Still, using analogue telephone or fax machines? Not a problem, with Grandstream’s UCM 6100 PBX series you can now integrate you analogue phones and fax machines with the latest VoIP PBX system.

How does the UCM 6100 series accomplish this?

All Grandstream UCM 6100 series models come standard with two FXS (Foreign Exchange Station) ports. These FXS ports allow you to connect your IP PBX system to analogue devices such as fax machines or analogue phones (UCM PBX comes with built-in fax to email server). This means that you have at least two analogue devices that can connect to the VoIP BPX. For example, you send a fax to the client using your analogue fax machine, the information is translated by your PBX system from analogue to IP and sent on to your client who will receive the fax as an email.

What is an FXO Gateway and what is it used for? 

An FXO (Foreign Exchange Office) port can be used to receive a dial tone from a voice service provider like Telkom. With the FXO gateway from Grandstream (GXW4104/4108), you can upgrade to a VoIP telephony system and still keep you analogue lines for redundancy or for your incoming calls.  This is a great way to ensure the uptime of your phone system when you are experiencing unreliable internet connectivity. The FXO gateway can also be used to extend analogue lines from one premise to another over an IP-based network. To accomplish this you will need an FXO gateway on the one side where the analogue lines are located and either an IP PBX or an FXS gateway on the other side.  This works great for installations where wireless is the only option! 

What is an FXS Gateway and what is it used for?

The FXS Gateways can be used to connect analogue phones to a VoIP PBX or to convert an analogue PBX system to connect to a VoIP service provider. Naturally, the more FXS ports you have the more analogue devices or lines you can connect. By connecting your analogue phones to the FXS Gateway you allow them to act as the handsets for the extensions created on your IP PBX. As a VoIP service provider, it’s not always possible to replace legacy analogue PBX systems with a VoIP PBX system due to the large capital expense linked to the legacy products, this is where the FXS gateways come in handy. It can bridge directly into the analogue PBX’s FXO ports, enabling the VoIP service provider to connect the FXS gateway to the internet push their VoIP service over the FXS gateway to the analogue PBX, allowing the end-user to reap the cost-saving benefits of VoIP. 

Do you need a BPX for each branch to get these features?

You can peer any Gateway with the UCM PBX at the main branch over the internet, without having to buy a separate PBX. 

Want to move over to IP without upgrading your entire system or investing in a PBX?

Grandstream also has ATA’s (analogue telephone adapters) that are used when you want to convert 1 or 4 analogue phones to SIP. ATA’s are mostly used by ISP’s who provide VoIP service to their clients, making use of the clients existing analogue phones by implementing an ATA that saves you the cost of implementing a PBX.