UC Channel Update – February 2026

In this update: (February 2026)

• 3CX’s Latest Product News
• Yealink Product News
• Grandstream Product News
• Fanvil Product News
• Jabra Product News
• CommBox Product News
• Demo Equipment
• Case studies – stories sell products!
• Join our LinkedIn UC community to see the news first

3CX’s Latest Product News

Below is a summary of what 3CX has been up to during February 2026 with highlighted key info you need to know.

Price changes: The new pricing changes came in on 29th January 2026. 3CX re-aligned many of the prices with some increases and even some decreases. At the same time the new Basics and Enterprise Plus Editions were launched. Since launch, 3CX has extended their Enterprise Plus Edition to also be available for 24-SC and 32-SC editions – see below for more on this.

3CX has also indicated that they intend to review their pricing on a more regular basis during 2026 – with the currency volatility and operational costs it will be regularly reviewed. NZD is a very simple calculation, USD retail divided by exchange rate is the NZD retail exclusive of GST – BCIT NZ sets an exchange rate and holds it for the month to give price certainty.

Update 8 news and links: 

Update 8 is now live – to be able to upgrade to the Ent+ Edition, your instance must be on update 8 before the API will allow the upgrade to occur.

Here’s a recap of the update 8 journey with links to the relevant blog posts.

• V20 Update 8 Final: Leaping Forward with Agentic AI – the final launch blog found here is essential reading to fully comprehend the scale of development 3CX has delivered.Update 8 marks a major step forward in how 3CX applies AI to real-world call handling. With options for on-premise or private cloud transcription. Not to be forgotten is the department/multi-tenant phonebook; shared voicemail on queues and ring groups; and much more.
• Update 8 Release Candidate 3: the final minor fixes were detailed in this blog ahead of the final release.
• Update 8 – Preview Webinar: Update 8 is a major enhancement to 3CX v20 and the 3CX team have recorded a preview webinar to walk through what’s coming just prior to this new update launching. Check it out here and stay tuned for live webinar events that will occur after the launch.
• Update 8 Release Candidate 2: Final fixes and minor improvements are within this RC2 release. See the full list of updates in the blog here.
• Update 8 Release Candidate: A couple of days prior to Christmas the first Release Candidate for update 8 launched. The RC focused on improving IP phone provisioning and making AI-generated call transcripts easier to follow with precise timing. See the full blog here.
• Update 8 Beta 2 – The AI Chapter: This update builds on the Alpha and Beta releases and adds even more features including:
  • New AI Personal Assistant Role – designed to screen and manage calls for a Boss.
  • New Knowledge Sources for AI Agents – allowing retrieval of company specific knowledge to add real “intelligence”.
  • Updated Boss-Secretary – integrates with the latest beta apps.
  • Improved Queue Voicemail – updates and improvements.

From Phone System to AI Colleague

This latest blog from 3CX takes a deeper look at how business communication is really changing with the rise of AI. A shift from reactive infrastructure to the telephony becoming an active participant in business processes. This blog is essential reading to assist in positioning the new features to clients and getting clients to take advantage of the new technology – a line that resonates with end customers and quoted within this blog is: “3CX doesn’t replace employees —it frees them to focus on the conversations that move their business forward.” This is quite a powerful statement in itself and makes this blog essential reading – find it here.

 Windows and Mobile Apps – v5.5 Beta:

• Windows Softphone = There is a strong focus on improvements to extension management and configuration, alongside a strong set of stability fixes and usability enhancements. You can now filter by team in the panel to make managing calls that much easier – check out the full blog here.
• iOS App = This blog from 3CX details the latest iOS mobile app with full iOS 26 support along with other enhancements. Please also note that only iOS 16 and above is now supported for the iOS Mobile App with iOS 15 being deprecated.

WhatsApp Calling in your 3CX!

Yes, you read that right, you can now configure WhatsApp Inbound Calls to your PBX. WhatsApp is widely adopted globally and this innovation from 3CX brings real benefits for customers calling in to you! Check out the blog which links to the setup guides.

Intune and Softphone Deployment

A common query is around deploying the softphone for many users – 3CX has now delivered the ability to deploy the 3CX Softphone via Intune. Check out the blog announcement here which has a link to the guide.

SSL Certificates – common issues

This latest blog looks at covering the common queries that 3CX encounters from those managing their own SSL certificates. If you manage your own or your clients SSL Certificate, then this is essential reading for you. Check it out here.

Firmware Updates for Yealink and Snom IP Phones

3CX has completed testing of the updated firmware for a number of Yealink and Snom models of IP phones. See the full list in the blog here and update to the latest approved versions.

New product Editions – following on from the announcement of the Enterprise Plus Edition for 8-SC and 16-SC instances, 3CX has also announced 3CX Basics which is a cutdown edition that purely focuses on being a no-frills telephony system.

Basics has launched – key features include:

• Reliable, secure, and easily manageable modern architecture.
• Core telephony features like Intercom, Paging, and BLFs (Busy Lamp Fields).
• User synchronization with Google or Microsoft.
• Basic Reports and Single Sign-On (SSO) capability.
• Available at a significant discount – we anticipate up to 20% off – compared to our PRO Edition.

