The Chronicle of Telecommunication from PSTN to Hosted PBX

Initially, the traditional PBX was prevalent in the telecommunication sector. This system was designed to manage the internal calling within the organization and external calls could be made through the PSTN channel only. In the later years, with the development of VOIP technology and its extension to the telecommunication sector, IP PBX was introduced in the telecommunication sector. This was a compact version of the giant PBX equipment that was maintained at the premise of the large business organizations. The load of wired connections was reduced with this system and the functionality was enhanced due to the use of internet based technology.

This introduction was not so beneficial since both of the above systems were unaffordable by the small and medium scale business organizations. With this increasing demand in the outsourcing of communication requirements, the concept of Hosted PBX systems was perceived. The reason is that a hosted solution is less expensive as opposed to the fixed infrastructure that needs to be deployed on premise. In case of hosted infrastructure, the provider can provide the desired services to a number of users thereby making profit on his share while the SMBs can pay only for what they require thereby leading to complete utilization of resources from both ends.

The fact that Hosted PBX services offer a cost-effective solution is the major factor in the telecom sector but the other important reason which led to the global adoption of this system is that this system can be easily integrated without many compatibility issues. There are many small and medium scale enterprises that maintai
PSTN phone lines at their premise. The use of this contemporary digital business phone channel ensures that you can use the PSTN channel for the transmission of digital signals through an ATA. This device is used to convert the analog signals to digital which facilitates easy integration.

Why is the use of Hosted PBX such a charm for the SMBs? The reasons are quite obvious. First of all, there are a number of benefits that can provide a small business with the image of a Fortune 500. These benefits usually include:

• Mobility in the communication channel
• Scalability ensures constant cost of changes

• Reliability ensures safe transmission of information
• Business reach can be extended to international clients
• Low cost calling to any destination all over the globe

Not only does Hosted PBX offer these benefits but also offers unmatched features that can help project a professional image when some client calls in. These features include:

• Business enterprises can have unlimited extensions due to which they can make it possible to prevent any ways of missing out important business leads.

• Extension to extension calling is free and thus, employees can always stay connected without any additional expense.
• Call transfer and call forwarding features allow you to transfer the calls from one extension to another in case of specific demand of the client for a particular individual.

• Call Parking allows you to place a call on hold from one place and retrieve the conversation from some other place without dropping the call thereby catering to client requests as and when required.
• Interactive Voice Response is that feature of business phone that offers your callers to choose from a per-defined menu that can provide them with customized options to choose from.

• Music-on-hold feature of Hosted PBX is essential so as to hold customers for a longer duration when the call is placed in a queue.
All these features of Virtual PBX make this channel perfect for the small business organizations to maintain. So, every step from PSTN to PBX has been an enhancement over the previous one. The use of a hosted service is better in this sense as you can get the benefit of upgraded channel as there is any new introduction to the series.