Choosing a Good SIP Trunk Provider for Your Business

Searching yourself for SIP trunk providers for your organization can be quite troublesome. The definition of SIP trunking varies from company to company – some have their own facilities where others will only have hardware where installation can be done on your own premises. Without any standardization when it is about VoIP phone systems will confuse the subject even more. So, how to search for the right SIP trunk provider for your business? Basically, you need to be armed yourself with the right questions when you are evaluating the SIP Trunking provider that you want to work with.Does the Provider have its own facilities?You will get some SIP trunk providers in the market having their own facilities, and others are just resellers of trunking services. Providers that have their own facility will have voice switching technology and session border controllers. They will also be designing their infrastructure with redundancies for minimizing downtime greatly due to any crisis or equipment failure. When you are dealing with a third-party reseller, you are actually dealing with a firm that does not have any control over the hardware and may result in poor voice service quality and you will be subjected to any price change of their provider. Check a few providers having local facilities if they are within your state or city which will provide you lower latency rate and much better performance when they are available at far-off places.RedundanciesWhen you are switching from the old telephone system on copper wires to services provided by these providers, make sure the provider you will be choosing has proper redundancies. If there is no power in your area, then the voice lines need to be operational, especially during any crisis. Your provider should be having a high-redundant IP network with fiber-optic network pathways into their facility so that there is no interruption of call routing. During a disaster, there should be offsite backups, secondary power sources, and secondary software. It is also necessary to have multiple servers for creating a load-balance as when hardware gets overloaded, the quality of voice services will get reduced and services can be disrupted temporarily. These providers must have an auto-routing facility, as when a SIP trunk fails, it can automatically be rerouted to operational equipment for minimizing service delay.E911 call routing feature and a pool of numbersFor your business, it is crucial to have direct inward dial (DID) numbers, and the SIP trunk providers must be providing a pool of numbers to you. You may ask if they can able to localize the phone numbers or provide numbers from different area codes from your business. Another necessary feature is e911 call routing, as it allows emergency response personnel to locate a caller from the registered location data of their line. The provider you are choosing must follow all FCC rules for 911 and e911 services.ReferencesJust like any other service provider, ask if they can able to provide some client lists so that you can inquire about their experience with a particular service provider.