Cloud PBX (PABX) & unified communications. Hosted in South Africa

Yes. FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX runs on Yeastar P-Series hosted in South Africa, for low latency and reliability. Calls run on FirstNet's own ICASA-licensed (ECNS / ECS) voice network, with interconnects to all major South African operators, so your geographic numbers terminate directly rather than through another operator's licence.

One managed contract covers the PBX, SIP trunking, numbers, porting and support, and existing numbers can be ported in with a signed Letter of Authority.

A cloud PBX is a hosted phone system that provides business calling, collaboration, and unified communications features without on-site hardware.

Yes. PABX and PBX are two spellings of the same business phone system. FirstNet's cloud PABX is a managed cloud PBX hosted in South Africa on Yeastar P-Series, Microsoft Teams calling or Zoom Phone, with one contract for the PBX, SIP trunking, numbers and porting.

Yes. Yeastar P-Series offers a full cloud PBX solution with UC features, mobile apps, and call centre capabilities.

Yes. With Operator Connect or Direct Routing, Teams becomes a complete business phone system that supports PSTN calling.

Operator Connect is simpler, cloud-managed, and requires no SBC infrastructure. Direct Routing offers greater control and flexibility for complex environments.

Yes. FirstNet provides voice connectivity and deployment services for Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Centre in South Africa.

Yes. FirstNet manages number porting, configuration, and phased rollout to minimise disruption.

No. The AI Receptionist uses natural language rather than keypad menus, and hands complex or sensitive calls to a human agent in Linkus. The agent sees the transcript and summary, so callers do not repeat themselves.

It is designed as the 24/7 layer behind your front desk. Use it for after-hours, overflow, holiday cover and high-volume routing, while your receptionist handles the relationship calls.

Out of the box it answers, routes, escalates, transcribes and triggers voicemail-to-email or callback flows. Deeper actions such as calendar bookings or CRM updates are scoped per customer during setup.

No. AI Transcription is a productivity tool. Regulated, audit-grade recording with retention and legal hold is provided by FirstNet Compliance Recording.

Yes. Geographic and non-geographic numbers can be ported in and out, and the service is built on standards-based SIP.

Yes. Call recording, IVR, call queues, standard reporting and Linkus mobile and desktop softphones are part of the core Managed Cloud PBX service.

An AI receptionist is a virtual receptionist that answers calls 24/7 and understands what callers say in natural language. FirstNet AI Receptionist, also called the Digital Receptionist, works out the caller's intent, answers from your own knowledge base and acts on the call: it routes to a department, queue or person, captures a callback or hands over to a human agent. Each call is logged with a transcript and AI summary.

FirstNet AI Receptionist supports 34 languages. You can customise the AI voice, including gender, tone and persona, so it sounds like your brand. The languages your callers actually use are confirmed during scoping, which suits businesses with multilingual customers such as logistics, retail and public-sector lines. Intents that are complex or sensitive are escalated to a human agent in the Linkus app.

You train it on your own content: PDFs, documents, website URLs and FAQs. Setup follows a four-step wizard: create the AI Receptionist extension, customise the voice and persona, train it on your knowledge base, then test and publish. A good start is listing the top reasons people call, deciding which intents should always go to a person, and preparing five to ten test scenarios before going live.

FirstNet AI Transcription turns calls into text, both live and after the call, and writes an AI summary of key topics, decisions and action items. It identifies speakers on multi-party calls and transcribes voicemail, and calls are searchable in the Managed Cloud PBX portal. It is a productivity tool for sales coaching, support quality and management review. It does not replace regulated compliance recording.

There are two models. On Demand is a once-off bucket of minutes that does not expire monthly and is used until depleted. It suits seasonal, campaign or after-hours-only use and pilots. Monthly Rolling is a monthly minute quota on a 12-month contract that refreshes each month, with unused minutes not rolling over. It suits always-on use. Each add-on can use a different model.

FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX includes extensions, call routing, voicemail, hold music and presence, plus IVR menus, call queues, call recording and standard reporting. Mobile and desktop softphone apps, SIP trunking with local South African termination, number porting, standard support and platform operations are part of the per-user service. Microsoft Teams integration, CRM integrations and contact-centre wallboards are available as add-ons.

Compared with an on-premises PBX, there is no hardware or maintenance burden, softphones and mobile apps let people work from anywhere, admin portals keep control simple and policy-based, and the geo-redundant platform runs with monitored uptime.

Yes. The Linkus mobile and desktop apps let you make and receive calls on your business number from anywhere, whether you are in the office, on the road or working from home. Callers see the same office number, and calls can reach you through the same queues and routing as a desk phone. This suits hybrid and distributed teams that no longer want phones tied to a desk.

Yes. CRM integrations with Halo, HubSpot, Salesforce and similar systems are available as add-ons to FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, alongside contact-centre reporting and wallboards. With AI Transcription, the call summary can sit alongside the call record for follow-up. Deeper AI Receptionist actions, such as updating CRM records or booking calendar slots, are scoped for each business rather than offered as standard.