Built on an open-system VoIP peering platform, the new service combines the products of both companies. As part of the announcement, Virtual PBX has launched iVPBX, a new product that provides customers with unlimited inbound calling and no per-minute fees at a price of just under US$10 per seat. Gizmo5 clients who use the new iVPBX product can send calls by IP directly to their Gizmo phones at no cost.

Virtual PBX has been delivering calls to businesses through its hosted PBX service since 1997. Typically, companies using the service have one main business number for clients to call. Virtual PBX takes those calls, answers them with a “virtual” attendant, and then delivers them to employees using any kind of phone, in any location.
Traditional Virtual PBX pricing plans include a varying number of free minutes with a price of 4.4 to 6.5 cents per minute for additional usage. With the new iVPBX product, available now, calls coming in on a local number and sent to a Gizmo5 phone will have no per-minute fee for unlimited use.

Gizmo5 offers VoIP services to both consumers and businesses. Users can make and receive calls from any computer with browser access to the Internet, or use Gizmo5 to power IP phones. Gizmo adds features like call recording, IM, file sharing, and much more. Setting up a Gizmo5 account is free, and so are inbound calls to a Gizmo client, with a fee for outbound dialing. By adding the Virtual PBX service, business users of Gizmo5 gain all the advantages of a high-end PBX, such as an auto-attendant, transferring calls between users, and routing calls to departments though ACD queues, according to Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX.