What is a SIP Provider?

A SIP Provider is a telecommunications service company that uses the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to connect a business's phone system to the public telephone network over the internet. Their primary offering is known as SIP Trunking.

While the term is often used interchangeably with "VoIP Provider," there is a subtle but important distinction:

• VoIP (Voice over IP) is a broad term that describes the general technology of sending voice calls over a data network.
• SIP is the specific signaling protocol that manages these communication sessions.

The key advantage of SIP is that it is not limited to just voice. It is a powerful multimedia protocol designed to set up and control sessions that can include voice, video, instant messaging, and other data streams.

Therefore, a SIP Provider is essentially a modern-day phone company that replaces your traditional, physical phone lines (like ISDN or analog lines) with a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective virtual connection (a SIP trunk). Because SIP is the standard for today's unified communications platforms, partnering with a SIP Provider is the essential first step in enabling a feature-rich business communication solution that integrates voice, video, and collaboration tools.