network, Emerging VoIP, EPABX, PABX, PBX, PBX future, pstn, Soft Switch, voip