Business Phone Small System
If you are looking for ways to improve the telephone system of your company, then perhaps you have heard recommendations from friends and family about getting a SIP trunk service. This service connects your company’s own telephone system (called PBX or Private Branch Exchange) to the internet via a SIP softswitch, instead of following the traditional connection to the public telephone system (called PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network).
So when you dial a number to make an outgoing call, the softswitch will analyze whether you are trying to reach a PSTN phone number or a SIP-enables system as well. After that, the softswitch will then route your call to wherever it is directed.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) offers an advantage for small businesses that have moved to VoIP. To understand the advantage, we must first look at the issue of using SIP trunking versus PRI (Primary Rate Interface).
In traditional telephone systems, physical wires are installed on site, but a SIP trunk replaces this with a SIP trunking provider that offers virtual provisioning. As a result, the need for a local Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateway is eliminated, as is the need for the Primary Rate Interface (PRI), which can be costly, especially to small business. To deploy SIP trunking, your IP PBX will need to have a SIP trunking connectivity port, and most modern IP PBXes do include this functionality as a standard feature. At the same time, your firewall should be SIP-enabled to allow for VoIP calls to be protected. Again, most modern firewalls are SIP-capable.
There are actually three components to a SIP environment, starting with the SIP-enabled IP PBX. The Internet telephony service provider (ITSP) forms the second component, providing a connection between the IP network and the PSTN. Lastly, the border element (such as a SIP-enabled firewall) connects the enterprise IP network, the PSTN, and an external carrier network. The service provider usually includes SIP trunking as part of the phone package. Before contracting with a SIP trunking service provider, review the provider’s quality of service terms and service level agreement to determine responsiveness, call quality, security guarantees and other important factors.
A T1 line is a high-bandwidth line often used to connect a midsize business to the Internet, and it is also used in offices that have a high call volume. The Primary Rate Interface divides that T1 line into 23 channels, with each channel carrying a single phone call. The number of channels required for the office is dependent on the peak number of simultaneous calling, rather than the physical number of phone extensions.
As the SIP Phone service works over the internet, is measures the presence of telephone calls in terms of bandwidth. And because of this, unlike typical phone systems, it can support multiple phone calls at a single given time as long as it can handle the bandwidth capacity.
Wouldn’t you want this advantage for your company? Also, SIP trunking removes the complicated abundance of hardware and wirings just to support the flow of calls, because the only thing needed is to use the servers of the chosen provider.
Getting a SIP trunk service is not as simple as getting a internet connection. If the only reason why you are going to get one is that you want to see how the internet can affect your communication systems, then might as well stick to the present protocol you are using. But if you are really looking for means that you can be efficient, then SIP trunk is surely for you.
Some businesses have resisted moving to SIP trunking as opposed to PRI because the PRI did, at one time, offer a superior level of call quality. In addition, PRI was often chosen over SIP trunking because it offered the ability to deploy Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers for simpler call routing. SIP trunking however, today does offer the same capability, and call quality is equivalent.
There is a cost advantage, both for small and large companies. Smaller companies may be more concerned with incremental scalability. However, a bigger concern is installation. The PRI approach calls for a physical installation of the T1 copper pair, while SIP involves a “virtual” deployment-and this therefore makes installation and maintenance costs significantly less.
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