The Enterprise Plus (Ent+) edition has been extended to be available for both the 24-SC and 32-SC solutions. Each Ent+ license includes a set number of 3CX Cloud call transcription minutes, note that voicemail transcription does not consume your call transcription minutes. This is outlined in a very good blog found here – each edition contains:

• 8-SC = 30,000 minutes
• 16-SC = 60,000 minutes
• 24-SC = 90,000 minutes
• 32-SC = 120,000 minutes

Should your client run out of minutes, they can upgrade to the next size license, and they get a full allocation of minutes until the end of their term. For example, they start with an 8-SC and 4 months in they run out of their transcription minutes, they upgrade to the 16-SC and get the full 60,000 transcription minutes that come with that – there is no taking away what they’ve already used!

You can visit the feature comparison page on the 3CX website to check out what’s included in each edition. 

3CX has introduced and will allow downgrades of editions by Distributors at point of renewal. This is as long as the Simultaneous Call Count remains unchanged – currently Ent/AI can be downgraded to Pro but once Basics also launches this will become an option to consider. 3CX are committed to allowing customers the choice of the right edition for them.

3CX is also re-introducing a Free Edition which will be the Basics 4-SC for up to 10 extensions. No IP phones, just apps and you’ll need to self-host the solution. Check out more here on the blog – you’ll see there will be an option for those on Pro 4-SC who are self-hosting to allow their system to auto downgrade but they must ensure they don’t need IP phones and don’t exceed the extension limits.

Yealink Product News

2026 will be another big year of solutions that make customers more effective whether it be personally with IP phones and headsets, or video conferencing that embraces the hybrid world we live in to create inclusive meetings.

Our Ellerslie office has three spaces equipped with Yealink MTR solutions and we welcome you to visit or bring customers to view by appointment – just reach out to your Partner Success Manager (Andre or Chris) to arrange a time where the rooms are available and we can host you. This is the equipment you can see in each of our rooms – it’s great to visualise how a client’s room may look by comparison:

Byte Meeting Room – small room:

Our small room features an A40-031 Android MeetingBar solution with the CTP25 Touch Console. It’s ideal for a small to medium room – it has a 6-meter voice pickup range and built-in stereo speakers. This is one of the most popular solutions within the range, we also have a demo unit available to borrow.

Kilobyte Meeting Room – medium room:

Our medium room features the MeetingBoard Pro 65” Interactive All-In-One conferencing solution configured for Microsoft Teams Room (MTR). We feature our MB65” on the trolley – it can also of course be wall mounted.

Megabyte Meeting Room – medium/large room: 

Our medium/large room features a Windows based solution – we started with the MVC860 solution featuring the UVC86 camera. We’re midway through an upgrade to add our SmartVision 80 Intelligent PTZ Camera and the AV-Hub so we can have both cameras running at once. The room has MSpeaker II’s and VCM36 wireless microphones.

Our team looks forward to hosting you and your colleagues or customers to explore these fantastic technologies. Don’t hesitate to reach out to uc@bluechipit.co.nz for any assistance with Yealink technologies.

Grandstream Product News

Grandstream new product announcements continue for Q1.

This month we’ve seen the announcement of the new 2 Way Outdoor SIP speaker which further expands their GSC SIP speaker portfolio. The GSC3518HS is a SIP/multicast talk-back horn speaker that provides crystal clear HD audio, a high-fidelity 50-Watt speaker, and IP66-rated water and dust protection. Ideal for outdoor campuses, public spaces, large offices, school playgrounds, hospitals, parks, warehouses, and more, the GSC3518HS provides a powerful outdoor announcement solution that expands security and communication.

If you’d like to know more about any of the Grandstream range – from SIP phones and facility access, to switches, routers and Access Points we can assist, reach our UC Team on uc@bluechipit.co.nz.

Fanvil Product News

Recently Fanvil has announced the new EM60 Expansion module to work with their V65, V66, and V66 Pro models of SIP phones. SKU: 508213 – stock is expected towards the end of the quarter. You can daisy-chain up to 4 of the EM60’s giving up to 240 programmable keys when 4 units are cascaded – ideal for managing high call volumes.

We will have a demo unit in due course and are happy to hear from you to put yourself in the queue to borrow one of the IP phones and the EM60 for testing purposes – reach us on uc@bluechipit.co.nz.

Jabra Product News

Stay tuned for more updates on these new models.

Commbox Product News

What a milestone this is – for five decades, CommBox has been creating technology that brings people together in classrooms and workplaces across Australia and New Zealand, and they’re just getting started.

Demo Equipment

Here at Bluechip Infotech New Zealand, we hold a demo pool of Yealink, Grandstream, Jabra and Fanvil products which are available to borrow. We have video conferencing solutions, IP phones, DECT phones, headsets, WiFi Access Points, facility access and more available to borrow and test. It’s a great way to be able to test out units and see if they meet the needs of your clients. A great way to evaluate new offerings ahead of purchase. If you’d like to borrow anything, please reach out to Megan Twentyman our BDM – UC in the first instance.

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