I’m looking into signing u for a google phone number for business use, and one of the few differences between the $10 and $20 plans is that the $20 plan comes with an SIP link. I’ve tried to find an explanation of what this does, but everything I’m seeing is a little too complex for me. Any help is appreciated.
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SIP is a protocol for phones and phone systems to communicate, scaling fairly well from a single phone up to a whole phone company. Users can register with the service, and calls can be made in and out from the registered lines. You can use it to connect one phone, or an entire tech support call center.
For example, I have a desk phone that’s just like the kind you’d find in an office, with an on-screen menu and able to process lots of calls, make conference calls, etc. It uses SIP to connect to whatever service it connects with. Program it with the server, username, password, and now it’s joined into whatever office phone system that goes with the office. If my extension is 1234, there’s a good chance my username is 1234 and when I sign in my calls start coming to me now that I’m all registered up.
I don’t know enough about what Google Voice offers to make suggestions. Based on a quick search, it looks like the $10 tier requires you to use their software/app to make phone calls. SIP link support would allow you to provide your own hardware if it supports SIP, such as my desk phone. I could just program it with the settings and it becomes a seemingly ordinary telephone on that phone number. Or you can find software to provide more intelligence like call forwarding, selective blocking, etc by acting as a middle man when the SIP link goes into this software first, then the desk phone registers with the software as well. But that’s already the sort of thing you can get from google voice already, isn’t it? Is that worth it to you?
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