Business VoIP: SIP Trunking Helps SMBs Save Money, Get More Communications Features

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are now using VoIP in some capacity to lower their communications costs. In most cases, VoIP is seen merely as a less expensive, equivalent replacement for traditional wireline telephony.

But, when combined with Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) trunking, this new realm of IP-based voice communication can be taken to a whole new level.

SIP itself is used to initiate, manage and terminate a wide range of IP communication sessions, including phone calls. The power of SIP trunking lies in its ability to link devices and applications, allowing routing of communications data based on availability or unavailability of users.

While it certainly costs less to purchase and maintain an IP-PBX (News - Alert) than a traditional PBX, adding SIP trunking really kicks things up a notch. Managers who understand the benefits of IP-based communications, but are struggling to justify the upgrade, might want to take a second look at SIP trunking as a selling point.

At the bottom line, SIP trunking helps clarify the ROI for investing in 21st century communications network infrastructure. When SIP trunking enters the picture, it becomes possible for businesses to route voice calls directly from one point to another over the internet, rather than paying for a local connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

That routing is made possible by an internet telephony service provider (ITSP), which maintains necessary gateways. Because the ITSP specializes in this function, it’s able to provide inexpensive call routing to businesses that normally would have to foot much of this expense themselves but without the benefit of economies of scale. 

A SIP trunking solutions provider like Nextiva offers two key benefits for the cost-conscious SMB: cost savings on long-distance communications, and more robust communications features.

Nextiva SIP trunking includes, as standard features, a fully redundant business-class network, option to keep existing phone numbers, and interoperability with most IP PBX phone systems. These and other features of SIP trunking enable fast ROI. 

To learn more about the benefits of SIP trunking, visit Nextiva’s Business VoIP channel on TMCnet.com.

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(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/business-voip/articles/121891-business-voip-sip-trunking-helps-smbs-save-money.htm)