Podcast Explores Growth of SIP Trunking and Mistakes to Avoid

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

SIP trunking has become one of the hottest technology platforms in telecommunications and in a recent podcast, Steve Johnson, Ingate Systems president, spoke with TMCnet’s Erik Linask (News – Alert) to discuss why this innovative platform is gaining speed, the pitfalls associated with deployment and so much more.

The podcast, “Getting the Most out of Your SIP Trunks,” first explored why SIP trunking is so hot and why so many businesses are adopting this platform. According to Johnson, it is now mainstream and has gone through all the testing that people generally want to do on something that will be on the network and handle voice communications. It is now real and people realize they can get some fantastic return on investments. The paybacks seen and reported by Ingate are on the order of 9-12 months in many cases.

Other productivity enhancement tools are also now available with SIP trunking, you can go into video on desktop, you can do presence and instant messaging to avoid the annoyance of back and forth voicemails. You can do collaboration with others in different locations, and more. The options are endless once SIP implementation is done, said Johnson.

When asked how SIP trunking deployments differ in the enterprise and the SMB, Johnson was quick to point out that they are fundamentally the same – you have to have a strong network, you need a good connection to the service provider, you need a PBX (News – Alert) that manages the call control features and phones, etc. Both the enterprise and the SMB must have these things in place. The real differences are where the components are and who is responsible for them.

Enterprises are very concerned with controlling their environment and managing the things that reside on their network – so they tend to own everything. SMBs, on the other hand, are kind of a mixed bag. For those SMBs larger in size, they are implementing SIP trunking themselves, and they may have someone on staff who can maintain the equipment.

In addition, a lot of providers are offering hosted solutions, and this is becoming more compelling with the growth of cloud computing as the provider will control and manage the solutions. It is essential that the SMB deploy an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E SBC) at the edge of the SMB network to deliver quality performance, while still offering the hosted platform.

Linask also asked Johnson about the biggest mistakes in SIP trunking deployments. Johnson noted that in every situation where you are doing something new – the most important thing to do is to properly plan for the deployment. Most of the problems that arise in SIP trunking deployments occur when proper planning is not done.

The biggest mistake is when people assume everything in their network is up to speed with SIP trunking solutions. The quality of the voice delivery has to be perfect and when you use a common network that unifies voice and data together, you have to test the voice quality.

At the same time, according to Johnson, the PBX has to be placed inside the network. Companies have to pay attention to security, and have to make sure malicious attacks are not easily done. They also have to prevent people from stealing services. Enterprises and SMBs also have to have interoperability between the system, the PBX and the service provider. He advises that companies should always buy an E SBC to place on the network.

Another trend in the SIP trunking space is that enterprises are leveraging multiple SIP trunking providers. Johnson shared that companies want to be sure there is always a path to make a call; always a backup, and it is important to have this backup. They also want to gain advantages in price to various locations. It can save the company a lot of money when terminating into a service provider’s area in a lower-priced country. A company may also want local DIDs in specific countries, and calls are routed back over the SIP trunking network.

Finally, Linask asked Johnson what would happen when the PSTN finally goes away. Johnson noted that he can’t really predict when it will go away, and doesn’t suspect it will be very soon. He did highlight that the networks we have today are very robust and the technologies in place that are sure to continue to evolve will make this a very seamless transition. Everyone will have a broadband connection and everyone will be using VoIP to communicate. There will be no problems communicating at that point, and communications will actually be enhanced.

To learn how to overcome the Pitfalls of SIP trunking deployments, check out this Ingate webinar: Successfully Deploying Enterprise SIP Trunking: Tools and Techniques for Overcoming Common Roadblocks, scheduled for Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 11:00am ET/ 8:00am PT.

Ingate will also be presenting a new seminar series Unified Communications: SIP Trunking, Voice, Video and More at ITEXPO (News –Alert) West 2011, September 13-15, 2011.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

For more information about SIP Trunking Services, Call Center Solutions, Outbound Termination, Inbound Toll Free Termination, Hosted Predictive Dialers, TDM, Data, Internet T1, E1, DS3, OCX, Ethernet contact an ECTtelecom specialist today at U.S. Toll Free 800-664-3071 or International 850-936-5887. For a no obligation quote CLICK HERE.