3CX, Inc., is a software development company and developer of the 3CX Phone System. The 3CX Phone System is a software

private branch exchange A business telephone system is a telephone system typically used in business environments, encompassing the range of technology from the key telephone system (KTS) to the private branch exchange (PBX). A business telephone system differs from ...

based on the SIP (

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

) standard to allow calls via the

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists o ...

(PSTN) or via

Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables Voice call, voice calls to be tran ...

(VoIP) services.

Company history

3CX was founded by Nick Galea in 2005. In 2006, 3CX released the 3CX Phone System as a free IP PBX for use in a

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environment. The phone system's first commercial edition, v6.0, was released a year later in 2007. Reviews of the product have noted its easy configuration, management, and hardware compatibility. In the following years, 3CX made a number of acquisitions including eWorks technologies in 2013, the Elastix project and PBX in a Flash in 2016, and Askozia in 2017. In 2019, 3CX acquired WP Live Chat, a free WordPress plugin for live chat integration. In September 2016, 3CX announced a partnership with

BT Wholesale BT Wholesale and Ventures was a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group that provided voice, broadband, data, hosted communication, managed network and IT services to communications providers (CPs) in Great Britain. It was ...

SIP Trunking platform to serve resellers. In 2017 "PBX Express" was released, allowing a hosted PBX to be created on any hosted

virtual private server A virtual private server (VPS) or virtual dedicated server (VDS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting company. A virtual private server runs its own copy of an operating system (OS), and customers may have superuser- ...

. The company would later launch a "Hosted by 3CX" offering. In 2019, Stefan Walther was appointed as the new CEO of the company. In the same year, 3CX was featured on the internet TV show Hak5. In 2021 with the launch of version 18, 3CX integrated with Microsoft Teams to allow direct routing through the Microsoft platform. In June 2022, it was announced Walther would step down as CEO, with Galea returning to the position.

Phone system

3CX produces a telephone system under the same name. The system consists of a number of software-based components. It can be accessed via a Web Client, PWA, Desktop App, Management & Admin consoles,

softphone A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer rather than dedicated hardware. The softphone can be installed on a piece of equipment such as a desktop, mobile device, or other compu ...

for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

clients for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android. 3CX can be used with either SIP phones or the clients, or a combination of the two. It provides

unified communications Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features (including ...

functionality including call recordings, multi-level IVR, call center features, voicemail to email, fax to email, integrated video & call conferencing and omnichannel live chat messaging integration.

Security incident

On 29 March 2023, 3CX acknowledged its desktop client, 3CXDesktopApp, had been compromised to distribute malware. Global cybersecurity firm

Mandiant Mandiant, Inc. is an American cybersecurity firm and a subsidiary of Google. Mandiant received attention in February 2013 when it released a report directly implicating China in cyber espionage. In December 2013, Mandiant was acquired by FireE ...

were appointed to conduct a full investigation. On 20 April 2023, 3CX published the investigation's conclusions, revealing the hacking operation was a byproduct of an earlier software hack from an application from financial software company Trading Technologies, accessed through a 3CX employee's PC. The hack was linked to the same North Korean operators that compromised the Trading Technologies app. As a result, 3CX announced a Security Action Plan to minimize risk of future attacks.

Major releases

Each major release listed below was followed by multiple maintenance updates. Table created according to the "3CX Phone System Build History".

Awards

* 2015: '''Price/Performance Value Leadership Award','' awarded by

Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan is an American business consulting firm. It offers market research and analysis, growth strategy consulting, and corporate training. It has about 45 offices in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe; the principal office is in Sa ...

* 2015: '''Tech Innovator Award, awarded by CRN * 2015: '''Most Innovative Product, awarded by the Innovationspreis - IT * 2012: Best Emerging Technology Vendor' ''awarded by CRN * 2011: '''Best Emerging Technology Vendor awarded by CRN

References