Get the biggest bang for your buck with SIP Trunking.

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There are many different flavors of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking out there in the market, today, and believe me, some are better value than others. Key service elements to look for from a reputable SIP Trunking service provider are:

• Unlimited calling plans
• Unlimited inbound call paths
• Load balancing across multiple sites
• Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) for disaster recovery

Unlimited calling plans – Make sure the SIP Trunking provider offers you unlimited outbound and unlimited inbound calling plans. As businesses become more globalized, the cost advantages of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are hard to ignore.  Having an unlimited international calling plan can really pay dividends for global companies.  

Unlimited inbound call paths – Don’t fall prey to the same old Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN) approach of a one-to-one ratio on SIP trunks. Make sure you ask your Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) about its inbound call paths and what limitations or restrictions are placed upon the call paths. Having unlimited inbound call paths allows a business to reduce the total number of SIP Trunks it requires for concurrent outbound calling.  This saves the customer up to 50% on the monthly service charges in most cases. The only limitations to the amount of inbound calling that can be received are the capability of the PBX and internet bandwidth. Inbound call centers need not apply!

Load balancing across multiple sites – Companies with multiple locations can gain an extreme cost advantage by leveraging load balancing with its SIP Trunks. This advantage is especially effective when the companies are geographically dispersed. For example, if all company locations are relatively the same size but located in the United Kingdom, New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles, they could effectively use one pool of trunks between all locations since peak periods of utilization would be time zone specific. This configuration can result in a significant cost savings by strategically reducing the overall required trunk count to three times less than normal Plain Old Telephone Service (POTs).

RCF for disaster recovery – VoIP is a great technology when all of the pieces of the puzzle come together. Have the battle is making sure the customer’s Local Area Network (LAN) is in good health. If mission critical phone services are required, look to multiple Quality of Service (QoS) policies to be applied to ensure optimum voice quality.

What happens when your internet circuit goes down? What happens to your valued customer’s inbound calls when the circuit goes down? What happens if the IP PBX server goes down? The truth is, you are dead in the water, and your phones stop ringing. That is why when looking at SIP Trunking services for your company, you must insist on including disaster recovery or an RCF solution. Once the circuit is down or the service platform loses registration with the IP PBX, the platform will or should automatically failover to another designated number and route all inbound calls to that Direct Inward Dial (DID). That number could be another business location, an answering service, a hosted auto-attendant, or even a mobile phone number. Remember, dead air is certain death for businesses.

SIP Trunking is a solid VoIP technology service that every business, large or small, should consider now or in the immediate future. Cost and operating efficiencies are abundant. If you are leaning in this direction, make sure you ask about these key features to ensure your successful migration from Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to SIP.  In the end, you’ll be glad that you did.

Jayson Jones
SVP Business Development, Vintalk