SIP Trunks for
K-12 Private Schools

Telecommunications cost can take a big bite out of the budget for private schools. While communications is a vital function of the organization, every extra dollar spent on your phone lines is doing nothing to help educate students. All of the time spent administering the phone system, analyzing complex phone bills, or negotiating carrier contracts is time that could be better spent on more fundamental activities.

That's why many private schools are making the move to SIP trunking for communications. These schools have been able to sharply cut costs and streamline system administration while at the same time providing even better service to the families that they serve. According to a report by MarketstandMarkets, the global SIP trunking services market will exceed $12 billion by 2023. There are many reasons why the approach is exploding.

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What is SIP Trunking

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking is a modern approach that replaces traditional physical telephone lines. It allows for a host of unified communications capabilities leveraging the existing high-speed internet connection. With a SIP trunk connected to an IP compatible phone system, school personnel can make calls to any phone number. The number of SIP channels determines how many concurrent phone calls can be made. A single SIP trunk can handle as many channels as you need.

The terms SIP and VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) are sometimes confused, but they are not the same thing. SIP is the technology that enables VoIP, but SIP channels can also handle high-definition video, making them ideal for remote conferencing.

The Benefits of SIP Trunking for Schools

There are a number of compelling reasons that SIP trunking is so popular in education.

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Costs Savings

SIP trunking lowers costs for schools in several ways. You can say goodbye to expensive physical telephone lines (PRI) that often come with expensive, long-term contracts. With most SIP service providers, long-distance calls to the lower 48 US states are included with the low monthly per channel fee. Private school finance administrators appreciate the predictability of this approach. PRI lines are sold in groups of 26, many schools don't need that many lines, so they end up paying more than is necessary. SIP can be sold one channel (equivalent to a line) at a time, so you aren't wasting money on unused lines.

These factors combined mean that many schools see telecommunications savings of as much as 50%.

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Increased Flexibility

With SIP trunking you can easily add or remove channels as your needs change. With the SIP.US service, you can make changes on demand and cancel any time. You don't have to predict your future communications needs.

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Streamlined Network Management

IT resources are scarce and expensive for most schools. The traditional approach to telecommunications requires two networks, one for the phones and one for the internet. SIP, on the other hand, allows you to use a single network for both purposes, reducing the strain on precious technical resources.

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Portable Direct Inward Dialing

With SIP, you can provision separate 10-digit phone numbers for different employees or rooms. This increases the flexibility of the call flow for your office or offices. But what's better is that you can move one number from one room to the next so teachers can get their calls from wherever they happen to be working. If you already have DID numbers or others that you'd like to keep, they can be ported to your new SIP trunks.

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Potential E-Rate Discounts

The FCC's E-Rate (Education Rate) program makes telecommunications and information services more affordable for schools and libraries. With funding from the Universal Service Fund, E-rate provides discounts for telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries.

In order to be eligible to receive E-Rate discounts, schools and libraries must meet certain eligibility criteria. In general, elementary schools, secondary schools, private schools, and religious schools are eligible to receive discounts, as long as they have an endowment less than $50 million and are not for profit. You can learn more and apply on the FCC's website.

Why SIP.US is the Perfect Fit for Schools

As you can see, there are a lot of advantages of SIP trunking for schools. Not all SIP trunking services are the same, so you will need to look at the features, fees, and support offered by every vendor you consider. SIP.US is an ideal fit for schools because we make it painless.

  • Simple and transparent pricing

    We want you to know what to expect when planning your budget, so we are upfront about every fee we might possibly charge.  We charge a low monthly fee for each SIP channel without setup fees. We also offer low rates for local and toll-free direct dial numbers. All of the cost details can be found right here.


  • Powerful, but user-friendly control panel

    Our administrative interface is intuitive and easy to use even for non-technical folks. This puts you in control allowing you to make moves adds and changes, as well as to review call data records to track the communications habits of your school. If you run into something that's more complicated, we are always available to help.

  • Works with most phone systems

    Our trunks can be used with almost any internet-enabled system, whether it is at the school or hosted by a third party. We also work with  the many free, open-source PBX systems on the market. If your phone system isn't internet ready (if it's less than 10 years old, it probably is), we still may be able to help.

  • Easy to scale

    With SIP.US you get and pay for exactly the number of SIP trunk channels you need at the moment. If you want to add more or cancel a some, you can do it on-demand anytime you like. There are no contracts.

  • Easy to try out

    Not sure that your internet network will support SIP or have other concerns about the service? You've come to the right place. We offer 60 minutes of free calling for you to try out our solution. It is easy to set up in just a few minutes, so there's nothing in your way from putting us through the test.

  • Easy to Trust

    SIP.US utilizes only Tier-1 upstream providers to route our SIP traffic. We do this to ensure that you get the highest quality voice experience and a redundant network for outstanding reliability and performance.


See Pricing


FAQs

At the same time schools are moving to SIP trunking, many are also moving off their physical PBX and moving to a hosted PBX solution. This moves the responsibility for managing the system into the hands of the vendor and frees up school IT resources. For schools that want to keep control over the physical PBX system, there are many low-cost and sometimes free, open-source alternatives available. SIP.US works with all of these options.

If you have an old PBX that is not internet-ready (also known as IP enabled), we may still be able to help by using a device called an ATA (analog telephony adapter).

Find out how your school can benefit from SIP trunking by getting your free trial today.

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Customer Feedback

Here is what our customers have to say about working with SIP.US.

Simple Interface.

We were able to get our systems up and running with SIP.US in a matter of minutes using the simple online interface.

Matt Harrison

Elevate Audio Visual

Low cost and good!

It’s easy to be low cost, but it’s a lot harder to be low cost AND good! In my opinion, SIP.US should be on anyone’s short list of primary providers.

Michael Dodds

Doddstech

All the tools I need.

The SIP.US Control Panel gives me all the tools I need to add, change and delete phone numbers. I can even order all the DIDs I need and set them up instantly. I love having access to these self-service tools, but I know the support team is also there if I need additional help.

Colin Cook

Thimble River

Up and running in minutes.

We are able to get our Switchvox systems up and running with SIP.US in a matter of minutes using the simple online interface.

Mike Crockett

BITS Technology

Quality support, low price.

I wasn’t sure how to configure my Asterisk system to work with SIP.US. The SIP team was able to remotely access my system and set it up for me. I didn’t expect that level of support for such a low price.

Greg Galvin

The Galvin Law Group

Fast and easy set-up.

I don’t have any experience with SIP trunking, but connecting my Asterisk PBX to SIP.US was fast and easy.

Eddy Pareja

Sangfroid Web Design

Excellent support.

The reason we moved most of our VOIP to you is because of your excellent support. We moved from another provider but your support makes the extra money well worth it.

Brian Marshman

CEO BMI SmartCloud