Have you ever considered using SIP trunking? If so, you might be wondering how to choose the right provider. The technology behind SIP was designed to make business communications more effective. It accomplishes this by consolidating many of the services previously provided by PSTN providers into a single platform. Business SIP trunking from AWD is innovative and efficient but only if you find the right provider.
Reliability
Finding a good telecom provider is an absolute must. You need to make sure they’re part of a company that plans for business continuity and with redundant systems in place to help avoid outages and minimize downtime.
In the unfortunate event that you lose your primary Internet connection, your SIP provider should be able to forward calls to your workforce’s mobile devices. Additionally, a secondary network architecture with several backup connection gateways spread across a broad geographic region and backups for critical server equipment is also important.
Service
There are companies out there that offer unlimited domestic and international calls with all carriers. These are perfect for businesses because they usually include local and long distance calling.
The best way to ensure you land the right plan is to read through the terms and conditions: it is important to be sure that your business’s needs for SIP trunking will be met by an unlimited domestic plan. Make sure it includes unlimited local and national long distance calling so you can reach customers, partners, employees and suppliers anywhere from anywhere without worry of overages.
Uptime
Uptime depends on the quality of your SIP provider and how dedicated they are to providing you with the best service. Ensuring uptime includes measures like running the service on Tier-1 networks. Tier-1 networks are at the highest levels of Internet Service Providers, which means your traffic won’t be sidelined or delayed.
A good telecom system is composed of reliable primary DID routing. This is where you have a primary IP-PBX system, along with a secondary one in the event of any failures or technical difficulty. You should also have options for using only your very own broadband Internet Service, in the event that you can’t access local or toll internet services which are normally blocked by IP-PBX systems to private fax machines or modems in real time.
Cost
SIP is a fantastic telecommunications service for you to enjoy more affordable costs when it comes to talking to your family, friends and business partners. Nobody likes the thought of spending too much on their monthly phone bill. Thankfully you can make sure you’re putting money away in your savings account by keeping an eye out for a SIP company that prides itself on superior technology (that means using quality VoIP equipment) as well as customer services at reasonable rates.
Security
The Internet contains bad actors with malicious intent. Your SIP provider needs to keep you safe from fraud and security risks. One SIP security area to pay close attention to is international toll fraud; this form of theft can rack up your service usage when you aren’t aware. Toll fraud has been around for years, before SIP technology even came around. You might think that if you are savvy and have avoided the red tape associated with signing a contract or paying fees you don’t actually need your own SIP provider.
Final Words
You have to look at the vendor’s experience with deploying SIP trunking systems. This isn’t as cut and dry as it was when you were selecting and installing a PBX or VoIP system. The number of SIP trunking providers is growing rapidly, and you have to look at the actual experience of the company, not just its ability to sell you something.