There are three main types of business telephony:

• Traditional / legacy telephony
• IP telephony - Premises Based
• IP telephony - Hosted

Traditional / legacy telephony

Traditionally, legacy PBX’s (Private Branch Exchanges) would have been found in all businesses: they are generally reliable in terms of being able to make and receive calls and sport a basic level of functionality.

However, they are inflexible, costly and expensive to administer and maintain. Moving extensions or adding or changing new ones (MACs) often requires re-wiring and always requires system configuration by experienced and skilled on-site resources. Many traditional companies have staff or even departments dedicated to the support and maintenance of their traditional PBX equipment.

Every office application has changed and developed over the years – very few companies still use typewriters for example – so why hasn’t the voice application kept pace?

IP Telephony

It’s been tantalising close for some time and IP telephony can now be considered the voice application innovation.

IP PBX’s, whether premises-based or hosted, are a credible alternative to traditional telephony.

Three key components now make large-scale take-up possible:

1. Reliable and proven IP PBXs.
2. Voice-prioritised internet telephony service provision (ITSP)
3. Ubiquitous roll out of high quality digital subscriber lines (xDSL)

Having shown the credibility of IP telephony as a successor to a traditional PBX system, it is now time to look at two possible IP telephony sub-types – premises-based and hosted. 500 Limited only provide business grade telephony; this means providing the best of breed for both premises-based and hosted IP PBX systems.