What Is Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC)?

Cloud-based communication offers an impressive return on your investment (ROI), enhanced productivity, and a positive impact on workplace and consumer satisfaction. Although business owners often admit to feeling increasingly strained by the limitations of their in-house phone service, far too many feel they don’t understand today’s technology-rich options well enough to justify upgrading a system they’ve relied on for years. 

If you’ve spent any amount of time trying to decode some of the many tech-heavy reports intended to confirm the relative ease of modernizing your legacy business phone, you’ve probably noticed that some service providers use a lot of confusing acronyms intended to help make rather complex (and often similar) explanations easier to understand.

Take “BYOC,” for example, an acronym intended to let you know which service providers allow you to “bring your own” carrier. Of course, a company is unlikely to focus attention on features with little value, the word “carrier” itself is rather vague, especially if you’re not particularly well-versed in the finer points of today’s industry-specific terminology. 

So, let’s get right to the answer you’ve been looking for. The “C” in that BYO acronym means you don’t have to abandon your relationship with your current service provider. Your business still utilizes aspects of your legacy phone system, but you’ll also get all the pricing advantages of cloud-based features designed to help optimize your workflow, along with the flexibility to scale your voice, data, and messaging services as your business grows.

Related: SIP Trunking 101: The Fundamentals – SIP.US

Why Are So Many Businesses Switching to Cloud-Based Communication?

Many businesses have a telephone system known as a private branch exchange (PBX), an in-house network that allows voice communication and call transfers between multiple extensions within their organization. Companies relying on PBX systems typically enjoy additional features like voice mail, auto attendants, conference calling, and the ability to connect multiple business locations. 

In the past, most businesses had little choice but to pay the high cost of installing a PBX to ensure reliable connectivity. Legacy PBX systems are typically connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) provided by an area phone company.

But with video collaboration, live chat, and the ability to work remotely vital in today’s workplace, many business owners are replacing their outdated PBX with a low-cost alternative, technology designed to convert analog voice signals to a digital format. Instead of transmitting incoming and outgoing calls over a physical “trunk” of wires and cables, your “phone lines” exist on the cloud. 

How could that benefit your business? Converting analog signals to digital packets called SIP (session-initiated protocol) trunks gives you all the advantages of a legacy PBX, plus numerous cloud-exclusive features. All you need to convert your phone system is high-speed internet, a SIP-enabled phone (or low-cost analog adaptor), and the services of a reputable SIP trunk provider.

How Does SIP Trunking Reduce Communication Costs?

Most telephone companies charge for each group of primary rate Interface (PRI) circuits assigned to a business. Each PRI circuit has 24 lines with the capacity to support 23 calls and a single data channel simultaneously. If your call volume increases, you’ll need to contact your provider, schedule an appointment, and pay for the installation of expensive upgrades. 

In addition to the high cost of installing an additional circuit, you’ll also have to pay a fee for every line activated, monthly charges for lines that may or may not be in use, and additional fees to enable long-distance service. 

When your PBX is virtual, your entire phone system is customizable, adaptable, and far more cost-effective. You’ll have the ability to modernize your entire communication system without the expense of maintaining physical infrastructure. Even an entirely remote workforce can appear to be making and receiving calls from a central location.

While investigating your options, you’ve likely discovered numerous companies offering bundle pricing for all-in-one communication services. While these all-inclusive communication platform as a service (CPaaS) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) providers combine the connectivity of SIP trunking with PBX business essentials, they tend to operate in one of two ways. 

Some platform providers design, build, and maintain their own PBX functionality, while others license their core software from a third-party provider. Although business owners appreciate their ease of use, many find they get better prices, more consistent service, and fewer limitations when they integrate the services of a SIP trunk carrier with BYOC video collaboration, virtual receptionist, SIP-enabled faxing platforms, and voice-to text-applications. 

