There are plenty of options out there when it comes to session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, so businesses really have to distinguish themselves from the common pack to draw in customers, and to retain them. Net2Phone—the part of IDT Telecom (News - Alert) that handles business solutions—moved in that direction by offering unlimited calling to India, widening its net of services.

Thanks to the roster addition, Net2Phone now offers calling to not only the United States and Canada, but also to 21 different international destinations, allowing users to make contact with people in a wide swath of Europe and beyond. Mexico is part of the roster, as are a host of European nations including most of Scandinavia, as well as mainstays like the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

That's a hefty range of options, but it actually gets better. Reports note that Net2Phone has been certified interoperable with several different platforms, including Asterisk, Cisco, Avaya and Xorcom, while it also works with Panasonic, Siemens (News - Alert) and more. The system can support as many as 1,000 channels per service account, allowing for plenty of traffic in either direction, though more can be made available as needed. Hosted private branch exchange (PBX (News - Alert)) service starts at $19.99 a month, while SIP trunking service starts at $14.99 per channel per month.

Net2Phone's senior vice president, Jonah Fink, offered some comment around the move, saying “We understand how important international communications is to many businesses, and we are pleased to make it more affordable to call customers and suppliers in India and 20 other overseas destinations.”

Given how much business is being done worldwide these days, it's worth having options that can bridge the gap between countries, even continents, easily and effectively. Tools like Net2Phone can represent a great way to do that, but there are many such tools in the field. Thus, those companies looking to make the move to SIP trunking—or who have already made such a move—have plenty of choices, and that means companies need to keep offerings at the top of the game in order to succeed. Adding new features tends to do that nicely, but so does expanding the range of calling options, and bringing India into the slate was a smart move. China might have been better, but there was probably a lot of regulation on that front.

Net2Phone's new measure should give it some serious new market firepower, firepower it's going to need to fend off the rising tide of competitors. Only time will tell if adding India to the unlimited calling scope proves sufficient to keep Net2Phone ahead in the field, but it's a move worth trying.