Communication is the main pillar of any business that aims to grow and expand. So, if you are a business owner, you should consider having a SIP calling system. SIP is the modern alternative of the traditional phone system; it operates through the internet granting you better call quality, and saves you lots of money.
What is SIP Calling?
SIP calling, known as Session Initiation Protocol, is the process of modern office phone system that transfers voice and video calls over the internet. Sip calling processes take place through sip trunk, which is the virtual form of a phone line. Sip calling is meant to eliminate the hassle of the traditional office phone system with all its cons. This article will take you through a must-have modern solution for your business, and answer all your inquiries about it.
How Does a SIP Call Work?
There are many differences between the SIP calling system and the traditional phone system in terms of working processes that will make you choose SIP calling, get to know these differences below!
So, traditional systems consist of the following:
- The on-site system that handles all the calls as known as PBX or Private Branch Exchange
- The chain that transmits any call to its destination as known as PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network
- The lines that act as the middlemen connecting calls to PSTN as known as PRI or Primary Rate Interface
It has been decades since people started using this traditional system, and it does not cope now with the modern changes in the business world because this system is not flexible to use anywhere, costs lots of money especially when it comes to repair, and its call quality is not controllable.
On the other hand, SIP calling works as follows:
- It eliminates the usage of PRI lines
- SIP calling starts through SIP trunk that is virtually installed over the company’s internet connection
- SIP trunk then connects PBX to PSTN through the cloud
As a result, with SIP, you can:
- Make conference calls, video chatting, voicemail, and exchange documents
- Use any preferred device to make the calls
- Exchange multimedia files
- Have inbound and outbound calls regardless of the location
So, if you use different platforms to manage the above services and more, SIP is there to allow you manage them all through one system.
Benefits of SIP Calling
If you want to know why you should have SIP trunk as soon as possible, check the following benefits!
Expand without limits
Whether you are hiring more employees or willing to expand in new locations, you don’t have to buy more physical lines or change the phone system. SIP trunk will allow you to get your different locations interconnected through one phone system. Also, the unlimited channels of SIP trunk will keep your communication efficient and quickly regardless of the number of calls or employees.
Save costs drastically
As long as SIP calls rely on the internet to grant you a virtual connection, it saves costs in terms of eliminating:
- Getting charged per minute, but unlimited calls will be granted with SIP through a fixed monthly fee
- Subscription fees for various services, but all services through SIP will be in one system with a unified fee
- Extra charges of international calls, but all calls through SIP are dealt with as local calls
- High maintenance costs of traditional system that keep rising because it is becoming outdated
So, you will pay much less money when you have SIP trunk, and you will get ideal quality compared to traditional phone system represented in PRI.
Unified communications
SIP phone system allows you to synchronize all your communication channels. As a result, SIP system will:
- Grant you a unified virtual communication system
- Ease the communication among employees regardless of their number
- Let your team make voice or video calls, exchange files and send instant messages
- Make your employees become reachable wherever they are through their smartphones
- Allow employees to show their working hours through marking themselves as online or offline
- Transfer calls automatically to the available yet relevant employees Poor-quality is never an option
Poor-quality is never an option
While traditional landlines may fail you, SIP phone system will never do.
Some unexpected scenarios may cause the traditional phone system to go down. So, this may cause business disruption or revenue loss. On the other hand, SIP system has a built-in redundancy that extremely diminishes any chance of failure. However, if any outage happened, the SIP service provider reroutes the calls to other locations or mobile phones to provide you with the same quality. Thus, your business communications maintain their reliability and high-quality.
Easily absorbed system
SIP Phone system is characterized with:
- A simple interface that improves user experience
- Smooth steps that allow employees to master using it
- Easy maintenance procedures through the online control panel
SIP service provider is responsible of implementing it in your office, training your employees on using such a system and making sure that they all are mastering it well.
SIP Calling Requirements
SIP calling operates through a systematic internet process to start and end SIP calls as you wish. These are the technologies that are implemented within our SIP system to make connections happen.
SIP Addresses
SIP calling allows connections to happen from one location to the other, and in order for this to happen, there has to be a SIP address. SIP address functions as the destination to which messages and calls are directed to. You can link a SIP address to a certain individual or even a computer application, and proceed starting and receiving calls and messages. Further, during a SIP session, the system notifies you if someone joins or leaves the sessions. At the end of SIP calls, you can easily cut off the connection with the address.
