Sangoma is a Canadian communications platform provider and leading developer of Asterisk and FreePBX, offering flexible on-premises, cloud, or hybrid deployment for businesses of all sizes.
Sangoma Technologies is a Canadian unified communications company that owns the Asterisk open-source PBX framework, FreePBX, and a broad portfolio of UCaaS, contact-centre, SD-WAN, and connectivity products assembled through a series of strategic acquisitions. For South African resellers, Sangoma offers one of the most flexible UC platforms on the market — from free open-source Asterisk deployments through to fully managed cloud UCaaS and contact-centre solutions — along with hardware including SIP phones, session border controllers, and media gateways. With MiRO Distribution carrying Sangoma products locally, SA resellers have access to a vendor that serves everything from a five-seat office to a multi-site enterprise.
Sangoma Technologies Corporation is a publicly listed Canadian company that has grown through organic development and strategic acquisitions into one of the broadest unified communications vendors in the market. Founded in 1984, Sangoma initially specialised in telephony interface cards that connected legacy TDM networks to IP-based systems. Over the past decade the company has transformed itself through a series of landmark acquisitions — most notably Digium (the creator of Asterisk) in 2018, Star2Star Communications in 2021, and Netfortris in 2022 — into a full-stack UC provider offering cloud communications, contact centre, SD-WAN, and security services alongside its heritage hardware products.
Today Sangoma’s portfolio spans UCaaS (cloud-hosted business phone systems), on-premise IP PBX platforms built on Asterisk and FreePBX, contact-centre-as-a-service, CPaaS (communications platform as a service), SIP trunking, SD-WAN, managed security, SIP phones, session border controllers, and media gateways. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker STC and projects fiscal year 2026 revenue between US $200 million and US $210 million. Sangoma serves customers in over 150 countries through a global channel partner network.
Sangoma’s appeal to South African resellers lies in its extraordinary breadth and flexibility. Unlike most UC vendors that force resellers into a single deployment model — either cloud or on-premise — Sangoma offers both, plus hybrid options that combine on-site hardware with cloud management. This is particularly relevant in South Africa where internet reliability varies significantly between urban and rural areas, and many businesses prefer on-premise PBX systems with cloud failover rather than pure cloud UCaaS.
The Asterisk and FreePBX ecosystem gives Sangoma a unique channel advantage. Thousands of IT professionals in South Africa already have Asterisk experience, having deployed it as a free open-source PBX for small businesses and startups. Sangoma’s commercial products — including the PBXact appliance and Sangoma Business Voice cloud service — provide natural upgrade paths for these Asterisk deployments, allowing resellers to monetise their existing technical skills. The addition of contact-centre, SD-WAN, and managed security products means resellers can build a comprehensive managed-services practice around the Sangoma portfolio without needing multiple vendor relationships.
Sangoma Business Voice is a cloud-hosted unified communications platform that provides business phone service, video conferencing, team messaging, and collaboration tools delivered as a monthly subscription. The platform supports desktop and mobile apps, integrates with popular CRM and productivity tools, and includes features such as auto-attendant, call queues, ring groups, voicemail-to-email, and call recording. For the hospitality sector, Sangoma offers StarBox — an on-premises survivability appliance that keeps phones operational during internet outages, providing local calling and failover for hotel and resort environments.
FreePBX is the world’s most widely deployed open-source PBX graphical interface, built on the Asterisk communications framework. It provides a web-based management console for configuring extensions, trunks, IVR menus, call routing, and hundreds of other telephony features without command-line expertise. PBXact is Sangoma’s commercial version of FreePBX, delivered as a pre-configured hardware appliance or virtual machine with additional modules, commercial support, and automatic updates. For South African resellers, PBXact offers a zero-licence-fee PBX platform where the only ongoing costs are SIP trunking and optional support subscriptions.
Sangoma’s contact-centre platform provides inbound and outbound call management, skills-based routing, IVR, queue management, wallboards, supervisor monitoring, and agent performance analytics. The solution can be deployed as a cloud service or integrated with on-premise PBXact installations, giving South African contact centres flexibility in how they architect their infrastructure. Integration with CRM systems and screen-pop functionality help agents deliver faster, more personalised customer service.
