Today we will discuss SIP trunking; what it is and what it means for your business. We will also consider when to reasonably implement based on your business needs and goals.
SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and was first developed in 1996. Over the past few years, it has reached the level of complexity and price point where this is a viable solution.
The first thing you need to know is that SIP trunking works on an IP scheme; T1, DSL or cable modem. Best of all T1. Some of the faster DSL and cable modems provide excellent bandwidth, but they are shorter than the transfer rate and generate more error messages than T1. This can lead to a deterioration in voice quality, causing jitter and delay.
The voice is converted to data and sent in the same way as other data packets. Data receives the full bandwidth when there is no voice. Your Internet scheme and your SIP trunking scheme may be the same. Quality of Service (QoS) is managed by a voice over data service provider.
Since SIP Trunking works over IP networks, this potentially eliminates the cost of individual dialing services, such as ISDN PRI or several analog lines. It also allows companies to expand their reach of IP addresses to remote locations and mobile users.
Remember that SIP is not a list of applications. They vary greatly between SIP providers.
Three factors strongly influence the decision to implement SIP. These are features, potential cost savings and functionality. Each time, specify the address separately.
The features are great, but what is really important for the application and how it benefits your organizations. Bottom line. Some of the main features of SIP Trunking are:
• The service is agnostic. You can have phone numbers from anywhere in the world appearing on your phone system. This is beneficial if you want to design a presence in a local region, although your company is located elsewhere.
• Direct dial numbers (DID) are available. Any or all of your telephone numbers may have a unique 10-digit number. This number can be local or from any regional country code.
• Find Me Follow Me is a feature that allows your DID number to call your office phone, mobile phone and any other number of phones at the same time. A more practical application would be to call the office phone and then call other assigned numbers if the call is not answered.
Potential cost savings are realized in the following ways.
• Monthly average savings can range from 30-60% less than comparable service. The key word here is comparable. If you replace 8 analog loop lines (also called POTS) with SIP lines, you will see savings. If you decide to eliminate your 8 POTS lines and provide each of your 40 extensions with separate SIP trunks, you will most likely see an increase in cost. Separate SIP trunks can make sense if you have a small number of extensions. If not, the savings will never be realized.
• Long distance is usually less than $ 0.025 per minute.
• As a VoIP service, SIP is not yet subject to the same telephone communications as the traditional dial tone and long-distance services. This may change in the future.
• If your company uses the same SIP provider, calls between locations are usually free.
Functionality can be a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that SIP is cloud based. Changes to most features, first of all, call forwarding functions can be performed by the user via a web browser. Most users have their DID-number on their mobile phone in case of Internet failure. In addition, as a cloud service, there is no interaction with the local telephone company. Problems with incorrect phone company wired pairs that lead to static, cross talk and dropped calls do not exist. SIP gateways are supplied by your ISP.
The curse is that SIP depends on the Internet. Call jitter and latency affect call quality as well as reliability. The overall quality, while generally acceptable, does not yet coincide with land lines.
The introduction of new technologies is easy or simple. SIP trunking is announced by many as the future of carrier services, at least until a new technology arrives. In any case, this is a technology that should be seriously evaluated when considering upgrading your telecommunications services.
