What is the difference between a PBX and a PABX?

The PBX (private branch exchange)

The term PBX refers to a private branch exchange. Businesses used to have a room or a station operated by an operative in the early days of telephone. The operator would plug jumpers into the console’s dozens of connections in response to employee requests for an outside line or a connection to another employee in the building. Similarly, incoming calls would be manually connected to the phoned person’s extension by the operator. The console was a switch that connected incoming and outgoing calls manually.

The PABX (Public Access Broadcasting System)

Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) is an acronym for Private Automatic Branch Exchange. The rise of electronic switching saw the manual switchboard disappear, and a little box took over all of the functions of employees dialing out or having intercom discussions. If the caller knows the extension, incoming calls can be automatically routed to the appropriate individual. You can link routers, modems, and fax machines to the PABX, which can contain incorporated software and hardware to serve as a phone lines center. Incoming calls might even be routed through an IVR that instructs callers to dial a certain number to reach a specific department. Manual PBX systems were phased out by PABX.

What is the difference between a PBX and a PABX?

The existence of the word automatic is the first thing you’ll notice about PBX, which stands for Private Branch Exchange, and PABX, which stands for Private Automatic Branch Exchange. This gives a hint as to how the two are different. A PABX is essentially an automated version of a PBX. There are also additional forms of PBXs, such as PMBX and EPABX, which we will not discuss.

PBX is a long-standing telecommunications idea that predates the introduction of electronics. A PBX was once a room where switchboard operators manually connected calls from one end to the other by putting wires into the circuit. New features were added to the PBX as technology progressed. Electronic switching is a significant advancement. As a result, the system might be automated and human involvement may be reduced to a minimum. As a result, a new name was needed to distinguish the new system from the old. As a result, the new automated system was dubbed PABX, whereas the earlier manual system was dubbed PMBX.

PBXs have come a long way from the PABX and PMBX systems of the past few decades. Furthermore, since all PBXs are now automated, the distinction between automated and manual systems is no longer necessary. As a result, the names PABX and PBX are sometimes interchanged because they refer to the same system.

PBXs have even introduced new functions that were almost non-existent when they first came out. Call conferencing, call waiting, automatic ringbark, and a slew of other functions are now common in most PBXs. Aside from typical wired lines, PBX systems may also accommodate cellular phones. Most crucially, many current PBX systems now support IP-based telephony. This is a packet-based network (i.e. the internet), which is considerably different from traditional phone networks’ circuit switched networks. IP telephony, often known as VoIP, offers various benefits to PBX systems, including the ability to significantly cut costs by maximizing the efficiency of available bandwidth.