Five Questions to Ask Before Hiring a SIP Trunk Provider
Small businesses and organizations are switching to SIP trunking to save money. The technology improves communication capabilities while strengthening a company’s bottom line.
The way SIP trunking works: the technology transmits telephone calls via the internet instead of through telephone lines.
With the demand for SIP trunking, more SIP providers have entered the market. But not all SIP trunks are created equally.
There are differences in voice quality, contract options, and reliability to name a few. Some providers fall short while others excel as providers.
Thinking of hiring a SIP trunk provider? Don’t close the deal until you get the answers to these five questions.
Hiring a SIP Trunk Provider: 5 Questions to Ask
Ask these five questions when hiring a SIP trunk provider to get a top-notch SIP trunk system. Look for something that’s reliable, scalable, flexible, secure and reasonably priced.
1. Do You Operate Using a Tier-1 Voice Carrier?
You don’t want the quality of your SIP trunking to fall flat. Make sure your provider assures you that your calls will be sent and received with clarity.
Ensure the provider works with Tier-1 voice carriers to facilitate calling. Stay away from Least Cost Routing (LCR). You don’t want to compromise quality for cost which often occurs with LCRs.
Work with a SIP trunk provider who has at minimum one POP (point of presence) in each of the geographical areas you do business with. This will improve call clarity and assure low latency.
2. How Do You Ensure Reliability?
Ask providers how they assure reliability. When calls do consistently connect, that’s a problem.
Make sure the provider offers a redundant infrastructure and has relationships with multiple carriers in different geographical locations, as this improves reliability.
3. Will You Explain Costs and Contracts in Relation to Scalability?
Both international calling and long distance calling costs less when you use SIP trunks. That’s one of the biggest savings benefits of the technology.
Another pricing benefit with SIP trunking you can pay for just what you need when you opt for pay-as-you-go-pricing. This means you pay for bundles or channels ahead of time.
You can always add capacity to your VoIP system when you grow without having to purchase additional infrastructure.
Since various SIP trunk providers offer a variety of pricing models, choose the provider that offers you the biggest cost savings for your business without having to compromise on quality.
Contracts
Some providers offer more flexible contracts, permitting you to change services as you scale up or down.
But other contracts lock you into their inflexible terms. By finding a provider that gives you a more flexible contract, it benefits your company’s scalability.
Will your provider let you make adjustments to your service? Get a new phone number, configure softphone compatibility, and add IP access control lists? Or will you be stuck in the contract you already have?
Scalability
We sometimes need to scale up or down when our business’s needs changes. But you need to ask yourself if your SIP trunk provider is flexible with your scalability needs? How do they scale with your company?
Ask them how scaling affects pricing and how simple is it to add new connections to other offices if you begin doing business in other countries.
The geographical coverage area of your SIP trunk provider affects your scalability. A wide coverage area allows you to simply expand the VoIP infrastructure without a hassle. You will not have to negotiate with local carriers.
When choosing a provider, ask providers if they have the capability to manage outbound calls globally and offer a variety of numbers in other countries so you can receive inbound calls.
For instance, if your provider can offer you a variety of phone numbers, it allows a company in the United States to give UK customers a local number. This allows the customer to avoid having to make a long distance call.
Look for a SIP trunk provider that provides national, toll-free, local and mobile numbers to make it more convenient for clients to do business with you.
4. How Secure Is Your Network?
Companies are always concerned with security. The need for privacy protection increases by the week. This should extend to telephony communication network systems as well.
Ask the providers how they protect their network to strengthen security. Do they use IP authentication to keep out access to your SIP trunks?
Or do they use Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt their trunks? If not, you may want to look for a provider that uses these security enforcing technologies.
5. What Is Your Expertise?
With the growing popularity of SIP trunking, more providers pop out of the woodwork, but not all carry the same standard of expertise.
Before you sign the dotted line, have a dialogue with the provider and ask about their industry experience. This way, you can discover the depth of their insight and technical knowledge about what they are selling.
Do they understand the complex ecosystem that fuels SIP trunking?
Will they be able to help you during a complicated installation process and help you troubleshoot should the need arise? Or are they just a salesman anxious to get the sale?
The Takeaway on Hiring a SIP Trunk Provider?
Incorporate these questions into the conversation when hiring a SIP trunk provider.
Getting the answers to questions will enable you to get a provider with a system that’s reliable, scalable, flexible and convenient for your business and your clients.
SIP Trunk provides SIP trunking services for businesses of all sizes. Learn more about SIP trunking on our blog. Or contact us today to get started.