In brief: Ericsson-LG rebranded to Ericsson Korea Partners in March 2025, but its iPECS UCaaS platform continues unchanged. This guide covers the iPECS product range, 2025 updates, and how it competes with 3CX and Yeastar for on-premise PBX in South Africa.
The Rebrand You Need to Know About
From 1 March 2025, Ericsson-LG Enterprise officially became Ericsson Korea Partners Co., Ltd. The change was triggered by the expiry of a trademark agreement with LG Electronics on 27 February 2025. The iPECS brand itself remains unchanged — all products, partner programmes, and support channels continue under the iPECS name. If you have customers running iPECS systems, nothing changes for them operationally.
Ownership: Ericsson Korea Partners remains a joint venture — Swedish Ericsson holds 75% and LG Electronics holds the remaining 25%. Dr Sibel Tombaz was appointed CEO effective 1 April 2025.
The iPECS Product Range in 2025
iPECS offers three deployment architectures to cover different customer sizes and connectivity situations:
iPECS UCP (Unified Communications Platform)
The flagship on-premise system for SMBs and enterprises, supporting 100 to 2,400 users. UCP combines voice, video, instant messaging, conferencing, and collaboration on a single hardware platform. It supports hybrid deployment — run the core on-premise and extend to cloud or mobile without replacing infrastructure.
Key capabilities: WebRTC softphone (login from any browser), full mobility on iOS and Android, open API integration with CRM and ERP systems, Microsoft Teams integration, and skill-based routing for contact centres.
iPECS eMG
The eMG is Ericsson-LG’s entry-level to mid-market on-premise system, supporting unified communications with built-in voicemail, unified messaging, IP call recording, and mobility. It competes directly with 3CX SMB deployments and Yeastar P550 on price and feature set. For SA resellers in the sub-50-user market, the eMG is worth keeping in the catalogue alongside 3CX.
iPECS Cloud
A multi-tenant cloud platform running all the on-premise iPECS features as a managed service. Licensing is flexible: rolling 30-day terms, fixed 3 or 5-year terms, or lifetime licences. The cloud platform supports up to 300,000 ports and 100,000 tenants with geographical redundancy and local survivability — relevant for SA resellers building hosted PBX services.
Why iPECS Still Matters for SA Resellers in 2025
With 3CX price increases in 2024 and 2025, and Yeastar aggressively expanding in SA, the iPECS range has become more competitively positioned than it was two years ago. Key advantages:
- 40+ years of heritage — enterprise customers with existing iPECS infrastructure are sticky and require minimal convincing on reliability
- 15+ million users globally across 60+ countries — mature, well-supported platform
- Hybrid flexibility — on-premise, virtual, and cloud all from one vendor; customers can start on-premise and migrate to cloud without replacing handsets
- Microsoft Teams integration — available without requiring the more expensive 3CX Enterprise tier
- SA presence — Aria Technologies Africa holds the Global Partner of the Year award and operates as the primary SA reseller, providing local support and stock
iPECS vs 3CX vs Yeastar: Honest Comparison for SA
| Consideration | iPECS UCP/Cloud | 3CX ENT | Yeastar P-Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-premise option | ✅ Core strength | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cloud/hosted option | ✅ iPECS Cloud | ✅ 3CX Hosting | ✅ Cloud Edition |
| Teams integration | ✅ All tiers | ⚠️ ENT only | ✅ Two methods |
| Max user scale | 2,400 (UCP) | Unlimited | 10,000 (Software) |
| SA distributor | Aria Technologies | Direct + resellers | Even Flow |
| Pricing model | Per-port/licence | Per SC (concurrent call) | Per extension/SC |
| Best for | Enterprise / existing install base | SMB–large enterprise | SMB–mid-market |
What This Means for SA Resellers
The iPECS rebrand to Ericsson Korea Partners is a corporate formality — for your customers, nothing changes. What does matter is that the iPECS product line is being actively developed in 2025, Teams integration is available across all tiers, and the cloud platform is now a viable hosted PBX offering for resellers building recurring revenue.
If you have customers on legacy Ericsson-LG hardware, now is the time to assess migration paths to iPECS Cloud — it is a natural upgrade conversation that protects the relationship and generates recurring revenue. Contact Aria Technologies for SA reseller pricing and demo units.
About the Author
Mechelle Gindra
Mechelle Gindra is the managing editor and lead content strategist at Telecoms-Channel, South Africa's dedicated intelligence platform for telecoms resellers, ICT distributors, and channel partners. She oversees the editorial team's AI-assisted content production pipeline, ensuring vendor news, market analysis, and regulatory updates are accurate, timely, and actionable for the SA telecoms channel community. With deep expertise in the South African telecoms reseller ecosystem, Mechelle directs coverage of vendor partner programmes, ICASA regulatory developments, wholesale market dynamics, and channel business strategy. She is responsible for maintaining Telecoms-Channel's editorial standards, fact-checking processes, and corrections policy.
