Fonality's PBXtra Wins Editor's Choice Award

Internet Telephony Magazine Gives PBXtra An "A"

Los Angeles, CA - "What do customers with limited Linux expertise, looking for an 'easy to manage' IP PBX solution, do if they want Asterisk?" asks Internet Telephony in its April 2006 issue. "The answer is deploy Fonality's PBXtra." The magazine awarded Fonality's PBXtra its Editor's Choice award and an A grade, with the highest possible scores in the categories of features, installation and GUI (graphical user interface). Fonality's PBXtra, an IP PBX for small and medium businesses, provides all the advanced features of an enterprise-class phone system at 40 percent to 80 percent less cost than traditional offerings.

Internet Telephony's product review of Fonality's PBXtra summarizes: "We already know the power of the open source movement and the popularity and cultish status that Asterisk has been building in the tech community. Fonality builds on the popularity of Asterisk by performing a complete and total re-write of the front end to be aimed at the SMB (non-tech-savvy) business market. Fonality leverages the power and flexibility of the Asterisk platform, while simultaneously making it easy to manage and use. TMC Labs was very impressed with the Fonality IP PBX and would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone looking for a turnkey Asterisk solution with powerful Web administration tools." Among the enterprise-class features of PBXtra that the reviewers highlighted were its ease of use and Web-based configuration, sophisticated best route calling system, branch-office and telecommuter support, PBXtra Softphone, Outlook integration, real-time call queues, excellent voice mail, customer support and reporting.

Easy to use Web-based Administration
"The user interface for Fonality is what sets it apart from your typical Asterisk solution," the reviewers wrote. "Fonality's Web-based administration and user interface is very organized and has a very clean look. Navigating the user interface and making configuration changes was so easy, yet so powerful, it made us wonder why we ever thought editing the Asterisk text-based configuration file was cool. Similarly, adding or editing voice prompts from the Web interface was equally easy."

Sophisticated Best Route Calling
PBXtra's ability to ensure the best quality and cost savings for every call also drew praise from the editors. "One thing we noticed right off the bat," they wrote, "is that Fonality has some solid features, including a sophisticated dialing plan with pattern matching that blends analog, T1, and VoIP to determine the best route."

Branch Office, Telecommuter Support, Outlook Integration
The product test lauded PBXtra's branch office and telecommuter support, and its integration with Outlook: "We should also mention you can `link up' with other PBXtra boxes in other branch locations for a seamless 4-digit dialing plan. They also offer a feature rich softphone and chat client priced at $49, which includes a bundled Plantronics headset. PBXtra Softphone is excellent for telecommuters, remote call center agents, and such and, of course, it is able to perform free VoIP-based 4-digit dialing to any PBXtra extension. Finally, PBXtra has integration with Microsoft Outlook. Incoming calls pop to the screen based on your Outlook Contacts. You can even call people by clicking on their email in your Inbox."

Easy to Use Scheduler and Real-Time Call Queues
"PBXtra features an easy to use scheduler that lets you build a schedule for a different Call Menu during weekends, or have your sales calls go to a mobile phone after hours," the review states. "Another great feature is the Queues, which give you a real-time snapshot of your queues and agents."

Excellent, Flexible Voicemail
The editors also liked the voicemail, writing, "PBXtra's voicemail capabilities are excellent, offering you four ways to check your voicemail: via .wav attachments sent to your email, via your desk phone, from a remote phone, or via the Web interface."

Customizable Reporting
"PBXtra has very good reporting functionality," the editors said, "including the ability to create custom call reports, export to .csv, and even view the cost of each call if you are using Fonality's VoIP network."

Customer Support
Superior customer service for the Open Source PBXtra was also highlighted in the product test. "Fonality has 10 hour per day customer service, and 24 hour per day emergency support available to its customers. This gives people the comfort of knowing that low cost Open Source can also come with parental supervision."

PBXtra is available from Fonality or through a Fonality reseller. Pricing starts at $995 for the PBXtra Standard Edition server with unlimited licenses, or $2,935 with ten phones. PBXtra's Call Center Edition, which allows for distributed call centers, is $1,995. For more information about PBXtra or becoming a Fonality reseller, visit www.fonality.com.

About Fonality
Fonality is the leading provider of affordable IP-PBX systems for SMBs. PBXtra Standard Edition delivers all the advanced features of an enterprise-class phone system at an affordable price and is so easy to use that it eliminates expensive on-site support and configuration costs. PBXtra Call Center Edition provides businesses with call center functionality in addition to the PBX capabilities found in Standard Edition. PBXtra is deployed to more than 10,000 business users in the U.S. and other countries. Fonality's products are available direct and through a network of more than 1,300 resellers.