IHS Markit: CenturyLink ranked first in North America for SIP trunking

CenturyLink is the market leader for session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking with the largest installed base of all North American providers, according to IHS Markit.

It's the fourth year in a row that CenturyLink has led the SIP trunking market thanks to solid growth and the largest installed base of trunks, according to research by IHS Markit. IHS Markit called out CenturyLink's extensive work over the past two years of combining its assets with Level 3, which it bought in 2017 for $34 billion, to build a market-leading service portfolio and customer base.

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Twilio, which has been a distruptor in the SIP trunking market, came in second place for the first time on IHS Markit's 2019 SIP trunking North America scorecard.

"Twilio has been a market disruptor with its Elastic SIP Trunking service, which has grown to attain a sizeable installed base," according to IHS Markit. "The strong growth of Twilio’s Elastic SIP Trunking service reflects the widespread appeal of flexible consumption-based pricing.

"Just a few years ago, there was little differentiation in the SIP trunking market. Fast forward to today, and there is a stark difference between traditional trunking services and the new on-demand trunks. Traditional trunking remains grounded in the old world of contracting for voice networking. In contrast, with on-demand trunks, customers simply pay for what they use and never need."

Verizon and AT&T rounded out the top-four service providers on IHS Markit's SIP scorecard. The criteria used for the scorecard included market share, financial strength, market share momentum, service development and support options.