FreeSWITCH SIP Trunk – What are the Benefits?

Enterprise communication has changed quite a bit over the last decade. The way businesses communicate both internally and externally has evolved. And the technology supporting voice and multimedia communication has changed to keep up. Gone are the big rooms filled with boxes and cables. Now companies may have a small server or even nothing at all!

If your business is looking to upgrade, SIP trunks are one option you could choose. There was a time when only large organizations deploying on-premise SIP trunking systems. But in 2019 there are many open source and completely free software you can use instead. As a result, smaller organizations also opting for SIP trunks over hosted services.

What Do You Need for SIP Trunks?

There are several things you need to get SIP trunking to work within the organization. The most important components are:

• SIP trunking services from a reputed vendor
• An IP PBX that supports the SIP standard
• SIP endpoints a.k.a. phones to make and receive calls
• A robust and fast Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth
• Modern network equipment that is equipped to handle voice traffic

As you might guess, an IP PBX plays an important role in the entire set up. This software – or hardware appliance as the case may be – is crucial because it delivers the calling features you rely on. It is up to you to configure the PBX for voicemail, call routing, and others.

FreeSWITCH

There are dozens of IP PBX software you can purchase. There are also just as many free options if you don’t want to spend the money. FreeSWITCH is one such software, that’s a great alternative to Asterisk. In fact, a former Asterisk developer started the project to remedy certain weaknesses. FreeSWITCH is designed to be flexible, scalable, extensible, and extremely stable.

FreeSWITCH is especially remarkable when you consider how companies use it in different ways. It can run on anything from a Raspberry Pi to a powerful server. You can run the software on different platforms including Linux, Solaris, Mac OS, and even Windows. A business can use FreeSWITCH as a PBX system, a switch, as a softphone or even as an application server. The possibilities really are endless. With the right combination of modules, you can pretty much build the custom system your business needs.

The FreeSWITCH software stack can handle voice, text messaging, and video calls. It can interface between the PSTN and VoIP networks. It supports a multitude of VoIP protocols including WebRTC. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that you could even connect your PRI lines.

As with any other IP-PBX system, you should connect FreeSWITCH to your SIP trunks. There was a time when configuring and setting up SIP trunks required deep technical expertise. Today that is no longer the case. As you can see from this page, setting it up with GoTrunk is quick and easy. You could be up and running within a few hours!

Benefits of FreeSWITCH

Flexible

One of the biggest benefits of using FreeSWITCH is the flexibility it offers. You could use it is a library within your custom applications. Your IT team could run it as a service on Windows. Depending on what you use it for, you don’t need powerful hardware to run it either. This makes it suitable for even a small business to use.

Modular

FreeSWITCH is a modular system. What does this mean for you? It means you can easily add features by adding modules. You can even disable or enable these modules depending on your requirements. If you can’t find anything that fits your needs, write your own! You have a choice of several different programming languages to use. This is a powerful incentive for organizations to select FreeSWITCH over other software.

Open source

Another significant benefit is that the project is open source. That means you’re likely to find tons of documentation, forums and other forms of support online. At this point, the software is more than a decade old. It has been tried and tested by hundreds of businesses. Whatever problem you run into, it is likely that someone has already created a solution for it.

As an open source project, you don’t have to worry about being licensing fees as well. This is a boon for small and medium organizations. But that doesn’t mean large corporations shouldn’t use it. FreeSWITCH is powerful enough to support companies of any size.

These are not the only things that FreeSWITCH has going for it. But it should be enough to show that it is a good option for enterprises. After the initial setup, you can always customize and configure the system to your liking. As your company grows and your requirements change, you can be sure that FreeSWITCH can keep up.