What’s the difference between SIP trunks and PRI trunks?

PRI (Primary rate interface) and SIP Trunking are methods of connecting your business phones to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

 

What is a PRI?

PRI trunks have been a long-standing reliable method of connecting business PBX systems to their local phone service provider for decades. It's made up of 23 voice lines with one data line to handle call signaling between the PBX and the service provider. Their reliability has made them the standard in business telephony.  However, technology has finally brought around a solution that can be just as reliable with far more features and cost savings - SIP trunks.

What is a SIP Trunk?

SIP Trunks are telephone line trunks that provide a direct connection between your business and your phone service provider or Internet telephony service provider (ITSP). SIP trunks provide phone numbers, lines, and long-distance typically at much better rates than the traditional PRI providers and with far more flexibility and less (if any) commitment. 

SIP Trunks v.s. PRI

Since PRIs are delivered in bundles of 23 lines each, a business can end up with far more lines than it actually requires.  In contrast, SIP trunks can be delivered with as little as a single line to as many as thousands of lines over a single Internet connection (with enough bandwidth of course), making the financial entry point for SIP trunks far more attractive than its PRI counterpart.  Due to the complexity and resources needed to add lines to a PRI trunk, traditional service providers typically require lengthy service contracts, while SIP trunking providers typically do not require long-term commitments.  This allows businesses that use SIP trunks to shop around for better pricing with different service providers as often as they'd like.  In addition, since PRIs are actual physical lines installed on-premise, ordering new lines requires scheduling with the service provider and a visit by a service technician. SIP trunks, however, are delivered over your existing broadband connection.  Adding lines is fast (if not instantaneous), and doesn't require anything more than a simple phone call or the click of a mouse in most cases.  Removing lines is just as convenient, allowing for even more cost-efficiency.

Transitioning from PRI to SIP Trunks

Making the transition to SIP trunking from PRI doesn't have to be a complicated task.  There are many options that will allow both gradual transitions to SIP trunking or fork-lift solutions for a fresh new start.  The best way to determine what is best for your business is to simply speak with a SIP trunking service provider and ask them what options are available to make the transition as easy and pain-free as possible.  A quality SIP trunking provider like IPComms will be more than familiar with making the transition from PRI to SIP trunking simple to understand and easy to implement.  

 

What is BYOD?

What is BYOD?

Don't throw away those old SIP phones.

In the old days of digital PBX phone systems, most vendors utilized proprietary technology for both hardware and software. This meant that if you purchased a Nortel PBX, you could forget about using your old Lucent phones. So, the decision to change PBX hardware, almost always involved a 100% forklift of the old system, including wiring. This is why, prior to VoIP, most businesses kept their office phone system for life. (Now you know why those PBX closets were always so dusty).

 

Industry standards have allowed VoIP phones to be sold independently of the PBX system they'll be attached to. In fact, thanks to VoIP technology, the phones are actually not even attached to their controlling phone system. VoIP phones communicate with their host system through the magic of Internet Protocol (the IP in VoIP). Standards like SIP (session initiation protocol) allow for the mixing and matching of PBX systems with virtually any SIP service provider or VoIP phones with virtually any VoIP phone system or Cloud PBX. The same holds true for today's VoIP phones.There are hundreds of VoIP phone vendors. Some specialize in providing the latest in features and functionality, while others concentrate on offering the lowest prices for quality products. This leaves us with options to choose the phones that best suit our particular needs, regardless of what brand PBX they'll be connecting to. Moreover, once we buy these phones, we have the option of taking them with us, if and whenever we choose to switch service providers. This is where BYOD comes in.

In the social world, you might have seen the acronym BYOB on an invitation to let you (the guest) know that the host will not be providing "spirits" at their event and that guests are welcome to bring their own. Well, the technology world, BYOD isn't much different. BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device and simply means that a service provider is welcoming its customers to bring their own hardware to work with their service.

For example, let's say your previous service provider required that you purchase SIP phones made by Grandstream, and your new service provider offers a BYOD VoIP service. You can take the Grandstream phones with you to your new service provider and connect them to their network (as long as they are compatible with their service). This can save your business a lot of time and money, which makes it a win-win for both the customer and service provider.

Most reputable VoIP service providers have begun providing BYOD offerings. For example, IPComms' SIP Trunking service and Hosted PBX service (MyOffice PBX™) both offer BYOD capabilities, allowing customers to use the hardware they already own as a means to connect to their network and services without having to purchase new VoIP hardware. Needless to say that this drastically reduces your cost of service entry and, in most cases, gives you the ability to connect to your new service provider in minutes rather than days.

So for those of you thinking of making a change from your existing service provider to a new one, remember to ask if your new provider offers a BYOD service. It could save you a lot of time, and even better, a lot of money!

 

7 Benefits of SIP Trunking

1. SIP trunking can make the most out of your existing non-VoIP PBX hardware.

IPComms SIP trunking is an affordable way to phase your existing PBX hardware into the world of Voice Over IP (VoIP). Simply by adding a VoIP gateway to any legacy PBX, a business can benefit from low-cost incoming and outgoing VoIP calls provided by IPComms.

2. SIP trunks are the best way to get the most out of your IP PBX.

If you already have a VoIP-based business phone system, simply add IPComms SIP trunks and start enjoying quality local and long-distance calls. We support the most popular IP PBXs, such as Asterisk, PBX in a Flash, Avaya, FreePBX, Trixbox, Switchvox, Fonality, Elastix, 3CX, Linksys, Grandstream, TalkSwitch, and Aastra.

Each individual SIP trunk can support a single concurrent call, unlimited inbound calls and either pay-as-you-go outbound or unlimited outbound domestic calling.

