While VOIP is one of the most crucial communication technologies of all time, it may not do its best without the application of one essential component — SIP Trunks.
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Also known as Session Initiation Protocol, SIP Trunking is the process for successfully establishing a Voice Over Internet Protocol Call (VOIP Call).
But the question still remains - What is SIP Trunking? How does it work? And why does it matter?
In this blog, we find out answers to all these questions and understand how you can choose the right SIP trunking service provider for your organization.
So, buckle up, and let’s start.
SIP trunking is a process that helps establish a VOIP call. However, that does not explain all about SIP. SIP is a signing protocol that initiates, maintains, and terminates real-time sessions, including voice, video, and messaging applications of internet telephony.
SIP trunking is a VOIP technology and streaming media service. Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) use it to deliver telephone services to customers having a SIP-enabled private branch network (PBX).
The best thing about SIP trunking is that it eliminates the need for having mediators between the telecom providers and their customers. Hence, the charging fees remain low. We will discuss more of its benefits in the sections that follow. For now, let us look at how SIP trunking works.
SIP acts as a bridge protocol that enables business phone systems & other digital devices to make calls through the internet by establishing a VOIP connection.
Earlier, the routing of voice calls used to happen through physical ISDN systems that worked on copper lines. SIP trunking technology changed this for good, and helped businesses optimise their communication processes.
Here’s the paraphernalia required for setting up a SIP trunking system:
For older PBX systems, you may need a SIP-ISDN gateway. Modern technology may not always be compatible with older systems.
Cutting down on unnecessary costs is crucial for all businesses. However, holding more phone lines than needed may add unnecessarily to the cost. From international cost charges to maintenance requirements, you may have to spend on a number of things.
That is not the case when you deploy a SIP trunking system. As most SIP trunking systems are charged on per user basis, you will not be shelling out your hard-earned money for resources you don’t need or use.
Also, this makes your costs more predictable, so financial planning becomes easier and more precise. Based on your preferences and requirements, you can choose from the available metered and unmetered SIP trunk plans. Most organisations start seeing their billing costs go down in the first month itself.
While several business investments may take years to produce ROI, SIP trunking setups don’t break the bank and may show results from the first month. From new international business to better availability of customer support teams, this can have a dramatic impact on your customer satisfaction.
As SIP trunking creates a virtual presence for businesses & individuals, they can choose when and how they want to be available. For example, a SIP-enabled system will help you synchronize all your different devices for voice calls, texts, video chats, etc., offering a seamless communication experience; wherever you are. SIP does this by providing the user with one single “address” for all their devices and applications.
With a SIP trunking system onboard, you will be able to scale your business’ communication forefronts without much hassle. This becomes possible, as, with SIP trunking, you can unify your communication channels and different offices into a single network. As a result, you can successfully carry on your business’ communication processes from any location.
As you look for new technologies to assist your organisation’s business functions, reliability may always be a concern. Of course, downtime and intensive repairs can add high costs to a company’s expenses. SIP-enabled systems rule out a variety of such problems.
As these systems are virtual, the need for hardware installation and repairs is eliminated. Plus, as there’s little to no hardware or wiring involved, SIP systems are safe from extreme weather conditions and accidents. Also, if a failure occurs, you can still continue using phones. The calls reaching the faulty line will be routed over to other office lines or your mobile phone(s).
With a pool of SIP trunking service providers offering different SIP services an organisation may need, it’s critical to pick the best fit for your business. Let us take a look at the important factors to consider while choosing a SIP trunking service provider for your organisation.
Depending on your company’s size and requirements, lay down a list of needs and expectations that you want fulfilled through a SIP trunking service.
The amount of money you are willing to pay for a qualified SIP service is another important factor. Even though SIP trunking services don’t cost a lot, it’s best to dedicate a budget and explore your options accordingly.
The company that you are planning to hire for your SIP trunking needs should not have a negative reputation among clients. If a service provider’s existing or ex-customers have negative reviews to give, they might as well have strong reasons to back their dissatisfaction. Before you hire a company, make sure to do some background research regarding its reputation and customer service track record.
Even if a company has a great reputation, don’t sign a deal without testing the voice and video quality that they offer. After all, you are hiring a communication technology company and great voice quality is the least to expect & demand.
