Top 5 Fears about SIP Trunking for Business

If you have some concerns about moving to SIP trunking for your business, good for you! It is always wise to be skeptical of unfamiliar technologies. Asking questions and learning from the experiences of others is the best way to sort out myth from fact. As with most technologies, there are some persistent worries associated with SIP trunking. We’d like to help ease your mind and address the top 5 concerns head on.

1. Poor Call Quality

This is the biggie. Many people equate SIP and VoIP with bad experiences with Skype or Vonage. However, there are some major differences between SIP for business and these consumer grade services. The best business SIP services use tier-1 redundant networks over high-speed internet connections. They also advise customers to activate Quality of Service settings on their router to ensure that voice traffic is prioritized over data traffic. This infrastructure allows SIP providers to offer customers call quality that is very similar to land lines. Of course call quality is critical to your business, so we recommend using a SIP service that will offer you a free trial so that you can hear it for yourself.

2. Too Expensive

We’re not even sure how this myth got started, but many people assume that because SIP is a modern technology it will be more expensive than traditional voice services. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the most compelling argument for SIP is cost savings. SIP reduces communications costs by eliminating most local and long distance calling charges. In addition, SIP can be deployed one channel (line equivalent) at a time, rather than the 23 line PRI requirement. This means that you pay for exactly what you need and can grow on-demand. There are some initial set up costs, but a large initial capital investment is not required. As a bonus, if you use SIP.US, you will not be required to enter into a long term agreement, giving you ultimate flexibility.

3. Too Difficult to Install and Manage

Many people believe that you need to be a telecommunications expert to install and maintain a SIP solution, but that’s just not true.  We work with customers every day who have no technology background at all and, with the help of our support team and online resources, they are able to get their solution up and running in no time. Our online control panel makes administering the solution a snap.

4. Increased Fraud Risk

Toll fraud is a problem for business phone systems of every type and VoIP solutions are a particularly attractive target to thieves. However, this doesn’t need to deter businesses from taking advantage of the cost savings and flexibility offered by SIP. You can protect yourself by selecting a solution like SIP.US that uses automated systems that help detect fraud and protect your account even if your on-premises systems are compromised.

5. Too new/cutting edge

SIP trunking may seem like new and novel technology, but it has actually been around since the 1980’s.  The market for SIP is huge already and growing.  Diane Myers (principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research) recently told readers, “There is no denying the world is moving to IP, and SIP has become the de-facto solution of choice for businesses for IP connections. In North America, slightly more than 20% of the installed business trunks are SIP trunking today, with significant upside opportunity.”  Infonetics expects continued strong worldwide growth for SIP trunking over the next 5 years, forecasting the market to reach $8 billion in 2018.  Rest assured that , if you choose SIP trunking, you won’t be alone.

No decision that impacts your business communications should be taken lightly, but hopefully we’ve been able to increase your confidence that these particular concerns are either unfounded or easily mitigated with the right solution.