Bandwidth.com has announced the release of Phonebooth, a hosted IP PBX, which is supposed to free small businesses from the capital investment and maintenance headaches of traditional IP PBXs.

Phonebooth’s owner economics match open source PBXs, but with the convenience, disaster-recovery benefits and peace of mind, said the company.

“Phonebooth represents a natural step forward for Bandwidth.com and the IP telephony market as a whole. The current hosted model, while convenient, confines small businesses to a certain number of seats when they need flexibility to sustain growth,” said David Morken, CEO of Bandwidth.com. “Phonebooth just needs bandwidth.”

Morken added that integrating Phonebooth into the company’s proven bundles of voice and data services, called BoxSets, enables unmatched convergence, cost savings and the convenience of one point of contact.