Business grade VoIP & premium SIP trunks

 What is VoIP? How can VoIP benefit my company?  

Voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP for short, is a technology which allows voice to be transmitted over modern data networks instead of using traditional voice circuits. The worldwide move to VoIP provides numerous benefits such as; voice and data traffic can share the same infrastructure, delivery of voice traffic is generally more cost effective, integration of voice with computer applications is made possible.

Generally people’s knowledge of VoIP is through consumer products such as Skype, which enable long distance calling over the Internet at extremely low or no cost. However in business the use and benefits of VoIP are quite different, the main areas are;

1) VoIP phone systems (IP PBXs)

VoIP PBXs - are now basically computer applications delivering off the shelf functionality far beyond the traditional PBX. In addition to standard functions they include features such as call recording, conferencing and call centre functionality previously only found in high end specialist solutions. In additional new tools such as ‘Presence’ are now commonly available which can add significant value to businesses through enabling users to dynamically manage their calling.

VoIP phones can be either a item of hardware on the desktop, or a soft phone which is a program that runs on your PC, or both working in tandem. e.g. click a contact on your Outlook to dial, and pickup phone handset to talk. Key benefits are; the reduction of phone hardware and removal of the need for separate voice cabling. However offsetting this, VoIP handsets are more expensive and LANs must be designed to a higher standard to support the real-time nature of voice traffic.

With VoIP phones, the connection from the phone to the VoIP PBX within the office is via the office local area network (LAN). However connectivity is also possible from outside the office via the companies wide area network (WAN) and/or Internet. Key benefits are the ability to provide the same PBX functionality to both remote and mobile users, as those located in the office, and to enable seamless extension calling between these users.

2) VoIP phone lines (SIP trunks)

Business PBXs are traditionally connected to the phone network via either analogue (POTS) or digital (ISDN) phone lines. These are delivered on copper cables into your office and generally cost $40 - $45 per line (channel) per month. In addition, increasing the number of lines requires, in most cases, the connection of additional copper cables, which takes time and incurs install charges.

SIP trunking is the commonly used term for replacing the analogue or digital phones lines with voice channels delivered over a data circuit to your office. SIP channels cost $15 per channel per month in addition to the cost of the data circuit. So as to ensure quality and reliability, Digital Island only delivers SIP over premium data circuits, such as fibre optic. Premium data circuit costs vary depending on the site location, but as a rule of thumb for less than 8 channels the total per channel cost will be same as traditional phone lines, however for greater quantities of channels the per channel cost becomes less.

The key benefits of SIP trunking are; achieving cost efficiencies through delivering both the SIP trunks and Internet access over the same data circuit and, as SIP trunks are software based, changes such as increasing numbers of channels are quick and cost effective. for more information on SIP trunking scroll down the page to the SIP trunk section.

3) VoIP calling

VoIP calling enables businesses to reduce calling costs. Rates for local and national calling are reduced by around 30%, with International rates up to 50% less depending on the destination. Business VoIP calling is delivered over private IP networks, ensuring that the quality and reliability is the same if not better than traditional switched minutes. Therefore the call costs are much lower, but not free like Skype which is delivered over the public Internet.

The key benefit of VoIP for multisite companies is providing free extension to extension calling between staff located at branches across the city, country or even world.

Request a free site appraisal and quote by emailing our Internet Services Team.

 Consolidate your Communications

Future proof your business with a Premium Grade SIP Trunk from Digital Island. Eliminate the need to purchase expensive traditional phone lines, and benefit from efficient and cost effective voice and data communication, with no compromise on quality and service.

Our SIP trunking allows you to reduce infrastructure and get optimum use from your data bandwidth by combining both voice and data on a single data connection.

A Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Trunk is a direct connection from a client-side PBX to Digital Island’s telephone network. SIP Trunks carry multiple voice channels over a dedicated data connection using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), delivering voice traffic with the same call quality levels as traditional analogue and ISDN landlines.

Lower your communication costs

• DigiSIP offers access to competitive local, national, international and land to mobile calling rates.
• DigiSIP completely eliminates the need for ISDN or POTS phone lines.
• The cost savings from eliminating phones lines can often offset the cost of a premium data circuit, especially for smaller companies looking to upgrade from best-effort ADSL to a Premium Data product.
• For larger companies who are looking to reduce cost, a DigiSIP 30 voice channel service can often be delivered for half the cost of the traditional ISDN phone line.

Get high quality & reliability 

• DigiSIP trunks are only delivered over dedicated data circuits from our Premium Data product range, and voice calls remain high quality due to our Quality of Service (QoS) which ensures voice connections are not interrupted by data flow.
• DigiSIP trunks use the international G.711 standard for pulse code modulation, digitising analog voice signals to produce a high quality output at 64Kbps.
• Rather than routing through the public internet, DigiSIP routes voice data to the PSTN over private networks, guaranteeing end to end quality.
• Digital Island’s VoIP gateway is built from the ground up to deliver business grade reliability, which is significantly more reliable than the lower cost services designed to cater for the residential end of the market.
• Your existing data bandwidth can often be used to support voice traffic.
• SIP trunks are fully scalable allowing the addition of extra voice channels as your busines requirements change.
• For enterprises where voice communications are mission critical, DigiSIP can be used as either a primary or backup voice connection to their IP PBX.

Request a free site appraisal and quote by emailing our Internet Services Team.