What Is SIP Trunking and How Does it Work?: A Beginner’s Guide

The last 20 years have brought so many changes to the way we communicate. We no longer have to be tethered to a wall to have a conversation. We can call anyone at any time from just about anywhere.

Add to that video and text capabilities and you have a communications revolution. SIP trunking is a part of that revolution and has been for just over 10 years. In 2017, there were 30 million SIP trunks. In 2021, there will be 53 million.

What is SIP trunking and how does it work? Keep reading to learn the basics of SIP trunking.

Telecommunications Before SIP Trunking

If you want to understand what SIP trunking is and how it works, you need to know the basics of telecommunications.

Before the internet and cellular technology became the standard, there was the telephone. These were devices that plugged into a wall (remember those?).

The way that phone calls were made is that you’d pick up the phone and dial a number. You call would go through copper wires to the central office of the phone company. Your call would go through a Primary Rate Interface or PRI. Here is the top Minimalist phone guide.

The PRI would take your call from your phone system’s terminal and route it to the central office. Your call would bounce from one central office to the next central office until it got to the CO closest to the person you want to call.

Then that CO would route the call to the person’s terminal, which would then reach their phone. This is where a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) comes into play. The PBX contains all of the organization’s calling features, like call forwarding and voicemail.

What Is SIP Trunking and How Does It Work?

That background gives us the context of what SIP trunking is and how it works. SIP is the abbreviation for Session Initiation Protocol. SIP trunking virtually eliminates the need for the phone company’s PRI because SIP routes calls over the internet instead of the phone company’s networks and copper wires.

SIP trunks take any type of data from video, text messages, or voice data and routes it over the networks of the internet. This is much better than the limited amount of data that can be transferred through copper wires.

What’s even better about SIP trunking is that you can use a mobile phone, computer, or a Voice Over IP device to place your call. You also don’t have to be a huge business to benefit from SIP trunking.

If you’re the enterprising type, you can take full advantage of this technology by reselling SIP trunks. You don’t need to be a tech expert. You need to understand how companies can benefit from SIP trunking.

SIP Trunking Changes How We Do Business

Telecommunications has changed dramatically and it will continue to do so. One thing that won’t change is how we rely on the internet to communicate.

What is SIP trunking and how does it work? SIP trunking changes the way you have conversations. You can use SIP trunks for phone calls, video calls, and messaging. It’s a great solution that’s scalable and easy to work with.

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