Cloud phone systems

Why businesses are breaking up with 3CX — and switching to iPECS

Thinking about the switch from 3CX to iPECS? 3CX quietly changed the deal — its pricing and licensing — and a lot of Australian businesses are quietly changing phone systems. Here’s the honest story of why they’re moving to Ericsson-LG’s iPECS Cloud, and why the thing they rave about most isn’t a feature: it’s finally getting a real human on the phone.

Comstel ICT · Cloud phone systems · Updated August 2026

Nobody wakes up excited to change their phone system. It sits in the corner doing its job, and as long as calls go in and out, most business owners never think about it — which is exactly how it should be. So when we get a call that starts with “we’re on 3CX and… we think we want to move,” it’s usually because something finally tipped the boat: a bill that jumped, a renewal that stung, an update that broke a call flow, or a support ticket that vanished into a void.

If that’s you, this one’s worth ten minutes. We’ll be straight about what changed with 3CX, straight about what iPECS does differently, and straight about the bit most telcos skip: who actually answers when something goes wrong. Spoiler — at Comstel, it’s a person in North Sydney, not a queue in another timezone.

• 2–10,000+Users on one platform
• $25Per user / month, from
• 100%Australian-hosted & supported
• 24/6Real humans, not a call centre

First, what actually changed with 3CX

Let’s be fair: 3CX is capable software, and for years its pitch was brilliant — run your own phone system, host it yourself, pay little or nothing. Plenty of businesses built their whole setup on that promise. The trouble is the promise moved.

Around version 20, 3CX shifted from the old “own it and pay annual maintenance” model toward subscriptions, and through 2025 it reworked its licensing again — trimming the smaller, self-managed and low-seat options that small businesses relied on, and lifting prices on the entry tiers that used to be cheap. Industry write-ups on the shake-up put it bluntly: the changes signalled 3CX refocusing on larger deployments, leaving small and mid-sized customers with sticker shock and a nagging feeling the rules could change again.

The problem was never that 3CX raised a price. It’s that the deal you signed up for stopped being the deal you were on.

And it’s worth remembering the moment that made a lot of IT people nervous about self-managed comms in the first place: in March 2023, 3CX’s own desktop app was caught up in a supply-chain attack, where a tampered version of the software shipped to customers before it was caught and cleaned up. 3CX responded and remediated it — but for a business running the whole thing itself, it was a real-world reminder of who’s holding the risk. That would be you.

The bit the brochure skips: you’re the IT department

Here’s the quiet catch with a self-hosted system. Someone has to run the server it lives on. Someone has to keep the session border controller happy, apply the security patches, test the updates, renew the certificates, and be awake at 4pm on a Friday when an update decides your call queues are optional. On a good week you never notice. On a bad week, that someone is you — or a contractor you’re paying by the hour to untangle it.

That’s the trade almost nobody costs out properly. The licence might look cheap, but the running of it isn’t free — it’s just billed in stress and lost mornings instead of a line item.

Meet iPECS — and the app everyone actually talks about

iPECS Cloud is a fully managed cloud phone system from Ericsson-LG — a partnership that pairs Ericsson’s Swedish telecoms pedigree with LG’s Korean engineering, which is a polite way of saying it’s built by people who take phones very seriously. There’s no PBX box humming in your comms cupboard, no server for you to babysit, and no patch-Tuesday panic. It’s hosted in Australian data centres, and Comstel deploys, tunes and supports it for you.

But if you ask a business that’s already switched what they love, they rarely start with the platform. They start with the app.

The other thing iPECS quietly nails is scale. The same platform runs a two-person accountancy above a cafe and a ten-thousand-seat organisation across multiple sites — from 2 users to 10,000+ without ever ripping it out and starting again. It’s trusted by tens of thousands of businesses worldwide precisely because it grows with you: add an extension in minutes, open a new office next year, and it’s the same system the whole way up. Small business, mid-market, or large enterprise — it doesn’t make you choose a different product as you grow.

Every plan comes with the complete calling toolkit, not a stripped-back “starter” version:

• A line per extension, with your existing number ported or a brand-new one
• iPECS ONE softphone for mobile, PC and Mac — same number everywhere
• HD video conferencing, screen sharing and webinars built right in
• Microsoft Teams integration, so you can make and take real phone calls inside Teams
• CRM connectors for Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow and Pipedrive
• Call recording, analytics dashboards, presence, instant messaging and auto-attendant / IVR
• Voicemail-to-email, call forwarding, parking, conferencing and simultaneous ring

3CX vs iPECS Cloud, side by side

No product is perfect for everyone, so here’s the fair version rather than the fairy tale.

If you’re a happy 3CX shop with the in-house skills to run it, keep enjoying it — genuinely. But if you’ve been quietly doing a telco’s job on top of your actual job, that last row is usually the one that seals it.

Who tends to make the move

It’s rarely a dramatic decision. It’s usually one of these businesses, on an ordinary Tuesday, deciding they’ve had enough of doing a telco’s job:

• The renewal-shocked

  Opened the 3CX invoice, saw the jump, and thought “there has to be a better deal than this.”

• The accidental IT department

  Never signed up to patch a phone server, yet somehow that’s become their problem.

• The growing team

  Outgrowing a small setup and wanting one system that scales from a handful of desks to hundreds.

• The hybrid crew

  Half in the office, half at home or on the road, and tired of juggling numbers and devices.

If you saw yourself in even one of those, you’re in very normal company — and moving is far less painful than staying put usually feels.

“But we’ve built everything in 3CX already”

This is the fear that keeps businesses stuck on a system they’ve outgrown, and it’s the objection we hear most. The honest answer: your number moves with you, and nothing gets switched off until the new system is live and tested. We port your numbers in parallel, build your call flows, greetings and IVR in iPECS to match what you’ve got today, plug in pre-configured handsets, and train your team before cutover — not after. Most sites keep answering right through the changeover without a single missed call.

