SIP, otherwise known as Session Initiation Protocol, offers the burgeoning voice over IP telephony market some tremendous voice features and enhancements, but the service is not yet widely available at commercially acceptable levels.
As of this date, very few nationwide carriers have rolled out SIP trunking supported at the enterprise or SMB levels. A few of the larger CLEC’s have rolled out services in select test markets, but only with manufacturers that they have deemed compatible. The process of approving cross compatibility with hardware vendors has proven to be costly and time consuming, so it has substantially slowed the market’s move to SIP. Embracing new technology that fundamentally changes the way an entire market looks at voice will always take time.
VOIP hardware vendors have led the charge toward SIP technology and its cost effective deployment of voice over data, but they have been left with few options to choose from while implementing their solutions. Furthermore, many of the providers they have had to choose from are hosted providers, and that has caused a plethora of service quality issues for them to deal with. We will look at the major issue with hosted SIP trunking and how it may impact your business.
As with any VOIP provider, your voice quality will always be limited to the quality of your internet or data connection. Most commercial telephony providers do not recommend running VOIP services on anything less than a T1 line, as they have found out from experience that they get TONS of calls about quality, and the client is left to assume it must be THEIR phone system. Very few end users understand the necessity of having a quality data connection, voice prioritization, or how data traffic can affect call quality without true implementation of QoS.
SIP trunking is widely available by carriers today offering hosted solutions. They use your existing data connection and give you, in some cases, an unlimited number of SIP voice trunks and calling volume. This would seem to be a boon for large volume callers that have never experienced a true all you can eat environment for calling and for calling capacity! The problem is that the carriers offering these hosted SIP connections very rarely ever are the ones who offer the data circuit that the voice traffic must travel over. Without them controlling the voice AND the data flow on the circuit with their own monitoring equipment, the end user is left with an iffy voice connection at best. There is no QoS (Quality of service) that can be guaranteed when a voice provider has zero control over the circuit. The voice calls travel across the data line, through the public internet, and THEN to the hosted voice facility. With innumerable hops, dependable voice quality is a shot in the dark. Too many variables exist to adequately guarantee a reliable and commercial quality solution.
What are the symptoms of the lack of voice quality control? Typically, users will experience several common issues that include:
Echoing
One way audio (Either you can only hear them, or they can only hear you)
Poor audio volume
Cutting in and out (Think of a choppy cell phone call fading in and out)
Dropped calls
Lack of dial tone
Inconsistent uptime
If you have run a VoIP telephone line at home or at a small office, you will have found that a Vonage type of service has its limitations. As a matter of fact, there are very few commercial users with any type of call volume that would trust their business to that type of service to run their companies on due to the lack of dependability or reliability. The amount saved on cheap VoIP telephone service can quickly be lost when a single conversation goes wrong with a qualified client on the phone that is ready to buy. Commercial customers are looking to deal with other reliable companies, and if you are relying on tin cans and string to run your operation, where else are you cutting corners? Having poor quality phone service can cost you customers!
Risking the quality of your company’s voice conversations by using a hosted SIP trunking product is a perilous journey that will most likely end in abrupt failure. Before ever considering this option, there will be a few things you must insist on finding out:
Where are they located at?
How many hops to their facility?
Do they guarantee QoS?
If so, how?
Do they interface with your VOIP PBX or Hybrid System?
Before EVER even considering a hosted provider option one should research the availability of SIP trunking that is compatible with their commercial phone system from local reliable telecom providers that actually provide the data circuits that the SIP trunking is run on. By providing the end to end solution, if there are ever any voice quality issues, your phone company will be able to quickly isolate the issue and solve the problem. A hosted SIP company will be unable to offer that support, as they will have no ability to monitor or to test points of failure not on their own network.
SIP holds the promise of more cost effective voice communications for the future, as it effectively eliminates the need for PBX PRI cards, it utilizes voice compression ratios that allow you to more fully utilize your carrier circuits, and it allows for tighter integration with cell carriers and various applications. Make sure that any cost savings you may enjoy by utilizing SIP are not thrown away by choosing the wrong SIP solution.
Steve Norris is a Texas based telecommunications professional that provides Dallas Business Telephone Systems and telecom services from over 80 carriers nationwide. He specializes in hardware solution for multi-location business with advanced infrastructure needs. Over 90% of his clients are able to implement a new Fort Worth Business Phone System without increasing their budget with TeleTAP.
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