I've always been impressed at the ambition of Grandstream's IP telephones. However, I always found myself wanting more in terms of overall product stability and build quality from these two phones. At least that is the case with the GXP 2000 and the Budgetone 100 that I have in my VoIP gear box.

Now Grandstream is working on their own IP PBX. They are making two models: the GXE 5024 and the GXE 5028. The main differences are the number of analog ports (the GXE 5024 supports 4 analog extensions versus 8 on the GXE 5028), the number of conference rooms (2 versus 4), and the amount of flash memory to store things like voicemail.

The product also supports fax-to-print capabilities, 100 registered VoIP extensions with up to 50 simultaneous VoIP calls, and up to 20 people in their conference bridge. It also allows for two analog telephone lines to be plugged in. These lines can provide failover for when outbound VoIP service is unavailable and/or can be used to accept and route inbound calls. Quite a lot for a (reportedly) $550 box!

My main concern, of course, is whether or not their software quality is up to snuff. I'll believe it when I see it.

Via Rich Tehrani