May 06, 2013

Allstream Expands SIP Trunking to Reach 10,000 More Businesses in Canada

By Rory Lidstone
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Canadian all-business communications provider Allstream recently expanded the scope of its SIP trunking service, allowing it to reach an additional 10,000 medium and large-sized enterprises in Canada. As such, more companies in a broader range of cities now no longer need separate voice and data networks.

"Customers can see costs savings of up to 40 per cent by converging voice and data," said Jim DeMerlis, vice president of Marketing at Allstream. "We look forward to bringing these cost savings, as well as productivity improvements associated with SIP Trunking, to more Canadian businesses."

Allstream also very recently introduced its Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), a hosted and fully managed unified communications and collaboration solution. Allstream HCS brings the Cisco Unified Communications (News - Alert) and Collaboration application suite to Canadian businesses through a cost-effective, hosted delivery model.

The company's SIP trunking, meanwhile, allows businesses to converge all voice traffic onto their trusted Internet line. By using a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) data network or the Internet to deliver voice services, Allstream's SIP trunking is able to offer a rich set of telephony features, while also offering enhanced collaboration and communication – including integrated voice, video, presence and mobility applications – through unified communications as a service (UCaaS).

Some of the primary advantages of SIP trunking include: cost savings by reducing monthly telecom costs without sacrificing essential features or call quality; reduced operating expenses by eliminating the need to manage and maintain separate voice and data networks; increased efficiencies in network management through converged network operations; greater flexibility from being able to increase or decrease SIP trunking bandwidth as needed; and increased geographical scope with local numbers.

Currently, Allstream boasts nearly 600,000 customer connections supported by its more than 30,000 km (18,640 mile) nationwide fiber optic network. Wholly owned by Manitoba Telecom Services, Allstream is a leader in IP communications and the only national communications provider to focus solely on businesses.

Edited by Alisen Downey