2009 was a tough year, every time I turned on the TV or sat down with a newspaper there was new disasters, bankruptcy’s, rising unemployment rates, the works. Most companies scaled back, research and development of new products was put on hold. But not every company followed the trend and put their heads in the sand hoping the international crisis would go away. I know of at least three companies that did the opposite, that invested time and money in the future of communication the Asterisk Way. In some ways their products are very similar, yet they are so different that they are the champions of different categories altogether. I got a sample of each to play with, and I’ll try to share my experience.
First one out is my old friends at Atcom Technology, the manufacturers of David Rowe’s open source IP-04 PBX. 
Who could have known that David’s basement project would become so popular that it changed the entire price structure for large (and obsolete) PBX manufacturers and finally put the PBX within reach of even the smallest companies. From an average price of $5000 or more you can now have the same features packed in the size of an ATA for $135! 
The IP-04 is no longer alone, it has grown to an entire family of PBX’s with no end in sight. And they are GREEN, with an average consumption of less than 5W it can even been run from solar power! The only negative sides of this incredible device is the fact that it has taken us way too long to make the firmware stable enough for professional use in addition to the fact that the person given the task of setting it up should have some experience with Asterisk. Or get access to direct assistance through an SE Support Contract. But for the seasoned professional it is a dream, you can even develop your own version of the firmware.
As I mentioned earlier Atcom has developed an entire family of PBX’s sharing the same basic design and hardware with the following specifications:
Interface
1 or 2 RJ45 port(s)
1 x Power port
1 x RS232 port
1 to 8 RJ11 port (FXS/FXO interchangeable) or 4 RJ45 (IP-BRI)
1 to 4 FXO/FXS module slot (Except IP-BRI)
1 slot for SD FLASH (not IP-01 and IP-02)
Hardware
CPU: 400MHz Blackfin BF532 Chip (IP-BRI use a 600Mhz BF537 chip)
NAND flash 256 M
SDRAM 64M
System
Open Source uClinux with Asterisk firmware, VoIPtel CE by default ( Optional: VoIPtel SE, BAPs or Astfin)
Size
100 * 100 * 28mm IP-01 and IP-02
225 * 120 * 30mm IP-04, IP-08 and IP-BRI
The graphical user interface (GUI) is a modified version of AsteriskNOW GUI v2, so users of AsteriskNOW will feel right at home. It is unfortunately very common that open source projects often has either none or very poor user documentation, but this has been addressed in a rather unique way. After logging in you will be presented with a similar screen to the one below, and in the upper right corner there is a question-mark (?). Click on it and an Administrators Manual created on FLASH paper will be downloaded and displayed separately from an on-line server. This way of presenting the Manual has several benefits; it is easy to update it for the developers, it is always available in the latest version and it is very environmentally sound.
Assisted by the Manual it’s not too difficult to get the PBX online, but I miss a Quick-start guide outlining how to get it operational and in what order the steps should be performed. I better get my act together and write it.
There is currently no auto-provisioning system for VoIP phones in this firmware (will come soon), so I have to configure the phones manually. I have five phones available in my lab; one analogue Siemens Gigaset, two Atcom phones (AT-610P and AT-620P) and two VoIPtel Pro phones (Executive and SOHO). The analogue phone is plugged into the FXS port while the four other phones takes 3-5 minutes each to configure through their GUI.
The sound quality is very good, but there is a difference between the analogue Siemens phone compared to the VoIP phones. The VoIP phones has a clear edge when it comes to voice quality, and they are not experiencing any problems with echo on the line. The Siemens phone has a very good voice quality considering that it is an analogue device, but I have experienced problems with echo a few times. Unfortunately this is not the kind of problems that can be solved by the software developers, it has to be tuned by the owner of the PBX. But this is not a serious problem, for the large majority the OSLEC does a very good job.
I recommend this line of PBX’s for people and integrators with very limited budgets and who has the required skills or available time to learn. Even though it has a very good GUI accompanied by tool-tips and an on-line Administrators Manual it still require some degree of experience and skills.
The prices for the IPxx start at US$135.00 for an IP-01 on special offer to the IP-BRI clocking in at $500.00 For more info about prices and availability please go here.
Next: Meet PIKA WARP running FreePBX
And for once I am not talking about the size around my waist! The last couple of months I have been working on a new concept, a network of Partners all over the world. As a small company you meet all kinds of problems such as high prices, costly freight, none or very limited influence on the products that you are marketing. While the large corporations have the resources to develop fancy equipment carrying their name and logo the small companies is left with the rest. 
But guess what, we are about to change that! With the support of a lean organization handling both ordering as well as shipment to the various Partners we are able to cut cost and grow influence. We still need more members in order to have a real impact, at the moment we have Partners in Norway, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and USA (east coast). And another four companies is going to join within a week or so. I believe there is strength in numbers, and we will use our strength to the benefit of our customers.