SIP Codecs
In order for voice signals to be transmitted and sent through SIP phone system, there should be “codecs.” Codecs is an abbreviation for “coder decoder” that its main mission is to get the digital from of the analog voice signal so it becomes easier to transmit it. Codecs types are many but the most used types in the market are G.711 and G.729
The difference between them is that:
- G.711 provides a high quality of voice, but it requires much of bandwidth consumption in order to provide such quality
- G.729 diminishes the voice quality a bit, but it is a better option in areas where bandwidth is not available that much
SIP Protocols
Did you know what follows the encoding of the files we just talked about?
There are two protocols that get the mission done. If you could imagine that the internet is the things connects the sender and the receiver, you may be a bit wrong. There should a helper that takes what the sender wants to send and delivers it to the internet, and this is “RTP” or Real-Time Protocol so it mainly transfers things through the network. On the other hand, “RTCP” or Real-Time Transport Control Protocol is mainly responsible of maintaining the best quality of delivery of the things carried by the RTP.
SIP Phone System vs. Other Communication Systems
In order to settle on a decision, you need to go through the compare and contrast process. That is why ULTATEL brought to you this comparison between SIP and other well-known systems.
SIP vs. ISDN
ISDN Calling, known as Integrated Services Digital Network, is a phone system that provides more advantages compared to the traditional PSTN. So, it transmits voice and data over digital copper lines. In contrast with SIP trunk, ISDN grants only 64kbps rate when it comes to data transfer whereas SIP does not really have a limit as long as the connection allows the speed. Also, ISDN will make you pay for both voice and data on a separate basis because it has several service points. Moreover, ISDN will not help you scale up your business as SIP will do because it is limited to 23 branches per trunk.
SIP vs. VOIP
VOIP is known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, and SIP complements many of the services you can get from VOIP. In many cases, you should have SIP and VOIP in your premises. SIP facilitates VOIP calls to let the communication become faster and more efficient. If your communication does really require anything more than voice, VOIP will be enough. However, when it comes to multimedia communication, SIP is a must for VOIP to function.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is more to know about SIP calling, so you have a full background that helps you decide whether you need it or not. So, you will find the most asked questions by our clients answered below.
Can I make SIP calls on an iPhone/Android?
In order to make it easier for you and your staff, SIP allows you all to make calls through a device you have all the time whether it is iPhone or Android.
SIP calls on mobile phones will enable you to:
- Detach personal calls from business ones
- Get the calls even if your device has various numbers
- Have high performance calls even if the coverage is limited
Both iPhone and Android will allow you to receive SIP calls through very easy steps in the settings that your SIP provider who is ULTATEL will help you with.
Who uses SIP calling?
It doesn’t really matter whether you have a small business or an enterprise as long as you have a PBX system in your premises. We never deny that incorporating SIP phone systems in small businesses is much easier because the number of employees, branches and numbers are much less than those of enterprises. However, the more you postpone having a SIP system in your company, the more it will cost your company a lot later on. If you are still wondering why you should have a SIP system, look at the following reasons below!
- Makes users reachable easily
- Guarantees the best contact with clients worldwide
- Helps with managing time and collecting data a lot
- Enables working wherever there is a connection with the internet • Connects you with anyone, anywhere and at any circumstances
Conclusion
As David Chappelle once said “Modern problems require modern solutions,” which is the exact thing that SIP trunk offers to the world of communication. Businesses in our modern world pretty much depend on communication, and unfortunately, telecommunications have been showing a great incompetence in fulfilling corporations’ needs and wants over the past couple of years. The fact that basic telecommunication services fail to meet the expectations of the modern world, the need for an internet-based communication service started to become more and more pressing, and this is the gap that SIP trunk has been trying to fill. SIP calling’s main goal is to facilitate communication among members of small and even big and extended businesses through depending fully and solely on the internet. It makes communication and collaboration happen in our modern corporations in an effective, smooth and problems-free way, which provided a solution to the issues that aroused from depending on outdated and traditional telecommunication services. Alongside being a smarter and more effective alternative to our normal and long-used telecommunications, SIP calling is an option that saves money and resources while maintaining a stable and solid quality of calls, video conferences and meetings. So, if you are looking for a way to keep your business up to the ever changing and ever developing modern world, contact ULTATEL and enjoy an experience of futuristic communication that will one day spread all over the world!