In response, consumers have called on numerous UCaaS and CPaaS platforms to unbundle their products and offer SIP trunking as a stand-alone service.

The Advantages of Unbundled BYOC Services

With more vendors offering BYOC options, consumers benefit from the ability to connect their existing telephone provider to a diverse digital communication ecosystem. As business owners and their teams embrace the use of enterprise voice communication services, video collaboration technology, team chat, and virtual file sharing, the bring your own carrier concept has gained considerable momentum. 

Although you might initially consider the deconstruction of a previously bundled arrangement a bit unusual, it’s not. Not all that long ago, mobile phones and airtime contracts were also sold as a bundled service.

Today, you have the option of choosing bundled cellphone service, or you can purchase your cellphone and service plans as two separate purchasing decisions. With BYOC, the concept is essentially the same. First, you find a platform with the features you might need to help keep your workforce connected; then, you select your SIP trunk provider. That’s it. 

The entire point of selecting an unbundled BYOC service is to give yourself the freedom to meet your current and long-term business needs. With the right provider, you’ll have the ability to maintain your existing relationship with your public switched telephone network. Your carrier partner receives and sends SIP traffic to and from your VoIP communication provider. Just a few of the many advantages of BYOC services include:

Increased Reliability and Fewer Adjustments

Switching to an all-inclusive UCaaS is relatively easy, but it still takes time to learn a new system and acclimate to even the most user-friendly platform. Most business professionals find that retaining the services of their local PSTN translates to greater reliability, plus the advantage of having to make fewer adjustments when taking their PBX to the cloud. 

Having to make fewer adjustments to accommodate any new system translates to fewer implementation delays and less time devoted to retraining in-house staff and remote workers. Instead of having to train your entire staff to use a unified communication platform, you can focus on new applications as needed.

Related: How Seamless Communication Can Improve Workplace Productivity – SIP.US

Greater System Control and Flexibility

Whether you choose a UCaaS bundle or BYOC services, it’s easy to increase or decrease the number of SIP trunks you’re using as your business needs change throughout the year, meaning you’ll pay only for the virtual PBX “lines” you need when you need them. 

But BYOC offers more flexibility and control over your system because you can choose a preferred global provider for unified SIP trunk service but still have the freedom to alter your service if a local provider is better equipped to respond to the needs of a specific location or a single branch. That’s a definite bonus for any business spread out over multiple geographic locations.

More Control Over Call Routing and Overall Risk

Data security is a crucial issue when merging cloud-sourced PBX and your local PSTN. When you have the freedom to bring your own carrier, you also have the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’ve enlisted the services of a reputable SIP trunk provider dedicated to regulatory compliance. You could also have problems with dropped calls or phone numbers that suddenly stop working, but with BYOC arrangements, there’s less risk.  

Finding a SIP Trunk Provider Capable of Meeting Your Immediate and Long-Term Needs

There are many advantages to BYOC platforms, including the ability to implement truly customized communication solutions. There’s more transparency when you rely on a single carrier across multiple platforms, and it’s much easier to get the support you need when you need it. 

Although the bundled approach is often favored by companies investing in cloud-sourced communication solutions for the first time, there are numerous reasons to consider BYOC-compatible services for your immediate and long-term business needs. Although just a few strokes on your keyboard will likely lead you to numerous companies offering SIP trunking services, it’s important to choose wisely.

The best SIP trunk providers have a track record of negligible downtime, offer tier-1 network support, excel in customer service, and rely on automated systems designed to detect and deter potentially fraudulent activity and security threats. You should also have access to a user-friendly control panel that gives you real-time data records, the ability to choose your own broadband provider, and a level of redundancy that ensures optimal performance and reliability.

At SIP.US, our built-in features provide everything you need in a single streamlined platform that gives you full control over your SIP trunk services as you reduce your telecommunication costs. You can get SIP.US services up and running quickly, and our free no-obligation trial comes with 60 free minutes. Contact us today to get started.