In this update: (January 2026)
- Happy New Year 2026
- 3CX’s Latest Product News
- Yealink Product News
- Grandstream Product News
- Demo Equipment
- Case studies – stories sell products!
- Join our LinkedIn UC community to see the news first
Happy New Year 2026
We hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season and it’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of January. We value the partnership and success that we jointly had in 2025 and look forward to working with you all again in 2026 which promises to be a very busy year.
Late in 2025, Monique De Roxas joined as in the UC Sales Support Specialist role. Monique has been training on our products and systems to be able to help our UC partners with pre- and post-sales support and sales/technical guidance. Monique will be the first line of answer from our support e-mails.
A reminder of key contacts for our UC Team:
- Megan Twentyman, BDM/Brand Manager of Unified Communications
- E-mail: megan@bluechipit.co.nz or phone 09 555 4820 or 021 715 333
- UC Technical Support Ticketing System = ucsupport@bluechipit.co.nz or 0800 733 233 during normal office hours – Monique and Anoop will advise you.
- UC General queries or advice = uc@bluechipit.co.nz – our team will have the most appropriate person assist you with the query and advice you seek.
3CX’s Latest Product News
While NZ has been on holiday and teams are slowly returning to work, 3CX have been hard at work with the final developments for update 8 and the introduction of new product Editions to give more flexibility. There is a lot of key information in this update and we’d highly recommend clicking through to the links to ensure you have the latest info to ensure you’re ready for the product changes.
Price changes: When 3CX released their updated Enterprise Edition pricing they indicated that they expect further price increases in early 2026, these are expected before the end of January and will be effective immediately that 3CX releases them.
Update 8 news and links:
Here’s a quick overview of the latest news on update 8 with links to the relevant blog posts.
- 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.
- NEW Enterprise Plus Edition – 3CX made call transcription with 3CX AI available for testing at no additional cost whilst it was in Beta. Pricing was still under consideration. Update 8 Beta 2 starts to roll out the infrastructure and pricing components – read the full blog for full details, launching soon.
- Read the full blog here which has much more detail.
- Windows and Mobile Apps – v5.4 Production Ready: ready for when update 8 launches all apps are now live:
New product Editions – following on from the announcement of the Enterprise Plus Edition for 8-SC and 16-SC instances, 3CX has also announce 3CX Basics which is a cutdown edition that purely focuses on being a no-frills telephony system. Basics will launch when update 8 goes live – key features will 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.
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.
Customizing a phone template – a simple guide and example: A common support request is around creating custom templates for IP phones. In this blog the 3CX team have created a video and guide for a simple change to get you started. It’s well worth a watch and read.
New 3CX App Plugin for Grafana – check out how to visualise your 3CX contact centre phone system with Grafana – this blog is co-authored by 3CX and Grafana and has very detailed info – please take the time to review the blog here.
3CX BigQuery SQL Agent Powered by Gemini & Google ADK – in this blog, 3CX explores how a Google Agent built with the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Gemini can query 3CX Call Detail Records (CDRs) stored in BigQuery, allowing supervisors and analysts to talk to their call centre data without writing SQL or opening reports. This creates a conversational interface to the 3CX CDRs. The blog found here, has a YouTube embedded video and a detailed guide around this.
3CX Apps connectivity to v18 has officially ended – just prior to Christmas the Android, iOS, and Windows Softphone Apps no longer connect to v18 systems. It is strongly recommended to move your v18 up to v20 to ensure better security along with access to the more updated features. See the full blog here.
Yealink Product News
2025 has seen a large number of new products released from Yealink including leading video conferencing solutions refreshed with enhanced AI functionality; new headsets also featuring advanced AI learning; and most recently a refresh in the SIP desk phones which also feature AI functions.
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.
In this first part of the year, we’ll start to see a transition from the T4xU range of SIP phones across to the T7xW new generation SIP phones. We have demo units available for you to test the T7 range so you can understand the updated solution – please reach us on uc@bluechipit.co.nz for assistance with this. A quick look at what moves to where:
We still have plenty of T4xU stock to allow this transition to occur. If you have questions just reach out and we’ll happily assist.
In the Android Video Conferencing solutions, we have great options in stock now for small focus rooms through to medium/large meeting spaces:
If you need a Commercial MeetingDisplay, the new Yealink 65”, 75”, and 86” MeetingDisplay is perfect to pair with an Android MeetingBar (or check out the bundles available until the end of Q1), or if customers want an integrated all-in-one interactive solution the MeetingBoard Pro is perfect. MB Pro also available in 65”, 75”, and 86” sizes.
Grandstream Product News
Grandstream continues to innovate with their product range with many new products released in 2025 and of course all centrally managed from their free GDMS Cloud Management portal. 2026 is already kicking off with new product announcements.
So far in January, we’ve seen the much-anticipated Point-to-Point and Point-to-MultiPoint GWN7302 announced along with the new GWN7660EM WiFi 6 Extender and Access Point in one. Pricing will be loaded to our system very soon and stock is expected later this quarter.
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.
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.
Join our LinkedIn UC community to see news first
