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Telecom Business Review | Tuesday, January 07, 2025
It's important to understand why SIP is often more difficult than traditional telephone lines.
FREMONT, CA: SIP Trunking is an ideal solution for many businesses. The benefits are quite considerable:
• Cost-effective
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• Flexible
• Very quick to set up
• Keep the same phone numbers when moving
• Auto Divert on failure
Still, it's important to understand why SIP is often more difficult than traditional telephone lines.
To help secure your business and put everything in place to eradicate some of the issues, we have compiled the five most common problems with SIP:
1. Not every telephone systems support SIP
Some phone systems need additional hardware for SIP and may require licensing. Make sure you check this with your system maintainer before you move to SIP and realize what costs may be involved.
SIP trunking can be an inexpensive solution than traditional ISDN, but further initial outlay may be involved. Companies out there will sell you the advantages of SIP and fail to tell you that your system may not be appropriate – ouch! It's also essential you check which SIP providers are supported by your telephone system manufacturer – your system maintainer should be capable of providing you with a list or advice on this. The Unify OpenScape Business is a perfect system with SIP trunks with minimal set-up costs.
2. Trying to run SIP trunks over standard ADSL is not recommended
You require to have a decent infrastructure in place. Ideally, you should be implementing SIP over fiber, FTTC or EFM. This can be pricey, so where you've saved money on line rental, you may pay more to get a decent circuit in place. Based on your location, a decent circuit can cost thousands of pounds.
Check your availability on your local exchange and also consider how far you are from the switch (the distance shown on most websites is "as the crow flies," so it will commonly be even further than it shows). Of course, the further away you are, the more tricky it may be.
3. SIP call quality is not always as good as ISDN/PSTN
This is one of the most normal problems with SIP trunks. The quality you can expect will enormously depend on the infrastructure you have in place and on what else you have in process within your network.
From your ISP, Request QoS and this will make a great difference. We recommend you check if your ISP can offer QoS before signing up for the connection. Quality is not the SIP provider's duty, and you can be asked to sign a disclaimer confirming you accept this.
4. With SIP trunks, more elements can cause issues
With SIP trunks, more elements can cause issues. To name a few:
• SIP trunk
• Router
• Internet connection
• ADSL Line/Fibre Circuit issues
• Number port.
• Firewall Issues
• IP Conflicts
This can make troubleshooting more time-taking than with traditional telephony. However, it's also possible that you will have your SIP trunks, fiber and analogue line all with various providers, so in the event of a matter, you may be pushed from pillar to post.
5. Number porting can be lengthy
One of the great advantages of SIP is that you can port your existing telephone numbers. However, there is a downside: number porting can be lengthy. It has improved over the last few years, but lots of red tape means you might still come up against resistance from your present provider, and regrettably, they hold all the cards. So permit yourself plenty of time and be prepared to make many phone calls!
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