Building Your Own VoIP PBX: A Playground for IVR and Voice AI Experiments

Why Build a VoIP Lab in 2025?
The goal isn't to replace my mobile phone. It's to have a playground for voice technologies that are increasingly relevant in modern applications: IVR systems, conversational AI, voice assistants, and telephony integrations.
I wanted to experiment with:
- IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response) - those "press 1 for sales" menus
- Voice AI integration
- SIP protocol internals - understanding modern telephony at a deeper level
- Conversational interfaces - prototyping voice-driven applications