The Internet has clearly changed the playing field for a wide range of enterprises in the past decade, but one of the fundamental
changes that is taking place and that may be going unnoticed by the general public, is the use of the Internet to facilitate telephonic communications. While the majority of advocates of such
systems recognize that the benefits to be realized are associated with cost savings rather than improvements in functioning over existing PBX-based systems, the trend is clear that Internet-based
telephony is here to stay and will be improved in the years to come. This paper provides the background and an overview of the issues involved, followed by an analysis of PBX versus voice over IP telephone systems. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.