1. SIP is secure

You might think that ISDN and PSTN are the most secure options in an IP world, but this is not the case as phone hacking has become a real threat. Our traditional voice carriers in the Irish marketing are frequently failing to step up the standards and provide security checks and balances for their customers, and this causes problems where, even if an internal alert has been raised, customers are not alerted and shutdown of connectivity is still a manual operation.

At the other end of the spectrum, our independent VOIP voice carriers within the Irish market are so conscious and aware of security and customer safety that they have extremely complex security algorithms in place to ensure that any suspicious behaviour on your phone systems is identified and stopped. Whether it is suspicious number calls to a non standard destination, or a customer exceeding their allowed balance, the outbound voice service will be automatically suspended if there is a suspected issue, until the threat has been resolved. Your account can also be set up with a maximum call amount, which will trigger suspension if exceeded. This is vital as it prevents you from a potential liability situation, protecting your business against a financial impact as well as avoiding wasting time dealing with such a situation with the Gardai, your traditional voice carrier and, potentially, Comreg.

We know that voice hacking is on the increase, and it is vital to take steps to ensure your business is secured. SIP trunks and VOIP offer a great security solution, prioritising business continuity and peace of mind.

3. SIP is flexible.

SIP Trunking offers much more flexibility for a business user over a standard TDM business phone line like ISDN or PSTN. Every Irish SMB aspires to be mobile, quick to market, scalable and, of course, always contactable. SIP delivers on all of these crucial requirements. You’ll be assured of:

1.  Disaster recovery. In the event of a failure of service, including an act of nature, such as a snow storm, or for example a complete power outage caused by roadworks outside your property, you will be safe in the knowledge that an automatic failover is in place to route your calls to a destination of your choice, giving you business continuity and ensuring that you are always contactable by your key customers.
2. Geographic offering. Whether you are venturing into a new market or would like to present a different geographic number to some customers, either within Ireland or abroad, having a geographic number that is accessible to your target market is a key business tool to encourage your customers to call. This is easy to provide with SIP trunks, and new numbers can be assigned to you in seconds, enabling your business to quickly adapt to a potential opportunity in a new target territory.
3. Scalable. A quick turnaround in the provision of extra services is often extremely important to business owners, and SIP trunking is effective here. Instead of waiting for an engineer to call and provide a new ISDN line, additional IP channels can be deployed immediately. For seasonal business, where call traffic is high at certain times of the year, your requirement for extra phone calls may only apply during these busy periods. SIP trunking allows you to scale up and down as required, without requiring a call out from a carrier engineer to extend or remove services.
4. Resilience. Perhaps the most important consideration for customers, where voice mission is critical, is the possibility of creating a twin pronged approach to your telephone network providers. A business may require all inbound calls to come in over normal ISDN lines and route all outbound traffic out over SIP trunks, so that in the event of a failure or loss of service with one carrier, there will be a back-up option to provide essential continuity.