Convergence /

3Com bolsters NBX VoIP system

By Phil Hochmuth
Network World, 02/12/01

This week 3Com will introduce a new version of its IP PBX with five times the user capacity of its current NBX 100 LAN telephony box. Also on tap are new NBX handsets that allow users to make calls by beaming phone numbers from a Palm device to the phone.

The latest release of 3Com's NBX LAN telephony system, the SuperStack 3 NBX, is targeted at organizations with up to 750 users looking to replace a midsize PBX or upgrade from previous NBX devices.

ChannelWave Software, a developer of partner relationship management software in Cambridge, Mass., has used the NBX for several years and has been beta testing the SuperStack NBX. According to MIS Director Stephen Douglas, the new box's higher scalability was exactly what he needed.

"We were about to outgrow the smaller chassis," Douglas says, adding that his company's quick growth pushed the 150-user limit of his NBX 100.

By tying two NBXs together, Douglas was able to support the 300 employees now on the system, but this had its limitations, such as the inability to transfer voice mail to users across the two boxes.

"One of the big pluses of the new box is that I've got everybody on the same system," he says.

The new box can scale up to 750 attached devices and support 360 outside lines. The SuperStack NBX includes a new internal H.323 gateway for communicating with other voice-over-IP gateway devices across a WAN and auto-attendant software. The box supports twice as much voice mail (400 hours) as the NBX 100.

3Com will also introduce new NBX 2102 LAN phones that include two 10/100M bit/sec switch ports for connecting a PC to a LAN through the phone. Previous 3Com phones had two-port hubs for workstation connectivity. Systems with 3Com's SuperStack 3 NBX and NBX 2102 phones cost $600 and $800 per user. Both products are available now.