Sprint Expands SIP Trunking Availability

09/30/2009

Sprint Expands SIP Trunking Availability

SIP trunking services deliver voice calls from telecom providers to companies over IP data connections. Feeding their traffic directly into IP PBXes on the companies' premises, such services can bring considerable benefits. Sprint began offering SIP trunking to companies using Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 R2, an IP PBX software package that runs on Office servers, in February of this year. Now it's making the service generally available to business customers.

SIP trunking saves companies money in several ways. For one, it eliminates the need for them to buy separate voice and data lines from communication service providers. For another, it allows them to add capacity only as needed. A traditional voice T1 line can handle 23 simultaneous calls. If a company's need increases to 24 or 25 calls, it has to buy an entire new T1. That means it will be paying for a lot of unused capacity for a long time.

SIP trunking services also provide free calling between branches, with calls traveling over IP links rather than long-distance circuits. Outside long-distance calls can also be cheaper, since they stay on the provider's IP network until they terminate at the last mile on the PSTN (public switched telephone network).

There are also less easily quantifiable benefits. SIP trunking makes it possible for voice communications to take advantage of IP-based features. These typically start with the ability to detect users' presence or availability, and often involve the integration of voice with other functions, allowing employees to communicate by multiple methods including instant messaging, voice and video.

One caveat is that SIP is not yet a mature standard. All services won't necessarily work with all IP PBXes, so certification is necessary to ensure that specific services and PBXes are interoperable.

In addition to Sprint, a number of other telecom companies large and small offer SIP trunking. They include AT&T, Bandwidth.com, Cbeyond, Covad, InPhonex, JAJAH, Junction Networks and 8x8.

Posted by Robert Poe at 04:58:19 PM in 8x8, AT&T, Bandwidth.com, Cbeyond, Covad, InPhonex, IP PBX, Jajah, Junction Networks, Microsoft OCS, PSTN, SIP trunking, Sprint

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09/30/2009