IP phone system hacks: Learn how to get cheaper calls and line rental

The initial doubt over the use of cloud based services for business communications has quickly turned into fervor for its many advantages. Today, more and more businesses of all shapes and sizes prefer IP telephony over its analog counterpart. But what about those that have already invested in an in-premise PBX? Thankfully, SIP Trunking Services provide a middle ground between these two technologies.

To better understand what it is and what it can do for your business, we’ve put together some questions you may have about SIP Trunking as a service.

What is SIP Trunking?

Unlike other telco terms that we already know by heart, SIP Trunking is a service that most people don’t know about. SIP or Session Initiation Protocol is basically a technology that is used to convert your analog service to IP communications. SIP uses your existing equipment, and uses your data network to establish voice calls.

How does SIP Trunking work?

Traditionally, businesses use a key system (PBX) within their premises to make calls. A service provider connects this system to the PSTN analog network so that employees may use the system to call out. What SIP trunking does is that it replaces the physical connection that connects your system to the provider. Instead of a dedicated circuit, your in house PBX now connects to your SIP provider through the internet.

A SIP Trunk works the same as an analog phone line, but instead of a physical cable, it is a virtual line provided by your provider. Any kind of data connection (T1, cable modem, DSL, Ethernet, etc.) is used to enable voice sessions. This is often called the VoIP equivalent of ISDN.

Why change to SIP?

What makes SIP such a great option is that it allows you to consolidate your lines (trunks) based on how many you use and really need. For a site with 10 staff, having 10 phone lines seems like the right thing to do. However, the reality is that out of those 10 lines, only 3-4 are used at a time at most. That’s 60% of your bill paying for lines you don’t use.

SIP Trunking helps you significantly lower your line charges by having staff share these lines without losing productivity. Through unique extensions, they are still able to call within the system while shared direct in dial numbers (DIDs) allow them to call out and receive calls.

Are SIP Trunks cheap?

Different SIP trunk providers offer competitive rates for business plans. The better question would be, what kind of value do you want out of your service?

SIP trunks aren’t tied to a geographic location which makes it very flexible. You can get local DIDs in every city you do business in to reach more customers. It also provides scalability since you can add or remove trunks as your business needs change. More importantly, it has better disaster recovery options for your business. You can tackle any situation simply by changing routing options in the event of outages.

If you have an existing PBX and want to learn more about what SIP Trunking can do for you, give us a call at 1300 ALLTEL or visit us at ALLTEL.