Broadband Trader

SIP Trunking

SIP trunking is priced on concurrent sessions, so the number that sets your bill is your busiest minute. Buyers coming off a PRI or a voice T1 almost always need fewer sessions than they had channels, and that gap is the easiest saving in voice.

Bidsnot one quote

Term & NRCwhere rates move

Directyou sign with the carrier

No feethe channel pays, not you

What moves the price

What actually sets your SIP trunking rate

Sessions, not spans

A PRI sold 23 channels as a block whether you used them or not. SIP scales one session at a time, so measure your actual peak concurrent calls and buy that. Headcount and monthly minutes are the wrong inputs.

The per-minute half

Long distance, toll free, and international are priced separately from the sessions. A low monthly with unexamined usage rates is not a low quote, and providers rarely lead with that half.

Porting is the risk

Moving numbers is routine and also where migrations go wrong. Get the porting process, the timeline, and who owns it written into the contract rather than agreed on a call.

Running the bid

Putting your SIP trunking out to bid

1Post the requirement once. Address, bandwidth, sites, and the date you need it live. That is enough for carriers to price.
2Carriers that reach you bid against each other. They know they are in a competitive bid, which is the single biggest reason a first number comes in lower.
3Compare the spread, then counter. Line the offers up on rate, term, install, and SLA. The gap between high and low bid is your negotiating room.

Reading the offers

Where the room usually is

✓ Levers worth pushing

Session count matched to real peak rather than legacy channel count, per-minute rates itemized, DID blocks folded into the monthly, and a short term. Because there is no physical span to build, providers have little reason to demand a long commitment.

● What a padded quote looks like

Sessions sized to the PRI you are replacing rather than to your traffic, usage rates absent from the comparison, DID charges in a schedule you were not shown, and no answer on E911 location handling.

Pricing questions

SIP Trunking pricing, straight answers

How many sessions do I actually need?

Your peak concurrent calls. Pull the data from your existing system rather than estimating, because most buyers replacing a PRI find their busiest minute sits well under 23 calls.

Is SIP cheaper than a PRI or voice T1?

For most buyers now, yes, because you pay for concurrency instead of a fixed span and can scale in single increments. Price both at renewal and let them compete rather than assuming either way.

Does SIP need a better internet circuit?

Often. Call quality depends on the connection underneath, so ask whether the provider expects committed bandwidth rather than best effort, and price that circuit as part of the deal.

What happens to my numbers?

They port. The process is standard and the timeline is the part worth pinning down in writing, along with what happens if a port date slips.

Run the numbers →