What are SIP Trunks?

Put simply, SIP trunks deliver a full telephone service to a building over the internet and they are used as a recent alternative to a standard telephone line. If a user of a SIP trunk is connected “properly” they should not be able to tell the difference between making a call over a standard telephone line and a SIP trunk.

SIP trunks are generally delivered over broadband or other private data circuit connections and can be delivered in multiples much the same as traditional phone lines.

Users may connect to a SIP trunk using either an existing telephone system or a standalone SIP telephone or soft phone.

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SIP trunking is making large inroads into both the analogue and ISDN telephone line market,  with the figures for 2009 estimated to be close to a 100,000 new SIP  trunks, with the majority of the connections made by larger corporations.

In 2010 the forecast is set for a number closer to 300,000 based on the current trend with the added boost of newer, more reliable,  faster data connections and advances in the Ethernet technology. The reason that this technology is growing so fast is the cost savings and the additional features that SIP brings to business.

Cost savings are brought about by removing either the business  ISDN or Analogue telephone lines and replacing them with SIP trunks over a suitable data connection. Figures suggest that a SIP trunk is around a half to two thirds cheaper to rent when compared to a conventional telephone line. Further savings can also be made on telephone calls, especially if the business has multiple sites as calls between  are provided at no cost.

Additional SIP Trunking features include the ability for businesses to have global telephone numbers routed to the same single point of presence complete with the option to retain the existing telephone numbers should the business move outside of its current local exchange area, a problem that has thwarted many companies before in the past. The last features are PBX dependent, and include call handling facilities such as CLI, call divert, divert on failure etc.

A business has a two main options to connect to a SIP trunking solution and they are related to the age of the existing telephone system. If an older telephone system is installed then the connection can be made using a SIP gateway, a solution recently developed by SIP trunking vendors.

In comparison newer telephone systems are generally shipped with the ability to connect to a SIP trunk either inbuilt or with the addition of a SIP trunk module or license key.

Once  the business is successfully connected there should be no noticeable difference to the way the business operates or handles it telephone calls as SIP trunks, for the most part at least, have been engineered to emulate a traditional phone lines.

In the reliability stakes a SIP trunk can now compete on a level playing field, however this is very much dependent on the vendor, it’s chosen data  hardware and the particular data networks that are chosen to deliver the SIP trunking service over. Buyer be warned.

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