Unified MBX (UMBX) is a software-only cellular IP PBX and FMC system, or mobile PBX. It provides complete business telephony with the mobile phone as the primary office extension. The software includes a feature-rich open source IP PBX to offer companies IP telephony without the expense of proprietary hardware, IP PBX or OS licenses. Service providers can deliver this SaaS.
Today’s UMBX 4.1 release introduces multitenancy, carrier-grade high availability 99.999%, and high scalability of 25,000 users per hosted server instance, hundreds of thousands with distributed architecture. Significantly, the release’s new SIP call flows remove the call bottle neck barriers to support for on-premises equipment, by keeping the voice media stream in the mobile operator network.
"IDC believes that mobility should be seen as part and parcel of Unified Communications (UC), which is all about business benefits and device independence. There is clearly a lot of interest in UC in the service provider community, including mobile operators,” noted Chris Barnard, Research Director, IDC EMEA.
“We forecast the worldwide Mobile PBX extension market to grow at a CAGR of 66.5% between 2008-2013, when the market will be worth more than US $700 million," continued Barnard.
Added Rob Arnold, senior enterprise communications analyst at Current Analysis: “Advanced FMC solutions offer compelling value propositions. However cost, complexity and feature limitations have hindered adoption. UMBX with sipXecs takes proprietary PBXs and soft switches out of the equation, lowering cost and complexity barriers yet delivering robust mobile business communications capabilities. With it service providers can roll out FMC services with less risk, with more functionality and at price points that SME customers are looking for.”
UMBX 4.1 can be hosted by operators to address the SME market, or managed on-premises to meet enterprise requirements. SIP desk phones and softphones are fully supported, and the software can also be used to mobilise any existing legacy PBX.
Frost and Sullivan’s research analyst for UC and collaboration, Dorota Oviedo noted: "The lack of internal IT skills in the SME market, an economic downturn favouring Opex-based solutions, and the market's need for flexibility, all boost strong demand for UC as a service. Seeing the uptake in FMC and exponential growth in smartphone ownership, offerings such as UMBX could provide a competitive edge for mobile network operators entering the cloud UC market."
UMBX 4.1 offers mobile UC with cost efficient, fast deployment. The server component is delivered as software in a single install shield, which includes the open source IP PBX, FMC server and a Linux OS. The mobile client is provisioned over the air (OTA) and requires no user configuration. Centralised web based service management and full JMX based network management integration is provided as standard.