Comments on: Digium, Fonality in ‘Free’ IP PBX Fight

By: Buzz Hansen

Buzz Hansen — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:28:08 +0000

As the CTO of a traditional PBX/KTS company, I am of course interested in where the Asterisk thing is going. In this industry, intellectual property has always been what adds value to a company. Specifically, unique features and architectures along with proprietary hardware (phones, line cards, etc.) protected by patents (open source community cringes). Trying to derrive reasonable revenue by reselling low cost PCs with "free" software (and maybe a cut of the SIP phone sales) seems to be a weak business plan at best. I am also curious why the "hardened" industrial versions of Asterisk (i.e. PBXtra) aren't open source as well. Surely these modifications fall under the GPL. Not to be too negative, kudos to Fonality for what looks like an excellent call control package (HUD).

By: K L Mukesh

K L Mukesh — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:31:19 +0000

Is the Asterisk PBX scalable?

By: Steve Ferandez

Steve Ferandez — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:18:55 +0000

Fonality's model is not sustainable. One time charge of $1,000 and maybe a piece of the long distance (LD). The barrier to entry is very low. Proprietary technology is a must! If Fonality is participating in the LD revenue -the question to ask is what would happen if that piece of the model went away.

That said I think Fonality has done a very nice job coming up with a clean and easy to use GUI. However, the barrier to entry is some web developers.

By: William Henderson

William Henderson — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:36:11 +0000

Besides open source linux IP PBX software, there is now also Free Windows IP PBX software available from 3CX… A valid option for those not familiar with Linux.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:46:43 +0000

Oops, in my last post, there was an error and I should have stated:

"… especially in light Digium announcing their first appliance."

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:45:44 +0000

Paul,

Asterisk also has also recently forked on the Mac OS X platform into what the forked group is calling OpenPBX -- interesting developments to watch especially in light Asterisk announcing their first appliance.

By: Linux Guy

Linux Guy — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:47:47 +0000

I think Fonality has a great strategy. Supporting open source applications such as Trixbox in this way creates a stable and completely open environment for people to learn not only Asterisk, but Linux and web application development.