3CX recently released its commercial edition of 3CX Phone System, a new Windows-based IP PBX that completely replaces a proprietary PABX. Based on the open SIP standard, it interoperates with a wide range of softphones and hardware phones. Since it supports SIP, it is possible to interface with all SIP-based providers and gateways and connect to standard PSTN lines and/or hosted VoIP lines, the company said.

The release of 3CX Phone System is significant because we have freed the IP PBX from dedicated hardware and proprietary protocols. Now an office phone system can run as a server application on Windows and can be more scalable and more manageable,” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO.

3CX says the key features of the phone system include:

Complete phone system — provides call switching, routing and queuing.

Eliminates phone wiring and patching of extensions to a particular network point.

Makes teleworking easy because employees can answer extension from home.

Purchase cost is less than a traditional hardware PBX.

Scalable — unlimited extensions and phone lines. No proprietary expansion modules needed.

Web-based configuration and status indication.

Unified messaging — receive voice mail via e-mail.

Auto attendant

Reduces long-distance and interoffice call costs using VoIP providers.

The 3CX phone system for Windows is available in three editions. The Small Business Edition supports up to 25 extensions and costs $350. The Pro Edition supports an unlimited number of extensions and runs at $895. The Free Edition supports an unlimited number of extensions but does not allow the purchase of a support package, nor does it include the advanced features of 3CX Call Assistant. However, the Free Edition does include an auto attendant, voice mail and user-to-user support via the 3CX moderated product forums at http://www.3cx.com/forums/. The Free Edition can be downloaded from http://www.3cx.com/ip-pbx/index.html.  

3CX www.3cs.com