Virtual PBX's hosted VoIP-based business communication solution, long noted for its flexibility, has become even more versatile for small businesses especially with the introduction of the Virtual PBX Open VoIP Peering (News - Alert) service. It allows the users of any SIP-compliant softphones or desktop phones to employ the firm's services. The added versatility gives even fewer reasons to buy premise-based IP-PBXes and to keep clunky and cludgy PSTN boxes and Centrex solutions.

Up until this announcement, Virtual PBX's (News - Alert) VoIP peering implementation worked only with VoIP service that used the North America Numbering Plan (NANP) to address phones. Now, customers can choose any phone that complies with established SIP standards, including products from vendors such as Callcentric, Ekiga, Gizmo5 (News - Alert) and Truphone.

Hosted IP-PBX providers that support native VoIP traffic usually have closed proprietary implementations, explains Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. Customers have usually been locked into VoIP, softphone and even telephone handset offerings from the same company that provides the PBX service. Virtual PBX he says is giving its users more choice by supporting open standards. Rather than being limited to the features and capabilities of just a single vendor, clients can choose the offering that best fits their needs.

The firm believes this will ultimately provide richer services for clients, since each player can bring unique content and features to the table. At the same time, total costs can be cut by sending more traffic through less expensive technologies. There is no extra cost from Virtual PBX for accessing softphones as opposed to other players who charge extra for proprietary digital-enabled phone extensions.

Hosted IP-PBX services provide businesses with phone systems without the high costs of installing and maintaining PBX equipment. Typical prices range from $25 to $60 per user per month, averaging about $40 per user. Virtual PBX's VoIP Peering product, the iVPBX plan, reduces that price to just $10 per user. The iVPBX product includes all standard Virtual PBX features, such as a virtual receptionist, ACD queuing, voicemail, conferencing and follow-me forwarding.

"Small business users want to take advantage of the cost-savings potential of VoIP technology, but many pure VoIP solutions don't provide the reliability and functionality needed for a professional business environment," says Hammand. "Virtual PBX's Open VoIP Peering service addresses these shortcomings, giving our customers a broad range of features and the necessary reliability - for a fraction of the cost of typical IP-PBX solutions."

The Open VoIP Peering Service is only the latest of a series of customer-focused functionalities that Virtual PBX has been adding to its hosted solution. Earlier this month it launched a new free conferencing service that allows audio conferences to be started at any time; both users and system administrators can monitor conference activity in real time. The service has already been rolled out to all clients and is instantly included for all new accounts.

Every extension in a Virtual PBX system has its own private conference room that can be used whenever the need arises. There is no requirement to log into an online service and reserve a specific time or acquire and distribute PIN numbers. Users can, however, password-protect their conferences at any time with any password they choose.

As with other Virtual PBX features, conferencing can make small companies look like big companies. Virtual PBX includes a feature set that is typical of a Fortune 500 phone system, but with a starting price of less than $10 per month.

"We're pleased to offer our customers this feature at no cost," says Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX. "In today's economy, free services can be a big help and, together with the low cost of our service plans, all our clients get a lot of PBX power for a very low price."