While global coverage may not matter today, it can be integral for your business’ success as you scale up. It’s best to find a provider that can facilitate global outbound calls and also provide various numbers across the globe for inbound calls, as and when required.
Different companies have distinct needs and requirements. So, the bundled approach with CPaaS might not always be a fitting choice. The Bring Your Own Carrier model brings greater control and flexibility to the table, allowing organizations to supply their own PSTN access solution by adding the preferred carrier choice. A good SIP trunking service provider should provide you such BYOC capability to build a custom, in-control communication strategy.
With businesses constantly being targeted and threatened for the misuse of their confidential data, the need for network security arises. As you hire a SIP trunking service provider, make sure to be acquainted with their security specifications and how they keep their networks secure. While an additional layer of security may not add a lot to your annual bills, an exploited security loophole can wipe off hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Tata Communications’ SIP Connect and SIP Trunking solutions make the selection easier for you. Our systems offer a seamless experience with negligible downtime. We hold years of experience, delivering top-of-the-line communication solutions to global clients.
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With Tata Communications’ Global SIP network, you can now enrich your business’ unified communication strategy as per your requirements. Our Global SIP Connect service empowers service providers and allows them to serve customers even in markets not yet covered by their networks. Automate & Integrate your business applications with Powerful SIP Trunking APIs to order numbers instantly.
As businesses continue to modernize their infrastructures, cloud telephony solutions are quickly gaining popularity. For example, SIP trunking is a solution that helps companies eliminate physical phone lines by using virtual channels, which is a more cost-effective and scalable alternative to older analog solutions.
In this post, we’ll look at what SIP trunks are and the most important considerations when choosing a SIP trunk provider. Let’s dive in.
The session initiation protocol (SIP) is used to initiate, manage, and terminate connections for real-time calling and messaging at the application level. SIP trunking links a company’s telephony infrastructure to the public phone network over the Internet using the SIP standard.
More specifically, a SIP trunk is a virtual version of an analog phone line that enables a private branch exchange (PBX) to communicate with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In the past, an analog “trunk” was a collection of copper wires that ran from a specific business location to the local phone company. A SIP trunk, however, is a service that consists of multiple channels that enable SIP-based communication such as voice and video calls, instant messaging, multimedia conferencing, and more.
Many companies are using SIP trunks to replace physical ISDN circuits—the copper lines installed on-premises—with a virtual solution. Primary Rate Interfaces (PRIs) were the most popular standard used on the outdated ISDN system, but scalability was limited because each circuit only allows up to 23 concurrent calls. Since SIP is an internet communications protocol rather than an analog voice technology based on physical lines, it’s a more flexible and scalable solution for modern businesses.
As part of their telephony modernization efforts, many organizations are choosing to use Microsoft Teams as a complete communications solution. Direct Routing is a way to connect Microsoft Phone System, a hosted PBX solution, with the PSTN network. In this case, managed service providers offer SIP trunking as part of an end-to-end cloud telephony solution. That means companies can use Microsoft Teams as an enterprise-grade unified communications (UC) platform.
Moreover, Microsoft recently announced support for most SIP phones. In the past, Microsoft Teams was only compatible with Microsoft-certified devices, but now SIP phones and headsets from major manufacturers like Cisco, Yealink, and Polycom can be used with the platform. This has opened the door for more enterprises to leverage Microsoft Teams as their primary telephony solution.
A SIP trunking provider is a company that offers digital communications services like SIP trunking to businesses that want to connect their internal PBX system to the external PSTN network. As mentioned, some cloud telephony providers also offer SIP trunking and Microsoft Teams Direct Routing as complete end-to-end managed services.
SIP trunking providers usually use a session border controller (SBC) to control communication between the SIP trunk and the company’s phone system An SBC ensures secure and reliable data transfers between two separate networks while also optimizing the flow of traffic for improved voice call quality.
Along with SIP trunking providers, companies do have the option to implement their own SIP trunk. That said, installing and managing a SIP trunk requires specialized telecommunication knowledge that most companies won’t have available in-house. For most businesses, building a custom SIP isn’t recommended because it’s not a core competency and is usually cost-prohibitive.
When it comes to modernizing your telephony infrastructure, there are numerous service providers to choose from. Here are five factors to consider when selecting a SIP trunk or managed service provider.
