Canadian businesses replacing Panasonic, Nortel, Avaya or older PhoneSuite systems generally choose between a cloud phone system and a modern platform such as Mitel, depending on how many sites they run and how much control they need over their infrastructure. Panasonic and Nortel systems no longer receive manufacturer support, so owners face fewer repair options every year. A planned migration lets a business keep its phone numbers and move on its own schedule, before a hardware failure forces the decision.
Where do Panasonic, Nortel, Avaya and PhoneSuite systems stand today?
Panasonic
Panasonic announced in December 2020 that it was closing its business communications division. New hardware supply in North America ended in January 2023, and dealer service support ended in March 2025.
Nortel
Nortel sold its enterprise business to Avaya in 2009 after entering creditor protection. Avaya stopped selling new CS1000 systems, Nortel’s main enterprise platform, in 2018 and set June 2024 as the target end of parts support. Older Norstar and BCM systems lost support years earlier.
Avaya
Avaya went through Chapter 11 restructuring in 2023, emerging that May. In 2025, industry coverage reported that Avaya was refocusing on its largest enterprise customers and that partners were getting conflicting signals about IP Office, its platform for smaller businesses.
PhoneSuite
PhoneSuite is a hotel phone system brand that Netlink Voice acquired in early 2022, and unlike Panasonic and Nortel, its product line has not been discontinued. For hotels running PhoneSuite, the decision usually comes down to the age of the equipment on site and how much the property wants to consolidate guest room and administrative phones on one platform.
Should you move to the cloud or a Mitel platform?
The right destination depends on how the business operates. Sunco Cloud suits organizations that want a hosted phone system with no PBX hardware to maintain, including teams spread across several offices or working from home. Because Sunco Cloud runs on Canadian hosted infrastructure, call data stays subject to Canadian privacy law.
Mitel tends to fit larger or more specialized environments that need integration with industry systems or tighter control over where data lives. Mitel platforms can run in the cloud or on premises, including private cloud and hybrid designs, which gives organizations room to modernize in stages.
What does PBX modernization look like by industry?
Hospitality
Hotels moving off PhoneSuite or older Avaya systems need guest room calling, wake up calls and property management system integration to carry over on day one. Mitel’s MiVoice Business supports property management system integration, and existing analog room phones can often stay in place through Mitel analog gateways.
Healthcare
Clinics and care facilities replacing Nortel or Avaya systems put continuity first, followed by integration with nurse call systems and mobile handsets for frontline staff. Mitel supports both, with deployment options that keep patient information in Canada.
Public sector
Municipalities and agencies often run many sites on aging systems from different vendors. Consolidating them onto one platform gives IT teams a single system to secure and support.
Small and medium businesses
For offices running Panasonic or IP Office, a move to the cloud removes the PBX hardware from the office and adds mobile and desktop apps so staff can take business calls from anywhere.
How does a PBX migration work?
A well planned migration starts with an inventory of everything the current system does, including call flows, auto attendants, hunt groups, voicemail, integrations and analog devices such as fax lines, door entry phones and elevator phones. Sites are then moved in phases, with numbers ported and each cutover tested before the next one begins.
Sunco used this approach for a Canadian provincial healthcare agency running 14 separate regional phone systems, including an Avaya environment. Sunco consolidated all 14 onto a single Mitel private cloud platform, migrating about 9,700 users in nine months without interrupting patient services.
In most cases, yes. Under CRTC rules, Canadian businesses can port their numbers to a new provider, and the cutover can be scheduled to keep disruption for callers to a minimum.
Usually not. Panasonic, Nortel and Avaya handsets were generally built to work only with their own systems, so most migrations include new IP phones, softphones or a mix of both. Analog devices can often connect through gateways.
It depends on the number of sites and integrations. A single office can often move within weeks, while larger organizations typically migrate in planned phases.
Why this matters
An unsupported phone system can run for years without trouble, until a single hardware failure leaves a business without phones and no supported way to fix them. Planning the move before that happens lets you choose the timing and the platform, and keeps customers and patients reaching you throughout.
Sunco Communication and Installation has helped Canadian organizations modernize their communications for more than 25 years, and its team supports both Sunco Cloud and Mitel deployments. As a Mitel Specialization Partner for Hospitality, Sunco also brings direct experience with hotel phone system replacements.
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