SIP Trunks: Your ultimate guide to your business internet phone service

SIP trunk might sound like an odd name, but this phone technology provides a great many benefits and opportunities for business communications.

IP telephony technology isn’t new, but products like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), the hosted PBX cloud phone system, and SIP trunks have become increasingly popular among Australian businesses.

The importance of IP telephony services was made even more evident when the COVID-19 global pandemic hit and businesses needed to scramble for alternative solutions to their traditional phone line.

So what are SIP trunks and how can they help your business?

What is a SIP trunk?

SIP trunking allows your business to send and receive local or long-distance phone calls over the internet without needing a traditional phone line. Instead, the technology converts a standard copper-driven phone line and transitions it to VoIP, delivered across a high-speed internet connection. 

SIP trunking uses an on-site PBX server to route incoming calls through virtual channels. A SIP trunk channel is a virtual version of a traditional phone line. Your business will need one SIP trunk channel for each simultaneous call.

As NBN continues the expansion of full fibre connections with high-speed Fibre to the Premises upgrades becoming available to millions of homes and businesses, SIP trunks will become an essential technology that ensures that businesses can continue their usual phone service.

Traditional phone vs hosted PBX – how do they compare for business?

The benefits of SIP trunks

Whether you’re running a call centre or help desk, use your phone system for inbound and outbound sales, or just need to improve business communication within your organisation, SIP trunking comes with a great many benefits.

Save money

Using SIP trunks will save your business money as it removes the traditional line rental fees for your phone system. And, by delivering calls through VoIP, the cost of the phone calls is substantially reduced.

Aussie Broadband offers a premium service that provides businesses with free local, national, and mobile calls for just $60/month (per channel, with a minimum of 2 channels). For many businesses who spend a lot of time on the phones, that can result in massive savings.

No disruptions to business activity

In most cases, installing a SIP trunk is not disruptive to your business because you can keep your existing phone system and phone numbers.

Some older PBX systems may not be compatible, however, most newer systems are. But even if your PBX phone system isn’t compatible, many of these can be converted via an 8-Port ATA Analogue to VoIP Adapter, which Aussie Broadband provides at a small monthly rental fee.

Enable a remote workforce

Another important benefit of SIP trunks is that it supports your remote workers. With a SIP trunk, you can set up automatic call forwarding so you can send calls to any phone system outside the office.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, many businesses who relied on traditional telephony services really struggled to transition to remote work. Even as businesses return to the office, most organisations won’t be in the office full time. This means that an IP phone system is critical for maintaining an efficient and effective hybrid or remote workforce.

Symmetrical internet

SIP trunks are one of the primary reasons why many organisations adopt symmetrical internet services from their ISPs.

Under a standard internet connection, speeds are asymmetrical – you can download data faster than you upload it. This is written up as two numbers, for example: 50/20, where “50” represents the download rate (50Mbps), and “20” represents the upload rate (20Mbps).

This is perfectly adequate for home and residential internet use because, in our home lives, we tend to consume more data, and have heavier demands on downloading data rather than uploading it. When we visit a webpage, watch a movie on Netflix, or download a video game, there’s very limited data that we’re uploading. When we email a funny attachment or share a cute video on Facebook, we’re uploading data, but the slower upload rates are fine for that.

However, businesses use their internet differently. This is most immediately evident when it comes to VoIP and a SIP trunk. 

When you’re on a phone call with a client, the data you’re downloading (i.e. what the other person is saying) is of no greater importance or priority than the data you’re uploading (i.e. what you’re saying into the phone). In these environments, having a lower upload rate can affect the quality of the overall phone call and connection.

Symmetrical internet speeds benefit the organisation in other ways, too, including:

Video conferencing

Even more than standard voice communication, you need fast and reliable upload speeds to make the exchange of video with customers, clients, or co-workers efficient.

Cloud services

Businesses are increasingly using cloud services for daily operations like storing and sharing files and documents, using a wide variety of cloud-based software and applications, and many others.

Again, upload speeds determine the quality of these experiences. Downloading a video is one thing. Being able to upload and edit it in real time really needs a symmetrical internet plan.

Multiple users

Just as internet download speeds are “split” when multiple users are on the same connection at the same time, so too are upload speeds. With a fast download rate on an asymmetrical internet connection, the splitting of download speeds tends to be less noticeable. Even high-quality Netflix has an upper limit on the download rate that it needs, and many residential internet plans can comfortably split three, four, or more ways and not hit that upper limit.

However, try and host four video conferences on the same connection and the slower upload speeds will not be able to handle it. So symmetrical speeds are much more useful for the typical business, where there are a lot of people using the internet to do their jobs at the same time.

IP telephony needs symmetrical speeds

Moving to a SIP trunk and running your business communication through VoIP provides significant competitive advantages. But to really leverage these advantages, it’s worth considering investing in symmetrical internet speeds of nbn Enterprise Ethernet for your organisation.

Find out more about our SIP trunking services and pricing for voice and data packages.