This week, I have been contacted by two different IP PBX vendors to review their products: TalkSwitch andthirdlane. Ok, maybe this data point is meaningless, but it's not like I hear from IP PBX vendors every day asking my opinion. Maybe this little trade show called VON.x on the 17th - 20 of March in San Jose, CA has something to do with it.

Maybe it's just me, but IP PBXes seem to share one trait with many VoIP PSTN replacement services: they pretty much do the same thing, maybe with a different interface, maybe not. Many of today's IP PBXes are actually based on Asterisk, the Open Source PBX and telephony suite. Others are either in-house developed or possibly based on other open-source telephony apps.

Hopefully TalkSwitch and thirdlane can articulate to me why they're different than everyone else.

photo credit: chiacomo