VoIP telephony provides a variety of benefits over traditional phone networks, including lower costs, more flexibility, and more convenience, but the VoIP solutions offered by a legacy phone company carry drawbacks such as limited coverage and long-term, inflexible contracts.
SIP trunking solves many of these issues. With SIP trunks, VoIP calls can run through a cloud-based provider that routes calls efficiently based on location to deliver premium call quality and global coverage. Plus, cloud-based providers offer flexible contracts and pricing models that make it possible to test their solutions while you still have phone service through a traditional telecom.
Consider testing a backup SIP trunking solution while you’re still under contract with a traditional provider. That way, when your existing contract ends, you’ll have the firsthand experience you need to decide whether switching to SIP trunking makes sense for your company.
Other benefits to setting up a backup SIP trunking solution include:
1. Broader coverage and foolproof failover
Adding a backup SIP trunking solution lets you make calls even when your main provider can’t deliver, either because of a technical failure or because of limited geographical coverage. Because SIP trunking providers have relationships with multiple carrier networks, there is no single point of failure. This built-in redundancy means that when your main carrier’s network experiences an outage, your backup SIP trunking provider can route calls over a different network. Having multiple carrier relationships also allows SIP trunking providers to have broad geographical coverage while being able to route calls locally to keep costs low. Zentrunk from Plivo, for instance, works with 1,600 carrier networks to provide users the ability to communicate with anyone in 195 countries.
2. Risk-free, low-cost testing
Many SIP trunking providers offer free setup and simple pay-as-you-go pricing, so it won’t cost anything to put this backup solution in place, and you can try it out at whatever scale you want to keep expenses down. For example, if you want to use a SIP trunking provider as a failover solution, you’ll only pay for the solution when your existing network experiences downtime. If there’s no downtime, you won’t pay anything, and if there is a period of failure, you’ll be glad you have a backup solution in place.
A SIP trunking provider may save you money on international calls too because they can leverage relationships with multiple carriers to route traffic over local networks. If your existing carrier has cost-prohibitive rates for certain markets, you can test a SIP trunking solution and save money.
3. Added capacity, just when you need it
If you’re in a long-term contract with a traditional phone network, you might be limited to a set amount of channels or phone numbers for the duration of your contract. If your needs change, you can tap into additional capacity by testing out a backup SIP trunking solution. For example, if your company experiences increased call volumes during the winter holiday season, you may need additional capacity for that period. Using a SIP trunking solution allows you to quickly scale up during that time and then scale back down after the holiday season, without having to renegotiate your contract or pay administrative fees.
4. Easy setup and instant provisioning
Testing a cloud-based SIP trunking solution tends to be an easy process, with setup taking just a few minutes. Rather than dealing with complex programming or enduring wait times for phone number purchase, you can often instantly search and provision numbers to match your needs for fixed, mobile, or toll-free numbers. You can also get unlimited call capacity with every number, and every line can be added remotely. Zentrunk, for instance, lets you set up a trunk, link your numbers to the trunk, and send and receive calls on your VoIP Infrastructure in less than five minutes.
Furthermore, cloud-based SIP trunking providers offer on-demand analytics through a self-service portal, so you can quickly see activity differences between departments or office locations. This gives you a better understanding of your capacity needs, which could be helpful when your existing contract ends.
Overall, SIP trunking providers tend to be simple to set up quickly and with minimal risk. You can experience what it’s like to use SIP trunks without getting locked into long-term contracts, and you can then decide what type of provider you’d like to move forward with once your existing contract ends. And in doing so, you get the benefit of a backup solution that provides a security blanket for your setup in the event something goes wrong with your existing carrier.
To better understand how to select a SIP trunk provider to test out as a backup solution, see our blog post on 10 factors to consider. To learn more about SIP trunking and see how Zentrunk can help with your communications needs, get in touch with our team.
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