The traditional or original definition is that a Key System, also known as a Key Telephone System, is a telephone system that has the capacity for multiple lines and multiple telephones. The telephones have individual buttons for each specific telephone line, allowing direct access to each telephone line using its corresponding button.

That may seem too simple of an answer, but that sums up how the Key System was introduced, but not necessarily how we regard it today. The key system was introduced in the 1950′s; the Western Electric Company introduced a series of key systems, including the 1A2, which is regarded by some as the one that started it all.

These early key systems were mechanical devices that provided basic communications features serving a small number of phones and telephone lines, having very simple call handling capabilities, for example; to place a call on a specific line you pressed the corresponding button and dialed. If you received an incoming call on a specific line that specific line button would light up on your phone, your phone would ring, and you pressed that specific button to answer the call.

So why didn’t I explain to dial ’9′ when placing the telephone call above? Easy, dial ’9′ was a PBX feature not a Key System feature. Introduced in the 1960′s PBX systems, or Public Branch Exchange, were larger systems providing phone service to hundreds of telephones and telephone lines. PBXs were more sophisticated providing powerful features such as dialing plans that routed numbers to specific lines based on the numbers dialed, and grouping several telephone lines under one button on the telephones.

Over the years, advancement in technology for telephone systems went from relays and wire to computer chips and software. You still need wire today, just not as much! The advancements in technology increased the capacities, capabilities, and features of telephone systems in general. The Key Systems became more advanced and powerful, rivaling the features that were once only available on the more expensive and larger PBX systems. Now Key Systems had dialing plans and could group several telephone lines under one button.

As time passed, the feature and capabilities between a Key System and PBX began to overlap. Key Systems inherited many PBX features and even introduced new features and applications. PBXs became more sophisticated as well; they even began inheriting those new features and capabilities found in Key Systems. Today what we see is a hybrid of the two, with differences narrowing. Even the number of telephones and telephone lines is not as much of a differentiator as it used to be, some Key Systems grow very large now, competing with the lower end of PBXs. And in some cases, PBXs were scaled down to compete with Key Systems.

So what is a Key System? It is still best to provide the traditional definition, a telephone system with phones that have individual line buttons for each specific telephone line. But in today’s world I tend to think of a Key System as a solution for small to medium size businesses that provide powerful features and capabilities, and in many cases when compared to a PBX, the Key System is the more economical solution.

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