Sangoma’s SBC range includes both SMB and enterprise models that secure SIP trunk connections, provide protocol normalisation, and enable interoperability between different VoIP systems and service providers. The SMB SBC is designed for small deployments connecting a single PBX to a SIP trunk provider, while the enterprise SBC handles high-capacity environments with multiple SIP trunk providers, call encryption, and advanced security features. SBCs are essential for South African businesses connecting on-premise PBX systems to VoIP trunk providers over the public internet.
Sangoma’s heritage product line includes analogue and digital media gateways that connect legacy PSTN lines, ISDN circuits, and analogue phones to IP-based communications systems. These gateways are critical for South African businesses migrating from Telkom ISDN to SIP trunking, as they allow organisations to retain existing analogue handsets and fax machines during the transition. Sangoma also produces PCI telephony interface cards for server-based PBX installations running Asterisk or FreePBX.
Following the Netfortris acquisition, Sangoma offers managed SD-WAN, VPN, firewall, antivirus, and intrusion-prevention services. These solutions complement the voice and UC portfolio by ensuring that the underlying network delivers the quality of service required for real-time voice and video communications. For South African resellers building managed-services practices, the ability to bundle SD-WAN and security with UCaaS under a single vendor creates a compelling recurring-revenue opportunity.
Sangoma produces its own range of SIP desk phones, including the S-series (S205, S305, S405, S505, S705) covering entry-level through executive models with colour screens, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. These phones are optimised for use with FreePBX and PBXact but work with any standard SIP platform. The Sangoma phone range gives resellers a margin opportunity on hardware that is guaranteed compatible with the Sangoma PBX ecosystem.
Sangoma was founded in 1984 in Canada, making it one of the longest-established companies in the VoIP and telephony integration space. The company spent its first three decades building a reputation for reliable TDM-to-IP interface cards and protocol converters used by systems integrators worldwide to connect legacy telephone networks to IP infrastructure. The transformative period began in 2015 with the acquisition of Schmooze (the company behind FreePBX) and accelerated dramatically with the 2018 acquisition of Digium — the company that created Asterisk, the world’s most widely deployed open-source communications framework.
The Star2Star acquisition in 2021 added a mature cloud UCaaS platform and the SD-WAN technology that became the foundation of Sangoma’s managed network services. The 2022 Netfortris acquisition further expanded the company’s managed services capabilities with security and networking products. In 2025 Sangoma divested the VoIP Supply e-commerce business for US $4.5 million, signalling a strategic focus on higher-margin software, cloud, and managed services revenue. Under CEO Charles Salameh, Sangoma continues to pursue both organic growth and acquisitions in SD-WAN, security, and zero-trust networking.
Sangoma’s ownership of the Asterisk open-source PBX framework gives it a unique position in the telecommunications industry. Asterisk is the foundation of millions of PBX deployments worldwide and has created a massive ecosystem of developers, integrators, and resellers. By owning both Asterisk and FreePBX, Sangoma controls the most popular open-source telephony stack while offering commercial products that monetise the ecosystem through value-added features, support, and cloud services. No other UC vendor has this combination of open-source community reach and commercial product breadth.
The company’s portfolio breadth is another differentiator. Sangoma is one of very few vendors that can provide on-premise PBX, cloud UCaaS, contact centre, SIP trunking, SD-WAN, managed security, SIP phones, SBCs, and media gateways — all from a single company. This reduces vendor sprawl for resellers and their customers, simplifies procurement and support, and creates cross-sell opportunities that drive higher average deal sizes and recurring revenue.
Sangoma has a meaningful installed base in South Africa, driven primarily by the popularity of Asterisk and FreePBX among local IT professionals and telecoms integrators. The open-source PBX community in South Africa is active and technically skilled, with many resellers having built successful businesses deploying Asterisk-based phone systems for small and medium enterprises. Sangoma’s commercial products — PBXact appliances and Sangoma Business Voice — offer these resellers an upgrade path that adds commercial support, additional features, and recurring revenue to their existing Asterisk practices.
MiRO Distribution carries Sangoma’s hardware portfolio in South Africa, including SIP phones, SBCs, media gateways, and PBXact appliances. MiRO provides local stockholding, technical pre-sales support, and competitive pricing for South African resellers. The Sangoma media gateway range is particularly relevant in the South African market where many businesses are migrating from Telkom ISDN BRI and PRI circuits to SIP trunking — the gateways enable a phased migration that preserves existing analogue endpoints while transitioning the trunk side to IP.
