SIP Trunking Services: Cost, Bandwidth and Compliance
Copper phone lines in the US are being switched off on a carrier timetable. The FCC streamlined that process in March 2026. SIP trunking services are the standard replacement for PRI and analog lines. The decision now carries a date, set by the carrier rather than the buyer. Vendor guides on this topic rarely mention that timetable. Three questions decide the purchase: bandwidth, cost, and emergency calling. SIP trunking providers price the same service in two different ways. Bandwidth depends on codec and concurrency, which is simple arithmetic. Emergency calling is governed by federal rules with fixed compliance dates. Each is answered below with the numbers and statutes named. What Are SIP Trunking Services? SIP trunking services replace physical voice circuits with a connection over IP. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, defined in RFC 3261. The protocol sets up, modifies, and ends each call session. Voice audio itself travels separately over RTP. The trunk terminat...