When private branch exchange (PBX) phone systems were first introduced decades ago, they truly changed the way offices functioned. By enabling office workers to call each other’s private branches practically without cost, intra-office calling emerged and facilitated, for better or for worse, the use of private office and cubicles for conducting business, while also increasing efficiency around the workplace, since workers could dialog without moving from their desks. But with the PBX system, so came too the need for expensive hardware to administrate the network, along with the expertise to do so.

More recently, hosted PBX gained popularity because it eliminated the need for subscribers to absorb the whole cost of PBX hardware, in addition to allowing them to outsource the expertise necessary to keep the network running. Although initially calls were relayed to and from the host via the conventional PSTN network, smaller companies were still able to realize savings from the free branch-to-branch calling.

Yet for all the cost savings of the PBX, phone companies still coined money until the advent of VOIP, which has allowed subscribers to bypass most of the PSTN network because data is transmitted over the internet instead of the old network.  That technology, in conjunction with PBX, has created the possibility for businesses to implement a Hosted VoIP PBX network, giving businesses access to the cost-cutting benefits of each a hosted PBX and VOIP.

Simply put, where the host of the network previously switched calls on PSTN lines with analog circuitry, a VOIP solution provider now relays calls through the PBX via VOIP, and furthermore allows callers to place calls over internet protocol. The impact on the bottom line is drastic compared with a conventional hosted PBX and even more drastic for companies without a real phone system.

In addition to saving on intra-office calls, subscribers receive nearly free local calling, free incoming long distance, and outgoing long distance at literally pennies per minute. Subscribers simply have to make sure they have the bandwidth to carry voice, find a Hosted VoIP PBX provider, buy the necessary phones, and save easily over 50% on phone bills.
While the hosted PBX was a revolution in its day and certainly changed office culture and the way we do business, the addition of VOIP to this brilliant solution makes it genius.