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The PBX is coming out of the closet. AT&T (NYSE: T) today released a new, cloud-based application called Office@Hand that gives small business owners and administrators a raft of phone calling, forwarding and customization features that can be managed from a smartphone.
In addition to the iPhone and BlackBerry, AT&T said it plans to release a version of Office@Hand for Android device be early next month.
“There really isn’t any other phone system you can manage from your smartphone as a business owner or administrator,” Eugenie D’Aoust, director of mobility product marketing for AT&T Business Solutions, told InternetNews.com. “It’s the first smartphone-based mobile PBX.”
The Office@Hand service is available for a free 30-day trial to AT&T wireless customers. AT&T said the service costs between $14 and $16 per month, per user, depending on the number of users.
Features include the ability capability to transfer live calls between mobile and land lines; forward voicemail and faxes via email; set custom greetings and multiple department and user extensions with voicemail boxes and set advanced call handling rules like custom business hours.
Small Business Computing has all the details including comments by an IDC analyst who calls the release a convergence play on the part of AT&T.