How SIP Trunking Improves Video Conferencing as COVID-19 Makes Remote Work Necessary

28 Mar 2020

COVID-19 has pushed companies to work remotely, forcing them to ask themselves, How do we stay connected when we have to work apart?

One answer is to get the help of SIP trunking. A SIP trunk is like a virtual phone line, enabling you to connect voice calls over the internet to anyone with a phone, anywhere in the world.

As employers change their remote work policies to rely on video conferencing and VoIP-enabled calling, they need to make sure their SIP trunking partner provides the best call quality possible, since call quality is a big factor in whether remote workers can successfully work with their peers and clients throughout the world.

A quality SIP trunking provider helps you offer your customers inbound and outbound landline or mobile calling options no matter where they’re working. Your provider should do this by acting as your liaison to public telecommunications services and allowing you to do two key things:

Provision global dial-in phone numbers — Call participants should be able to join a conference by dialing a phone number specific to their region, no matter where the other members of the call are located.
Support dial out to any PSTN number — Call participants should be able to dial any public switched telephone network (PSTN) number and add the recipient of that call to a conference.

In the coming months, employees and companies will rely more and more on remote workers to get things done. Make sure that your company is ready to meet the demand and exceed expectations with the help of a SIP trunking provider that offers high call quality at a reasonable cost.

When to look for a new SIP trunking provider

Today’s video conferencing market gets increasingly competitive every day. Teams are more dispersed than ever, and organizations are looking for a product that allows them to easily and affordably connect with their employees and clients.

If your current SIP trunking service doesn’t match up to the quality of the rest of your product, it’s time for a switch.

There are three main reasons video conferencing service companies decide to switch SIP trunking providers:

They want better call quality. The switch to a new SIP trunking provider who uses quality-based routing (QBR) instead of least-cost routing (LCR) gives companies and their customers better call quality than a company’s existing provider. It’s easy to fall for the low price point of carriers who offer LCR, but that cost savings can come at the expense of call quality, customer support, reliable coverage, and other key features.
They plan to support inbound and outbound calling in new areas. A global SIP trunking provider extends inbound and outbound calling services to nearly anywhere in the world.
They need more support than their existing provider offers. A new SIP trunking provider gives companies the technical and strategic support they need to provide excellent service to customers.

You need top-notch support, sound quality, geographic coverage, and flexibility. The right SIP trunking provider will work with you to ensure you — and your customers — have the connections you need to succeed.

What makes an ideal SIP trunking provider

Make sure your SIP trunking provider offers exactly what you need and doesn’t make you pay for what you don’t. Consider eight key factors:

1. Call quality

Customers care most about the quality of their calls. Your SIP trunking provider should provide access to local numbers via Tier 1 carrier networks. Your provider’s connections should also use the G.711 codec to support the landline-like quality customers demand.

To ensure the highest possible call quality, Plivo’s Zentrunk SIP trunking service terminates calls through one-hop local carriers for a low post-dial delay (PDD) to minimize the time between when customers dial conference numbers and when they’re connected. We use intelligent QBR to ensure no calls are dropped and audio isn’t delayed.

2. Global reach

Look for a SIP trunking provider that has connections with carriers in the regions where you operate. Though you may only require narrow geographic coverage now, partnering with a provider that offers restricted coverage will make it more difficult to scale as your business expands.

Your SIP trunking provider should have at least three carrier connections in major areas and support local, national, and toll-free numbers. Zentrunk offers outbound call service to nearly every country in the world, and inbound call service with phone numbers in more than 70 countries and counting.

Additionally, we offer points of presence (PoP) in seven locations across five continents to ensure low latency. When you partner with Zentrunk, your service also includes caller line identity (CLI, a.k.a. caller ID) support to customize the appearance of incoming calls.

3. Service reliability

Even the most robust carrier networks fail at times, so your provider must have multiple carrier connections and redundant infrastructure.

To ensure high availability, Zentrunk serves video conferencing providers by working with at least three local carriers in all major regions to offer SIP trunking services and 99.95% uptime.

4. Flexible pricing

Pay-as-you-go pricing and low upfront setup costs allow you to change phone numbers, adjust services, and add volume and IP access control lists without inflating costs.

Zentrunk’s outbound calling starts at $.0065 per minute and inbound calling at $.0025 per minute. Additionally, quality SIP trunking providers like Zentrunk offer volume discounts that make it quick and cost-effective to scale.

5. Interoperability

Adding SIP trunking shouldn’t take an army of engineers and hours of troubleshooting.

Ensure your provider’s services work with your existing VoIP infrastructure. Companies that partner with Zentrunk enjoy interoperability with standard soft switches and IP PBXs, so you can seamlessly and immediately integrate PSTN connectivity without having to do a costly, time-consuming infrastructure overhaul.

6. Instant provisioning

The needs of your company will evolve over time, and you need a SIP trunking provider that can grow and change with you. Instant provisioning of phone numbers ensures unlimited global scalability and the fastest setup possible.

With Zentrunk, you can immediately scale to more than 70 countries by instantly provisioning direct inward dialing (DID) phone numbers from our inventory of more than 5 million numbers.

7. Responsive support

Your SIP trunking integration should be simple to implement and maintain. But in the event something does go wrong, you need to have adequate support from your provider.

Zentrunk offers customers 24/7 customer support to make integration easy, even if you’re layering our SIP trunking solution onto your existing PBX system. We’re there to answer your questions, support your business objectives, and ensure you get the most out of our services.

8. Infrastructure security

Your SIP trunking technology upgrade should make your IT landscape and customer service offerings more sophisticated, not more complex. You should be able to easily segment and manage traffic using separate trunks with unique SIP domains.

As a global, modern SIP trunking provider, Zentrunk offers a robust set of features, including:

Encrypted trunks with Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP).
Fraud protection and alerts to automatically detect and notify you of fraudulent activity.
A self-service portal to enable quick access and management of analytics, logs, and SIP trunks.
IP authentication so you can securely access your SIP trunks using IP or credentials.
Separated trunks to allow you to easily segment and manage each trunk with a unique SIP domain.

You’ve built your reputation on offering quality video conferencing services. Make sure your new SIP trunking provider measures up to your — and your customers’ — standards.

How Zentrunk helps you support customers when they need you

With Zentrunk, you have access to more than 1,600 carrier networks across the world and connectivity in more than 150 countries. Plus, our SLA-guaranteed uptimes of 99.95% help you avoid costly service issues.

If you’re looking to quickly add capabilities to your video conferencing services without causing a surge in costs, sign up for free and start testing Zentrunk or connect with an expert for a free consultation.