SIP Trunking

What is SIP Trunking?

SIP Trunk IP Telephony is a connection from a PBX using SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to an ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider). SIP Trunk is simply another way of saying VoIP provider for your phone system.

Understanding SIP Trunking

It is important to understand what you’re buying into….

Though details vary from implementation to implementation, the basic principle of SIP Trunk are well understood. Voice/ data is carried via a dedicated ‘trunk’ across the web, a portion of the bandwidth is reserved for those services, rather than across ordinary internet routes. SIP Trunking is therefore faster and more reliable, being less prone to performance issues as determined by the volume of public web traffic.

Something that must be considered up front when looking at SIP Trunk is that there is a certain lack of standardisation in the industry. Companies sometimes mean different things when they mention ‘SIP Trunking’, according to their differing interpretations of the standard. A number of different SIP Trunk definitions and implementations are on offer. Therefore, when buying a SIP Trunk, or connecting any given SIP Trunk elements together it is important to make sure your devices have been compatibility tested.

Advantages of SIP Trunking

SIP Trunking is best suited for small businesses that want to deploy a telephony phone service while utilising their existing PBX phone system. Another advantage of SIP Trunking is that it allows users’ telephone numbers to exist independently of their phone’s location. In contrast, the number allocated to any given ISDN or PSTN line is determined by the local exchange. SIP Trunk systems might allow, for example, a user working in London to have an Aberdeen telephone number and wherever that worker plugs in, his number stays the same. This is immensely valuable to businesses wishing to bring a disparate workforce under one geographical umbrella.

Another major reason why many people regard SIP Trunk Telephony as a next generation technology, is that it lends itself to superb disaster recovery and business continuity provisioning. This is apt, as UK businesses have to pay increasing amounts of attention to the security of their voice communications as the weather becomes more of a topic of conversation than ever before.

In the event of a disaster, such as the flooding of recent years, calls to a SIP Trunk company can be automatically re-routed to another location. There is no need to pay for expensive remote call forwarding charges. Even if no alternative office exists, an answer phone service can take over, and it is simple to recreate a SIP Trunk service via an IP connection.

SIP Trunking Conclusion

Using a SIP Trunk can offer your business number portability and disaster recovery which are significant strengths. SIP Trunk telephone systems can also be expanded much more easily and cheaply than ISDN systems.

Remember when choosing a SIP Trunk supplier, it is essential that you check some of the seemingly basic provisions. Top amongst these should include emergency services calling support (999), directory enquires support and online number management.

Take Advantage of Gamma’s SIP Trunk, IP Direct Connect

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