FAQs
How is MCX different from a Virtual PBX or hosted IP PBX?
MCX is a Mobile PBX. MCX is designed for the smartphone user to allow businesses to replace a large percentage of their deskphone infrastructure with smartphones and cellular connectivity — without losing access to a complete business phone system and office lines.
Using cellular phones as seamless office phone extensions to a fixed line PBX system is a very difficult telecom interoperability problem to resolve. Approx. 1/2 of the software in MCX is OnRelay’s proprietary mobility software. The other 1/2 is a fully featured IP PBX (sipXecs).
Can customers also use desk phones and softphones with MCX?
Yes. MCX supports SIP softphones and desk phones, as well as more advanced SIP extensions such as operator consoles and conference phones.
Can I use my existing mobile / cellular number and cellular contract?
Yes. MCX supports any cellular network globally, whether 3G / 4G, GSM/GPRS or CDMA / EVDO.
How does MCX affect my mobile bill?
It will stay about the same, or be slightly reduced. Mobile calls in business mode are always placed to a local number from the smartphone, so you just need to ensure with your cellular provider that your monthly package of local minutes is sufficient to handle your monthly business call volume. Since long distance and international mobile business calls are routed via the SIP trunking network, there will be less costs for these calls. MCX also provides significant call savings for roaming users.
Do end-users need a mobile data contract?
Yes. A mobile IP network is used for signalling between the MCX client and server. MCX uses advanced mechanisms to manage short term IP connections, preventing battery drain and minimising data usage. Customers should expect to use less than 1MB per user / month of data.
Can I keep my existing business numbers / DID range?
Yes. These numbers can be ported to Level3 or other SIP trunk providers connected to MCX as desired.
Is MCX just voice over IP over the Cellular Data Channel?
No. MCX uses the standard cellular voice path for its media path and is not an ‘over the top’ service. It thereby provides cellular network level quality of service and voice quality.
Does MCX use voice over IP over WiFi?
No. This technology may work at your home or in a hotel room, but voice over WiFi solutions have failed to penetrate the business market due to significant problems with scalability, complexity, network interference, capacity and voice quality in office environments. OnRelay therefore does not offer this option, and considers cellular repeaters, femto cells and pico cells more appropriate technologies to deal with wireless office connectivity. With fixed rate arrangements from cellular providers for mobile to landline calls, there is neither a strong business case for offering voice over WiFi.
What if I still want to use my home or hotel wireless network with MCX?
You can do this using a standard SIP PC softphone with MCX.
What happens if no mobile data network is available?
It still works. MCX falls back to using a 2-way Short Message Service Centre for data signalling when no IP network (eg. GPRS, 3G, EDGE, WiFi) is available. This adds a few seconds latency, but delivers full MCX functionality.
Does MCX work while roaming internationally?
Yes. As MCX requires no mobile network integration, it can work seamlessly over any mobile network anywhere in the world. End users experience the same functionality roaming internationally.
How does MCX affect cellular call setup times?
The longest call set up scenario is MCX mobile to MCX mobile. As a rule of thumb, MCX adds 2 to 4 seconds to the mobile call set-up time. On efficient cellular networks MCX offers a consistent 8 to 10 second total setup time. MCX has proven to have the fastest and most reliable call setups over 3G/GSM of any solution in the industry.
Does MCX integrate into operator billing systems?
Yes. Tight integration can be provided in network. Notably, MCX has been designed so that direct billing integration is not required for operators to launch a complete Mobile PBX solution.
What is sipXecs?
sipXecs is a leading commercial grade open source IP PBX alternative to hardware-based private branch exchange (PBX) systems. It is a native SIP based unified communications solution that brings the full suite of PBX features to OnRelay MCX, including voicemail, unified messaging, auto-attendant, conferencing, presence and call center capabilities.
Amazon.com is a sipXecs IP PBX user, and supports over 6,000 employees with the solution wordwide. SipXecs, originally develoed by Pingtel, is also the core of Nortel’s SCS for the mid-enterprise market.
Does MCX require SIP trunking?
Yes. OnRelay has a partnership with SIP trunk providers such as Level3 that provides channel partners with national connectivity and dial plans at very competitive rates.
Does MCX support split billing?
Yes. A number of mechanisms are in place to ensure business and personal billing can be separated, as well as on-net and off-net billing. Mechanisms used includes prefixing, callbacks, and auto trunk-selection.
