What Are SIP Trunks and SIP Channels?
A SIP trunk is the connection between a phone system and the rest of the telephone network. For most on-premise and some hosted phone systems you will need to purchase a SIP Trunk connection for your phone system to work and make and receive phone calls.
You can have a number of concurrent calls that operate on one SIP trunk, these are often called SIP Channels or SIP lines. Depending on the number of concurrent calls you need will depend on the number of SIP Channels, SIP Trunks or SIP Lines you will need.
Detailed below are some examples Of SIP Channels and How Many You Might Need
Example 1
You might have had a phone system with 5 copper/analogue/PSTN lines.
This allowed your organisation to make and/or receive 5 calls at the same time.
On a modern phone system you would need to buy 5 SIP channels connected to your phone system. In Australia, we are accustomed to using the terminology ‘line rental’ as the service charge for voice services.
Example 2
Another example for voice services in Australia, is where businesses use ISDN services instead of PSTN services. You might have a business with 30 staff and an ISDN 10 service with an on-premise phone system (a phone system box (PBX) connected to handsets onsite). This may represent 30 staff, with 30 phone extensions (handsets and numbers), who use an on-premise phone system that allows the group to conduct up to 10 simultaneous calls with external parties, this phone system scenario would require you to purchase 10 SIP Channels.
Since the PSTN and ISDN voice networks are shutting down in Australia, due to the NBN rollout, all voice traffic will be carried via the internet ie. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), meaning that many businesses around Australia will need to change technologies.
How Is SIP Relevant For Your Organisation?
At a high level, all organisations need to make the change from analogue to VoIP solutions for their voice services.
Some businesses will have fully hosted phone systems where the handsets simply connect to the internet and the “phone system box” sits in a data centre, owned and managed by the service provider. (ie. all the smarts and call logic are not on your premises, and there is no PBX onsite to self-maintain or configure. In the majority of cases no SIP Trunks will be required for a hosted phone system.
Other businesses will have on premise phone systems (PABX/PBX) and connect to the voice provider via SIP connections. (ie. more hardware onsite with larger requirements for self-maintenance)
In both cases you will likely need a change or upgrade of your current system or handsets.
On top of purchasing SIP trunks, it is also important to note that the voice traffic will be run via internet connections, therefore a fast and reliable internet service is of utmost importance to maintain the quality of the voice calls.
What to expect moving forward?
Telco Broker can work with you to analyse your current telephony infrastructure, services and contractual agreements, we can work with you to understand your future requirements and then go to market to obtain competitive telephony or SIP proposals for your business. We can walk you through the process involved to buy sip trunks or buying sip channels and get access to the best sip trunk pricing possible for your business.
There exist many different sip providers, different sip pricing and contract structures in Australia which can sometimes be confusing to decipher. The team at Telco Broker can help make the procurement of SIP channels, SIP Lines and SIP Trunks easy, we can also assist with provisioning process. If you need a Telecommunications consultant or expert to help you with buying SIP you have come to the right place.
A working phone system is critical for any business big or small, ensuring that it works and is doing its job doesn’t have to be difficult. Telco Broker can help you select a phone system either fully hosted or on-premise, we can select the necessary SIP channels if necessary and assist with training and post sale support. Give us a call on 1300 978 073.
Our team have helped businesses all over Australia with their Telecommunications and SIP requirements, we have delivered telecom solutions in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia.
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