Types of PBX Systems available in South Africa
There are two main types of PBX Systems: Cloud, hosted off-premise PBX Systems and on-premises PBX Systems.
On-premises PBX Systems are further categorised into three subtypes: Analogue PBX systems, digital PBX Systems and IP PBX Systems.
These type of PBX Systems are also called legacy PBX Systems.
PBX System fundamentals - What is a PBX System and how does it work?A PABX or Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is an automatic telephone switching system within a private business. PBX is the acronym for Private Branch Exchange and it describes a business telephone system that enables telephone, phone calls to be switched between multiple external phone lines through the use of internal extensions, within an organization. The PBX routes incoming numbers to a main switchboard handset, where it can be answered, and then transfered or routed to the relevant extension number. All the different types of PBX Systems work on the same basic principal; they connect a network of multi-phone lines used by businesses to facilitate their internal and external voice communication processes. The users of the PBX System can communicate internally by means of extensions (within their company) and externally with the outside Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by using different communication telephone, phone lines such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks, ISDN trunks or analog trunks. Cloud, hosted PBX SystemsA Cloud PBX System or Hosted PBX System is a virtual telephone switching system PBX (Private Branch Exchange) that is located on the telecommunication service providers voice server, which is located off-premises from the customers physical premises. Cloud PBX Systems, Hosted PBX Systems are the evolution of PBX Systems. Cloud PBX Systems, Hosted PBX Systems use VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) telephone, phones and VoIP telephone, phone lines to make, receive and transfer (switch) phone calls via an internet connection as the means of voice communication. In short a Cloud PBX System, Hosted PBX System offers all the telephone switching functions which a traditional on-premises PBX System would offer, and more. Cloud, Hosted PBX System rental pricing starts at R217.30 per month. Pros and cons of cloud, hosted PBX Systems One of the biggest benefits of a Cloud, hosted PBX System is that it drastically reduces the initial capital outlay when purchasing a PBX System. It also drastically reduces ongoing maintenance and labour costs. In terms of costs a Cloud, hosted PBX System has a much lower financial capital outlay compared to an on-site PBX System. Maintenance and ongoing upkeep costs on a Cloud, hosted PBX System are covered by your telephony service provider, whereas these costs would be your companies responsibility with an on-premises PBX System. As cloud, hosted PBX Systems are internet-based, it is important that you have a reliable internet connection for good voice communication. If your internet service provider (ISP) is unreliable, you will likely have poor telephone calls. One of our consultants will advise you on this aspect as we also provide our own telephone line routers to resolve this problem, and this means that we do not have to rely on your internet connection. | What is an on-premises PBX System?An on-premises PBX System is the physical telephony switching hardware that is located on the customers physical business premises. These are traditional PBX Systems where the PBX equipment gets installed on-site on the customers business premises. Analogue PBX systems An analogue PBX system does all the telephone switching functions on-premises by using analogue telephony technology for telephone call communications. They connect to the PSTN via plain old telephone service (POTS) analogue copper wired telephone lines. Analogue PBX System rental pricing starts at R399.95 per month. Pros and cons of analogue PBX Systems The disadvantages far outweight the advantages of analogue PBX Systems. As these type of PBX systems only work with analogue PSTN telephone lines they are becoming redundant due to telecommunication providers that are phasing out the copper telephone line network. Digital PBX Systems A digital PBX System is also an on-premises PBX System that makes use of digital telephony technology for the telephone switching functions. These type of PBX Systems are also available in a combination of analogue and digital technology. Digital PBX System rental pricing starts at R399.95 per month. Pros and cons of digital PBX Systems The benefit of these types of PBX Systems is that they can accomodate both analogue and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) PSTN telephone lines. One disadvantage is that only proprietary digital telephone handsets can work on the specific brand of digital PBX System. IP PBX Systems IP PBX Systems or VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) PBX