How SIP trunking Works for Business

By now, most businesses are aware of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems, which route calls through the Internet for more efficient communication than landlines provide. The result is hyper-efficient phone calls that include more free features, for a lower monthly price.

One of the reasons VoIP providers can offer several free features is because they offer hosted Private Branch Exchange (PBX) services. Because the VoIP provider will own and operate their own fully-featured PBX, businesses can simply pay as little as $20 per phone line to have remote access to the same features. However, for businesses that already have their own PBX, they may not want to pay for a device that they already own and operate in-house. In fact, by using SIP trunking, they can pay even less, even after factoring in the price of a PBX server and maintenance fees.

SIP trunks translate calls that are run through a PBX into internet-friendly digital signals, ready for use by VoIP clients. Because SIP trunks translate calls in real-time instead of being used as dedicated phone lines, multiple extensions at a large company can take turns sharing the same few SIP trunks. As long as the company owns enough SIP trunks to handle their maximum simultaneous calling traffic, there will never be a problem with busy signals again.

The PBX does all the work of connecting incoming calls with open extensions, and manages all of the connecting work. The best part is that SIP trunks are even cheaper than hosted PBX lines, as low as only $15 per line.

Consider a company that has 50 extensions, but only makes up to 20 calls at any given time. With hosted PBX VoIP, they would need to pay for every extension, coming out to 50 x $20 = $1000 monthly. With SIP trunking, that same company only needs 20 trunk lines, which totals at only 20 x $15 = $300, under a third of what they’d be paying for hosted VoIP.