SIP trunks
Our SIP trunks offer businesses a cost-effective, reliable and resilient way to make calls over the Internet.
Every business is looking to reduce costs and increase profitability.
PSTN and ISDN line services can be expensive and inflexible but have, until recently, been the only viable method of providing high grade telephone lines to a business’s telephone system/PBX. However, SIP trunks can now be used to complement or entirely replace your existing ISDN or analogue public telephone network (PSTN) lines by providing the ability to make and receive telephone calls through the Internet.
Our SIP trunk services create a connection between your PBX and the Internet (without traversing the public Internet) allowing voice calls to be made and received over a simple broadband line (or any other IP connection such as a Leased Line).
For the residential end of the market, companies such as Skype have seen millions download their software resulting in multitudes of people making free calls across the world over the public Internet. But this residential service does not prioritise voice traffic.
This means the quality of voice over a line that is also used for web browsing and file transfer, especially at busy times of the day, can be compromised and in some cases, lost altogether.
Skype does not provide any guarantee on levels of service and significantly compresses the voice packets, leading to unreliable quality and throughput. Also, whereas Skype users make calls using a headset or webcam through their computer, SIP retains the use of traditional handsets and there is be no outward change of service to users or clients.
South West Communications Group’s SIP service is only used for calls and therefore there is no risk of loss of quality.
We offer two standard packages, plus a bespoke service, to ensure different businesses of all sizes can enjoy the benefits SIP can bring without any compromises.
Our SIP Lite, Premium and Bespoke services are the commercial equivalents of Skype guaranteeing at least 5 times the bandwidth per voice channel and as such are business-class solutions offering more resilience and guaranteed throughput providing the ability to interconnect with existing voice networks worldwide.
SIP trunks can either be linked directly to a SIP compatible telephone system or even an existing system by using one of our gateway products, which means equipment does not have to be replaced.
Benefits of SIP trunks:
Reduced costs – Our SIP trunks mean greatly reduced ongoing rental costs in that it is significantly cheaper to rent 10 SIP channels than it is to rent the equivalent in ISDN lines. Free calls between company sites would also considerably cut costs as well as the reduction that comes from not having to use all of the public service telephone network when making calls.
In addition, South West Communications Group can offer greatly reduced call charges at highly competitive rates between all of our SIP customers. Any moves, additions or changes can also be achieved more cost-effectively.
Flexibility - South West Communications Group can provide its SIP service far quicker than ISDN lines can be installed. We can also port any BT or Virgin Media (NTL/Telewest) number to retain continuity and there is no need to pay for call redirection charges when relocating as you can take your number with you, creating a number for life.
SIP numbers are attached to IP addresses rather than telephone exchanges and are truly flexible in that an office can be relocated to the other side of the world and there would be no outward change to the customer dialling the number.
This means there is no longer a need to pay for a non-geographical number, such as 0845 or 0870, to disguise where you are based and where your callers typically pay a premium to dial. Businesses can choose to use up to five different geographic area code number ranges to create the image of a local presence or a national footprint.
This local/national image can be further enhanced by a business choosing which area code number is presented when making an outbound call, again disguising their exact physical geographic location. However, we also provide full support of emergency services whereby in the event of a 999 call being generated, your exact location can be identified.
Resilience - This is a highly secure, resilient and reliable fully managed end to end solution that is run over a private section of the Internet that can never be intercepted by the public.
In the event of a disaster, such as flooding or fire, South West Communications Group can provide a call redirection service whereby all inbound calls will be rerouted to a pre-registered telephone number free of charge (see our Billing fact sheet for more details). However, South West Communications Group would also recommend the retention of an ISDN or PSTN back-up line in the rare event of failure.