Systems also also on-premises PBX Systems which use IP technology for the telephone switching functions. An IP PBX System uses IP telephone handsets and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking. Some models are also able to integrate analogue telephone extension handsets. An IP PBX System is also called a VoIP PBX System. IP PBX System rental pricing starts at R399.95 per month. Pros and cons of IP PBX Systems One of the benefits of these type of PBX Systems is that they can work with analogue, digital ISDN and VoIP telephone lines. These PBX Systems also make use of IP network cables on your office’s local area network (LAN) and this means that the same network cables which are used to connect your personal computer to the network switch, can also be used to connect the IP PBX telephone handsets. This makes it much cheaper to install and maintain. All pricing indicated is exclusive of VAT. |  |
More about Cloud, Hosted PBX SystemsAn off-site Cloud, Hosted PBX System works by allowing a business to transfer phone calls between VoIP extension telephone, phone handsets in their offices. A hosted PBX is a cloud-based phone system, which is hosted off-site and works over the internet instead of at the physical location of the business. A cloud, hosted PBX is also an IP PBX as it works with IP technology off-site on your telecommunications companies voice data server. Hosted IP PBX systems are also called Virtual PBX or Cloud PBX, the terms are interchangeable and refer to PBX in the cloud. Businesses can thus save on additional costs like maintenance and support, due to the reduced need for on-premise hardware. Cloud, Hosted PBX Systems have gained momentum over the last five years and are now the most popular PBX solutions sold in South Africa. Below are some of the benefits of Hosted PBX systems:
Below are some of the features of Cloud, Hosted PBX Systems:
| More about analogue PBX SystemsDue to the copper cable telephone network being discontinued in South Africa analogue PBX Systems are becoming outdated. As the legacy POTS PSTN copper infrastucture in South Africa has become too expensive to maintain, infrastructure providers such as Telkom have started discontinuing the copper telephone network. It is being replaced with more modern communication infrastructure technologies such as fibre, SIP, VoIP and LTE 4G. This has resulted in analogue PBX Systems now reaching their end-of-life cycle. If you have an existing analogue PBX system and your Telkom analogue copper telephone lines have been discontinued, we do have technology that we can install with our telephone lines that will allow them to work on your analogue PBX system. We are also able to port your existing Telkom telephone numbers over to our telephone network, which will allow you to keep your existing Telkom telephone numbers when using our telephone line services. More about digital PBX SystemsThese PBX Systems work with POTS PSTN and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) PSTN telephone lines. ISDN telephone lines work on the copper cable telephone line infrastructure and due to this infrastructure being discontinued in South African, digital PBX systems are also becoming obsolete due to many of the PBX manufaturers having stopped the production and supply of these type of PBX systems. | ISDN telephone lines work on the copper cable telephone line infrastructure and due to this infrastructure being discontinued in South African, digital PBX systems are also becoming obsolete due to many of the PBX manufaturers having stopped the production and supply of these type of PBX systems. If you have an existing digital PBX system and your Telkom ISDN copper telephone lines have been discontinued, we do have technology that we can install with our telephone lines that will allow them to work on your analogue PBX system. We are also able to port your existing Telkom telephone numbers over to our telephone network, which will allow you to keep your existing Telkom telephone numbers when using our telephone line services. More about IP PBX SystemsThe terms IP PBX and VoIP phone system are used to describe a business phone system that uses Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit voice. The switchboard element of your private phone system is the PBX, which stands for private branch exchange. These systems consist of the IP PBX control unit, VoIP endpoints such as fixed IP desk or IP wireless phones and mobile extension apps. Due to the IP PBX being able to incorporate POTS, ISDN PSTN telephone lines as well as VoIP SIP telephone line trunking technology, these on-premises PBX ssytems are still readily available in South Africa. However as technology advances and as products reach their end-of-life cycle, the equipment to maintain them becomes less available and much more expensive. These on-premises PBX systems will eventually be replaced with off-premise cloud, hosted PBX solutions. |