A recent report from the US has pointed to SIP trunking as one of the key factors behind impressive year on year growth in the market for new generation telecommunications equipment.
According to the report, from leading industry analysis firm, Exact Ventures, the hardware that facilitates SIP trunking – session border controllers – has shown a 55% growth in the first quarter of 2011 over the same period in 2010.
SIP (session initiation protocol) trunking allows firms to adapt their existing internal private exchanges to bypass conventional public telephone lines in order to receive voice and data communications via internet channels.
The advantages of being able to use internet-based telephone communications systems – usually referred to as internet protocol (IP) telephony – are extensive.
Not only can business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phone calls work out much cheaper than conventional telephone voice calls; but there is much more flexibility in adding and re-routing extensions; and in using the same extension regardless of geographical location, provided there is a reliable internet connection nearby.
IP telephony can also open up more doors for large and complex data communications and for video conferencing.
Installing full-blown IP telephony business phone systems however can be expensive. By using SIP trunking, however – often through a business VoIP provider or VoIP reseller – firms are able to exploit all the advantages of business VoIP and IP telephony without the need to replace their existing phone exchanges.
Exact Ventures’ principal analyst, Greg Collins, also points to potential future good news for those business either using or planning to use SIP trunking; his firm, he says, has identified significant fragmentation in the market for session border controllers. This, he argues, will end up ‘driving prices downward’ and may also lead to technological improvements as it will also ‘continue to fuel the research and development required to remain competitive’.
