Short for Private Branch eXchange, PBX is a private telephone network used within an enterprise. Users share a certain number of outside lines for making telephone calls external to the PBX. Less expensive than connecting an external telephone line to every telephone in the organization, most companies today use a PBX.

 

IP PBX, or Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange, is a telephone switch that supports Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP. An IP PBX provides services similar to PBX services, but over data networks like a LAN or WAN rather than circuit-switched networks. Calls  can typically be switched between VoIP on local lines or between VoIP and traditional telephone users in the same way PBX does.

 

Recently, MZA released its “Corded PBX/IP PBX Market” report for Q3 2008, which shows that worldwide sales of PBX and IP PBX extensions (excluding Micro PBX products) remained flat in the period between July and September 2008. 

 

MZA figures show that the worldwide penetration of IP extensions into total deployments at desktops has reached 24 percent, on a par with Q2 2008. This market area continues to experience double digit growth in spite of falls in the overall corded PBX market. The report reveals that Panasonic, NEC and Cisco attained the greatest market shares at a global level, while Cisco continues to lead the IP extensions market, followed by Avaya and Mitel. 

 

Western Europe suffered as the largest Western European markets, namely the UK, France and Germany dropped between four percent and nine percent. Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent remain the strongest manufacturers in Western Europe while Eastern European markets dropped by an average of ten percent, with Russia suffering the greatest setback in terms of the volume of extensions deployed when compared to the same period last year.

 

For the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific the quarter showed moderate to very good levels of growth. The biggest was in Latin America, where some larger accounts contributed to high levels of growth in the above 100 extensions market, meaning that Latin America represented nine percent of the overall global market compared to seven percent previously. 

 

The Middle East and Africa increased by five percent and Asia Pacific by three percent. The North American market suffered an almost negligible decline as Cisco remains the market leader for a third consecutive quarter, followed by Avaya and then Nortel in third.

 

In terms of the global IP extension market, the report indicated that North America continues to represent the greatest proportion of IP deployments at a global level and the IP market continued to demonstrate healthy levels of growth as it increased by 16 percent in Q3 2008 compared to Q3 2007. 

The penetration of IP into total extensions remains around 50 percent, compared to just under 28 percent in Western Europe, ahead of the global average, which is still less than 25 percent. The greatest increase in IP was witnessed this time in Latin America as a result of activity in the enterprise space, while Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Asia Pacific all demonstrated double digit growth of between 15 percent and 24 percent.

 

MZA specialises in the provision of marketing consultancy services to the telecommunications and IT industries at a European and Global level, with expertise covering a wide range of consumer-based and professional voice, data and mobile solutions.

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