Touting their IP telephony solutions for SMBs as affordable and effective, officials from a Los Angeles-based IP-PBX (News - Alert) VoIP phone systems provider say they’re offering three-day certification courses in flagship products next month.

 

In a podcast available here, Kerry Garrison (News - Alert) – senior product manager of trixbox for Fonality – told TMCnet Group Managing Editor Erik Linask that telephony systems are following the same path that once-expensive desktop computer systems have been headed down for a few years.

 

“This is an interesting time in the telephony space,” Garrison said.

 

At one time, it may have cost a business $15,000 to $20,000 for a basic phone system, with extra fees for support or features such as conferencing, Garrison said.

 

“That’s where the Fonality (News - Alert) systems play in, is that they’re very affordable for the small to medium business segment,” Garrison said. “Even up to some enterprise levels, but they’re really geared to that 200 to 500 seat space, and at that range it is a far more cost-effective solution than virtually any other platform on the market today.”

 

Fonality officials say their free and open source telephony platform, called “trixbox CE,” now counts more than 200,000 live deployments and 125,000 new downloads each month.

 

At the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, or “ITEXPO (News - Alert),” to be held Sept. 16 to 18 in Los Angeles – register here – Fonality is offering two certification courses in trixbox.

 

“FtOCC CE” – “FtOCC” is short for Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification – is designed to teach the basics of trixbox CE installation and administration, according to Garrison. The $2,499 course is intended for those who wish to install trixbox CE systems for their company or clients, people who will have to maintain a trixbox installation, or users who are relatively new to trixbox and want to grasp its capabilities.

 

A second course, “FtOCC Technician,” is a three-day technical certification course designed to train resellers and consultants to support their clients running trixbox CE, trixbox Pro, and PBXtra systems.

 

“Taught by Fonality technical support instructors and designed for Linux system administrators, FtOCC Technician dives deep into platform and application installation, carrier setup and integration, network configuration, echo causes and remedies, and other common issues,” company officials say. “Upon completion of this course, resellers automatically become Fonality Authorized (AL2) Resellers and earn increased discounts on support.”

 

The $2,499 technician course, because it’s more advanced, requires a practitioner’s knowledge of Linux, according to Fonality.