3. SIP trunks can expand easily as your business grows.

With SIP Trunking, most services can be enabled within 24 hours of ordering. As your company grows, SIP trunks allow you to increase your network capacity without installing physical landlines - all service additions are delivered seamlessly over your broadband connection.

4. SIP trunks enable communications over multiple geographic locations.

SIP trunks have no geographic limitations - SIP trunks are not installed on site physically. Instead, they are provisioned over your existing broadband internet connection. In contrast, a traditional PRI service is delivered over a T1 copper pair which must physically be brought to your office.

5. SIP trunks provide instant expansion into new markets.

A single corporate SIP trunking connection can provide enough capacity to service any size business from SMB to a large entire enterprise. Multi-site enterprises can use a single SIP trunking account rather than multiple PSTN connections.

6. Save money by combining voice and data across your existing broadband connection.

The typical business uses only a fraction of their overall bandwidth for their data needs, leaving as much as 80% of their available bandwidth underutilized. IPComms' SIP trunks eliminate the need to have both a data and a voice circuit by moving your voice communications onto your existing broadband connection. Best of all, you don't have to sacrifice reliability or quality.

7. SIP trunks are inherently fault-tolerant.

Natural disasters are an ever-looming risk. Unforeseen accidents, fire or even a disgruntled employee can cause catastrophic damage to a business and its revenue. Ensuring business continuity is vital for protecting a business and its assets. VoIP is unique in its design. Its ubiquity and autonomous design allow for a much higher degree of fault tolerance than land-lines or even PRIs.

All of IPComms SIP trunks offer free fail-over routing and load-balancing of calls between multiple office locations. So, with IPComms and a small bit of pre-planning, you can rest assured that your company and its communications will be able to withstand even the worst of disasters.

 

SIP Trunking or Hosted PBX?

What is SIP trunking?

SIP Trunking provides a business phone system access to the public phone system (PSTN). SIP Trunks allow business to use their existing business phone system rather than forklifting it for a completely VoIP based solution.  Rather than using traditional phone lines physically delivered by the local phone company, a device called a VoIP gateway is connected to the PBXs trunk port and to the public internet.  This allows the existing PBX to be connected to a SIP service provider (like IPComms) where phone services (long distance, direct dial numbers, toll free, etc.) are delivered at cost that is significantly less than traditional phone services.

  In addition, there are additional savings incurred as both voice and data are delivered on the same line.

 

Many businesses will, of course, already have PBX equipment in place. So, by simply adding SIP Trunking to this existing system, business communications are improved and costs are saved as both voice and data are carried on the same line. This, eliminates the need for any additional lines that may be used to send faxes or access the internet.

A major advantage of using SIP trunking is the ability to grow your capacity without limits and typically in real time.  However, SIP trunks typically lack the ability to deliver more advanced business phone features and relies solely on the existing PBX for most of the more advanced phone features.

What is a Cloud PBX?

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Most businesses would much rather dedicate their staff and resources to managing their customers and products rather than waste time maintaining an on-premise hardware-based PBX. A “Cloud” PBX (also known as a hosted PBX), eliminates the cost associated with the purchase of a business phone system hardware.  A Cloud solution delivers all of the advanced phone features and services to its businesses through the internet.  Typically, the only thing need by the business itself are IP enabled phones or PC based softphones.

Cloud PBXs doesn’t require investing in on-premise hardware, so PBX maintenance, software upgrades, power management, and license fees are the sole responsibility of the Cloud PBX service provider rather than the business itself.   requires frequent maintenance—and is constantly and quickly depreciating.  Service is typically activated in minutes rather than days, and the features are typically far more advanced than anything the average small to mid-sized business could afford or manage themselves.

SIP Trunking or Cloud PBX, which is right for my business?

In general, one of the main things to consider when choosing to deploy SIP trunking or a Cloud PBX is going to be whether a business has recently already invested in PBX hardware.  Businesses with no existing PBX solution will benefit far more with a Cloud PBX than with SIP trunking.  Smaller businesses, or businesses without live-in technical staff, typically do not want to bother with purchasing, installing and maintaining the hardware needed to deploy a new phone system.  In addition, businesses with existing phone systems that are severely outdated or require big-business phone features are usually much better off simply deploying a new Cloud based business phone system, rather than investing in upgrading their existing PBX hardware and software.

SIP Trunking, on the other hand, is more suited for organizations are not willing to abandon their existing hardware based PBX equipment for internal or investment reasons.  In some cases, existing PBX hardware might be integral to other business systems (e.g. accounting software, sales tools, marketing systems, etc.).  If a company is simply not in the position to scrap their existing phone system altogether, SIP trunking is better suited as a means to add the benefits and savings of VoIP to their existing PBX equipment and is typically a very quick and easy addition to make.

SIP Trunking & Cloud PBX – A Hybrid solution

Another very common and rather effective way to reap the benefits of VoIP rates and features, even if you have an existing PBX that you have no plans of getting rid of any time soon, is the deployment of both SIP trunking and Cloud based PBX services.  Cloud based systems are relatively inexpensive to deploy even at very small roll-outs.  So, adding a couple of phones with advanced Cloud features to a business that also currently also has a hardware PBX solution might be a great Segway into the Cloud.  Cloud systems can forward calls to your existing PBX, while also enabling advanced features like queuing, call recording, and automated attendants.  It could be the best of both worlds.

As you can see, SIP Trunking and Cloud PBXs have their advantages when properly paired with the right business.  Understanding their strengths and proper fit to one’s business is the best way to get the best solution.  If you need help making this decision, feel free to give us a call. We have years of experience helping businesses like yours through these decisions.