Over the next decade, enterprises that still rely upon legacy PSTN infrastructure will need to migrate to an all-IP SIP trunking architecture. And rather than waiting until the incumbent turns the lights off on ISDN, many companies are choosing to make the move now – for good reasons. Among them are Orange customers who are already benefiting from significant telephony cost savings by adopting SIP.
More than 60 per cent of all Orange new voice orders are now for SIP trunking with Local Voice Services (Full Unplug) well ahead of the incumbents’ migration dates. Additionally, over 40 per cent of Orange voice customers have started to move their voice services to fully-unplugged SIP trunking, which completely severs ties with the incumbent by including services such as emergency calling and non-geographic numbers. In fact, 90 per cent of new Orange customers are requesting the full-unplug from now, where available.
The big switch off
Deutsche Telekom has been leading the conversion to all-IP networks, having committed to moving all its entities across Europe to an IP network. Its goal is to have all customers across Europe moved to IP by the end of 2018. Swisscom in Switzerland is also looking at 2018, alongside Romania and Greece. Telstra in Australia has targeted 2021 with BT looking to move all its customers off legacy networks by 2025. In the US, AT&T has been collaborating with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to drive the transition in the US.
With the big switch off underway, market research company IHS forecasts strong growth for SIP trunking, with the market on track to hit $8 billion by 2018. SIP trunking grew 35 percent in the first half of 2015 over the same period a year earlier.
Why wait for the incumbent to turn ISDN off?
The transition to SIP trunking is being accelerated by unified communications, cost savings and greater efficiency. It is therefore important that enterprises get ahead of the SIP trunking curve and make the right decisions both in terms of technology and their Unified Communications (UC) strategies.
But adopting SIP trunking in fragmented way across multiple different geographies in line with the incumbents’ schedule, does not allow enterprises to benefit from all the advantages of SIP trunking. UC is driven centrally, thus the addition of enterprise voice and conferencing services should be central to the strategy to obtain maximum benefits and quality. By taking the plunge now they can take a strategic approach to SIP trunking across all locations - achieving up to 60% overall usage savings for off-net calls worldwide, for example.
The benefits shine through
SIP trunking offers cost savings, efficiencies, flexibility and scalability over traditional ISDN. In addition, SIP trunking is key to enabling UC applications, such as transferring a call from a mobile phone to a notebook computer-based software phone. SIP provides a solid foundation for both UC applications and UC features.
SIP trunking also enhances reliability and disaster recovery. SIP trunks are much more flexible than traditional fixed circuits such as TI and PR1 lines, which means SIP lines can be programmed according to circumstances, such as rolling lines over to a back-up site if an office is closed for example.
When it comes to the benefits SIP speaks for itself. Enterprises driving their traffic on-net will see a tremendous return on investment in implementing SIP trunking. So why wait until the lights are about to go out on ISDN?
To find out more on how Orange can help you to move to SIP, sign up for our ‘Bye ISDN Hello SIP Webinar now.
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Jean-Sébastien is Business Developer for Unified Communications Services within Orange Business focusing on transversal, indirect and complex deals. Since 15 years, in the telecom industry, Jean-Sébastien has been worked in various roles such as mobile and broadband network rollout, service and product management.