The contact-centre market in South Africa, with its large BPO sector, represents another growth opportunity for Sangoma. The company’s contact-centre platform offers a cost-effective alternative to premium CCaaS solutions, particularly for mid-market operations that need professional features without the per-seat pricing of enterprise platforms. Combined with FreePBX or PBXact as the underlying telephony platform, Sangoma provides an integrated voice and contact-centre solution at a price point that suits the South African mid-market.
Sangoma operates a tiered channel partner programme with authorised reseller, certified partner, and premium partner levels. Partners are classified based on revenue commitments, technical certifications, and solution capabilities. Ideal Sangoma partners in South Africa include telecoms integrators with Asterisk or FreePBX experience, IT managed-service providers looking to add voice and UC to their portfolio, and contact-centre specialists seeking a cost-effective platform for mid-market deployments.
Technical certification is available through Sangoma’s online training portal, covering FreePBX administration, PBXact deployment, SBC configuration, and cloud UC provisioning. Partners with certified technical staff receive priority support, deal registration protection, and access to NFR (not-for-resale) equipment for demonstration and lab purposes. Resellers interested in joining the Sangoma partner programme should contact MiRO Distribution in South Africa or register directly through the Sangoma partner portal on their website.
MiRO Distribution is Sangoma’s primary hardware distributor in South Africa, carrying the full range of SIP phones, PBXact appliances, session border controllers, media gateways, and telephony interface cards. MiRO provides local stock, technical pre-sales support, and partner training from its Johannesburg operations. The distributor’s focus on IP convergence products makes it a natural fit for Sangoma’s portfolio, and MiRO’s existing relationships with VoIP resellers and telecoms integrators ensure broad market coverage.
For Sangoma’s cloud UCaaS and managed services products, South African partners can engage directly with Sangoma’s channel team to set up service provider or reseller agreements. The cloud products are delivered from Sangoma’s global infrastructure and can be provisioned for South African customers with local DID numbers from compatible SIP trunk providers. Resellers who combine MiRO-sourced hardware with Sangoma cloud services can offer complete unified communications solutions — from desk phones and SBCs through to cloud PBX, contact centre, and SD-WAN — with a single vendor relationship.
To become a Sangoma reseller in South Africa, register through the Sangoma partner portal on their website or contact MiRO Distribution, which is the local hardware distributor. MiRO can set you up with partner pricing for Sangoma hardware products including SIP phones, PBXact appliances, SBCs, and media gateways. For cloud UCaaS and managed services, engage directly with Sangoma’s channel team to establish a service provider or reseller agreement with access to cloud provisioning tools.
Yes, FreePBX is genuinely free open-source software that can be downloaded and installed on any compatible server or virtual machine at no licence cost. South African businesses and resellers can deploy FreePBX for free, paying only for the underlying server hardware, SIP trunk services, and any optional commercial modules they choose to add. PBXact is the commercial version that adds pre-configuration, commercial support, and additional modules for businesses that want a turnkey solution with vendor backing.
Yes, Sangoma media gateways are specifically designed for ISDN-to-SIP migration. The gateways connect to existing Telkom ISDN BRI or PRI circuits on one side and to a SIP trunk provider on the other, allowing businesses to transition their trunk connectivity to IP while retaining existing analogue phones, fax machines, and alarm systems. This phased migration approach is popular in South Africa where many businesses still have active ISDN circuits and legacy analogue endpoints that they cannot immediately replace.
Yes, Sangoma provides a contact-centre platform with inbound and outbound call management, skills-based routing, IVR, queue management, wallboards, and agent analytics. The solution can be deployed as a cloud service or integrated with on-premise PBXact installations. It is positioned as a cost-effective alternative to premium CCaaS platforms, making it suitable for South African mid-market contact centres and BPO operations that need professional features without enterprise-level per-seat pricing.
FreePBX is the free open-source PBX interface built on Asterisk that anyone can download and install. PBXact is Sangoma’s commercial product that packages FreePBX on a pre-configured hardware appliance or virtual machine with additional commercial modules, automatic updates, commercial support, and advanced features like endpoint management and high-availability clustering. Think of FreePBX as the community edition and PBXact as the enterprise edition — both use the same core technology but PBXact adds vendor support and premium features for businesses that need guaranteed reliability.