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SWITCHING TO SIP TRUNKS MAKES SENSE

We get a lot of queries about how to reduce the number of PSTN and ISDN lines (and therefore reducing the line rental charges).

As long as we can be assured of a good quality ADSL connection at your site, the reality is you can significantly reduce your Telco charges by reducing the number of phone lines you have in place and replacing them with a Hosted Voice or a SIP trunk solution.

Hosted Voice is a Phone System that runs over VoIP. SIP trunks are VoIP lines that connect to a PBX phone system. SIP trunks connect to an Office  PBX Phone System using Analogue Telephone Adapters or with current IP capable equipment ports are already built in the systems.

For example …a business with 6 PSTN phone lines could reduce the number of PSTN phone lines on the Phone System by replacing 5 lines on their Phone System with 5 SIP trunks and the saving in line rental alone would be around $140 a month without taking into account the cheaper phone calls.

The pros are the significant savings to be had and portability of your numbers. Calls to Local and Long Distance numbers are usually at a fixed rate, Inter office calls usually free and calls to mobiles are significantly cheaper.

Because the numbers then reside with your Phone System rather than on a carrier network, if you move you pick up your phone system and your numbers will move with you.

You do need to make sure you go with a reputable SIP provider who supplies Business Grade SIP trunks. A budget carrier will probably have off shore support and cut lots of corners.

A reputable and quality SIP provider will have some pre requisites in regard to equipment types and will want to supply and configure the equipment before sending it to you. This can be the difference between getting quality calls or having a system that is basically non functioning and un useable. If you cut corners with your equipment you are asking for ongoing problems.

The cons are that if you lose your internet service for any reason you wont be able to make outgoing calls from your SIP trunks. Incoming calls can be set up to immediately divert to a mobile air another site if the lines are unavailable.

You can also port your existing Phone numbers onto your SIP trunks. This can take up to 3 months to achieve but it typically done in around 4-5 weeks. When your numbers port your numbers your old phone lines will be disconnected automatically.

A further advantage is that you NBN/future proof your phone lines. All they need is an internet connection to work so regardless of how your internet is delivered or where you are located, you get to keep your numbers. For example of you relocate your business to another area, you can take your SIP trunk numbers with you as they have no relationship with the local phone exchange. You can also get numbers from other areas to emulate having you business located in another state for example.

There isn’t much point doing this is you have a single phone line and don’t make a lot of calls. But anything above 2 lines doesn’t make sense these days. It really makes sense to consider the switch to SIP Trunks.