Keeping your numbers is the easy part, and we’ve written a plain-English guide to exactly how that porting process works if you want the detail. The short version: you sign one form, we do the paperwork, and your old service stays live until the moment it doesn’t need to be.

Don’t take our word for it — watch iPECS in action

Ericsson-LG publishes a stack of short, genuinely useful videos on YouTube, so you can see the system move before you talk to anyone. A few worth two minutes each:

• iPECS Cloud overview

  The quick tour of what the platform is and how the pieces fit together. Watch on YouTube.

• iPECS Cloud user portal

  A walkthrough of the self-service portal — how everyday settings are managed. Watch on YouTube.

• iPECS ANYWHERE

  An intro to taking your extension with you, wherever you’re working. Watch on YouTube.

Or, if you’d rather see it running on your own numbers with your own call flow, we’ll give you a live walkthrough — no slideshow, just the actual system.

Handsets you’ll actually be happy to look at

If your team likes a physical phone, the iPECS 1000i range runs from the tidy little 1010i on the reception desk to the 7″ touchscreen 1080i with an 8MP camera for the corner office. Prefer no desk phone at all? iPECS ONE turns any laptop or mobile into your business line. Out on the floor, in a warehouse or across a venue? There are Wi-Fi and cordless options, plus video conferencing phones for the meeting room. Every handset ships pre-configured — plug it in and it just works.

Smaller team and want it boxed up simply? BizTel bundles iPECS for 1–50 users with the handset, apps, install and training included. Running a contact centre or a bigger operation? Avaya Cloud sits alongside it in our range. Same team, same one bill, whichever fits.

The real reason people stay: a human answers

Here’s the part no feature list captures. When your phones are down, you don’t want a knowledge-base article or a chatbot that’s “so sorry to hear that.” You want a person who knows your setup to pick up and fix it. That’s the whole reason Comstel exists.

We’re your friendly neighbourhood telco — an Australian-owned team in North Sydney, answering the phone 24/6, with no offshore call centre and no press-one-for-this maze. When you call, you get someone who can actually see your account, understands iPECS, and owns the problem until it’s sorted. We stay in business by keeping you happy for years, not by making you unreachable.

You can buy the same technology from a dozen places. What you can’t buy from most of them is a local human who picks up.

How switching actually works

1. A friendly chatTell us your team size, your numbers and what’s annoying you about 3CX. We work out whether iPECS Cloud, BizTel or Avaya fits — and we’ll say so if you’re better off staying put.
2. We build it to matchYour call flows, greetings, hunt groups and IVR are set up in iPECS to mirror what you have now, so it feels familiar on day one.
3. Port & test in parallelNumbers move across while your current service keeps running. Handsets arrive pre-configured; iPECS ONE goes onto phones and laptops; your team is trained before anything switches.
4. Cutover, quietlyWe flip to the new system, confirm every number rings where it should, and only then retire the old service. Customers notice nothing.
5. Local support, ongoingNeed a new extension, a changed greeting or a hand with a feature? One number, real humans, same-day.

Most switches are live within a few business days once numbers are ready, and porting runs alongside your existing phones so you’re never off the air.

Frequently asked questions

Why are businesses switching from 3CX to iPECS?

Businesses switch from 3CX to iPECS mainly because of cost and effort. 3CX moved to a subscription model and reworked its licensing in 2025, raising prices on smaller plans, while a self-managed 3CX system means you run the server, apply security patches and manage updates yourself. iPECS Cloud is fully managed and Australian-hosted, so Comstel handles all of that for you.

Is iPECS better than 3CX?

It depends on what you need. 3CX is capable software and works well for teams with the in-house skills to host and maintain it. iPECS Cloud suits businesses that want a fully managed, Australian-hosted phone system with the iPECS ONE app, easy scaling from 2 to 10,000+ users, and local human support rather than running the platform themselves.

Can I keep my phone number if I switch from 3CX to iPECS?

Yes. Your existing numbers are ported to iPECS, and the porting runs in parallel with your current service so nothing is switched off until the new system is live and tested. In most cases businesses keep answering right through the changeover without missing a call.

What is iPECS ONE?

iPECS ONE is the iPECS softphone app. It puts calls, video meetings, chat, file sharing, presence and your company directory in one place across mobile, laptop and desktop, all on the same business number, so you can move a call from your desk phone to your mobile without dropping it.

Who makes iPECS and where is it hosted?

iPECS is made by Ericsson-LG, a joint venture combining Ericsson’s Swedish telecoms heritage with LG’s Korean engineering. When supplied by Comstel ICT, iPECS Cloud is hosted in Australian data centres for low latency and data sovereignty.

How many users does iPECS support?

iPECS Cloud scales from 2 users to 10,000 or more on the same platform, which makes it suitable for small, mid-sized and large businesses. You can add extensions in minutes and open new sites without changing products.

How much does iPECS cost?

iPECS Cloud starts from $25 per user per month (excluding GST) and is quoted to your requirements. Comstel also offers BizTel bundles for 1 to 50 users with the handset, apps, installation and training included.

Does Comstel offer local support, not a call centre?

Yes. Comstel ICT is an Australian-owned team based in North Sydney offering 24/6 support with real people who can see your account and understand iPECS, rather than an offshore call centre or a chatbot.

Pricing is per user, per month, excluding GST, and quoted to your requirements. iPECS is a product of Ericsson-LG; Comstel ICT is an authorised iPECS partner. Comparisons reflect 3CX self-managed deployments and publicly reported 2025 licensing changes and are provided in good faith; features and pricing are subject to change. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.