A SIP trunk is typically a set of channels, with each channel capable of handling one incoming and one outgoing call at the same time. That means it’s important to understand how many simultaneous calls your infrastructure will need to support so that you can choose the right number of channels.
Most managed providers can help you estimate call capacity requirements during the implementation. That said, it’s much easier to scale the number of channels up with cloud-based SIP trunks than it was with on-premises PRI solutions, so SIP trunking is a much more elastic telephony solution.
SIP trunks are usually assigned a range of Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers, which forwards incoming calls to specific SIP phones. Most managed providers can also help port existing DID phone numbers over to their new telephony infrastructure so that employees are unaffected by the migration.
While you may be able to port your existing numbers, there are some situations where they can’t be ported, such as a lack of an interconnection agreement between carriers or service has already been cancelled and the number has been assigned to a new customer. In these cases, you’ll need to purchase new DID numbers. Since SIP trunks don’t require installing physical lines, DID numbers are cheaper and more convenient to purchase.
When it comes to voice communication, reliability is crucial for achieving a high Quality of Service (QoS). Voice signals can require a lot of data, so compression is used to reduce the amount of bandwidth necessary for transmission without negatively impacting quality. It’s important to choose a provider that supports a modern and efficient codec like G.711 or G.729 to optimize QoS and bandwidth.
It’s also crucial to choose a provider that can connect your PBX to a reliable network with tier-1 carriers, which are carriers that can route calls to nearly any other network without additional charges. This network should include redundant carriers for each region you operate so that calls can be rerouted to bypass trouble spots during outages or other issues as well. This will ensure that your telephony infrastructure maximizes uptime and availability.
SIP trunking is usually priced per user, per minute, or as part of a larger service fee that includes direct routing, an SBC, and other telephony infrastructure. A managed service provider can offer an end-to-end solution so that you don’t need to deal with the expense of installing and maintaining telephony hardware.
In addition, many managed providers offer their own global networks that leverage local PSTN carriers, which can lead to lower costs due to economies of scale. You won’t need to form vendor relationships with multiple local carriers yourself or use multiple Microsoft Calling Plans for different regions. That means SIP trunking, as part of a cloud telephony solution, can have a lower total cost of ownership when compared to on-premises alternatives.
SIP trunks exist outside the organization’s network, so it’s crucial to ensure the service provider you choose follows security and privacy best practices. For example, using an SBC can improve security by analyzing traffic and only allowing incoming traffic that’s from a device whitelisted within an access control list (ACL). The SIP trunk should also only accept incoming traffic from your managed provider’s SBC for an additional layer of security.
Besides security, many businesses operate in industries that have strict data privacy regulations and need to ensure their communications are only accessible by authorized users. For meeting privacy standards, you should consider a managed provider that encrypts SIP traffic using the secure real-time protocol (SRTP) and transport layer security (TLS).
Using software-based solutions for your business communications infrastructure can lead to greater reliability and significant cost savings. Moreover, a Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution atop a SIP trunk and SBC can enable companies to streamline their cloud telephony infrastructure by leveraging a single platform for company-wide communications and collaboration.
Microsoft Teams is the chosen platform for many enterprises because it gives their workforce the flexibility to communicate whenever and wherever they want. Employees can make and receive phone calls on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and Teams-enabled desk phones or headsets. This ensures seamless company-wide communication using a centralized cloud telephony solution.
LoopUp is a managed service provider and certified Microsoft Gold Partner that implements Microsoft Teams Direct Routing for unified communications. The company helps its customers every step of the way, from porting DID numbers to implementing SBCs and SIP trunks. With 15 offices around the world, LoopUp also offers 24/7 multilingual support should any issues arise.
With its own highly reliable private global network that leverages 14 carefully-selected tier-one carriers and regional carrier redundancy, LoopUp achieves 99.995% uptime availability. All routings also use perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) to determine their quality.
Besides service quality and reliability, LoopUp also puts a priority on privacy and security. In fact, the company is ISO 27001 accredited globally, which means the company has the processes in place to protect sensitive data. For these reasons, over 5000 enterprises worldwide have chosen LoopUp as a trusted partner to help modernize their telephony infrastructure.
Want to learn more about modernizing your telephony infrastructure? Contact LoopUp to discuss how we can support your cloud communication journey.
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