Forgive The VAR Guy if he says “I told you so.” Earlier this month he predicted that Asterisk — the open source IP PBX — would win a global distribution deal. He was right. Specific details about the news, involving Digium — one of the top Asterisk companies — emerged today. Here’s the scoop.

It’s one small step for Dell, and another great leap for Asterisk — the open source VoIP phone system. Dell plans to promote Fonality (a major Asterisk proponent) to small business customers seeking IP telephony systems. It’s a landmark development, folks, that benefits Dell in multiple markets (open source, VoIP, unified communications, and managed services). Here’s why.

When the city of Madera, Calif., needed a new voice system, it turned to open source technology -- not just for the IP telephony but for an entire network-infrastructure overhaul and loads of other functions. All the renovations cost less than half the estimated price of deploying a commercial VoIP system alone.

The Asterisk open source VoIP platform is making "pretty substantial headway" in the business market place, says creator Mark Spencer.

Achievement Awards Group, a South African motivational organisation, has implemented Asterisk to upgrade the capability of its specialist call centre and to react quickly to the needs of clients.

Asterisk is an open source VOIP (voice over IP) PBX used to drive telephony systems. The call centre solution was set up by the group's IT partner, Clarotech Consulting.

Digium will probably not switch from GPLv2 to GPLv3. They are concerned about the patent ramifications, and say they want to stick with what's known.