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    Throwing out the PBX

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    Nokia has announced a proposal that requires enterprises to completely dispense with their PBX and fixed telephones, replacing them instead with mobile phones.

    Under the company’s Mobile Business Voice proposition, the PBX functionality is handled from within the mobile operator’s network.
    Incoming calls are transferred by a switchboard attendant to the recipient’s mobile phone.
    The mobile user is assigned an extension number as if they were part of a fixed network.
    All outgoing calls are likely to be charged, even those made to employees in the same business, but at less than standard mobile rates.
    Mobile operators must install Nokia’s Trio Network Attendant in their core network to route the calls, whilst businesses need only a PC with the Nokia call handling software.
    Nokia claims businesses will save by not investing in a PBX, and that will outweigh the additional call charges incurred by making mobile calls.
    But even if businesses dispense with their PBXs and welcome this disruptive solution, mobile operators must still deploy it and come up with a pricing structure that is acceptable to businesses.
    A Nokia product manager working on the solutions said the product was available in Finland now and would be in the rest of Europe during 2004.