Connecting your SIP trunk

Twilio number or SIP trunk?

The Voice number connection has two tabs. Pick the one that matches where your number lives:

• A regular mobile or landline can't be connected by itself. To keep it, forward its calls to a connected line: in the line's settings, Answer calls has a Keep your current line: forward it to this number section with the codes. See Keep your current line.
• IcloneU doesn't sell numbers or lines. The number stays with your provider, who keeps billing it.
• One number, one place. A number can be connected once, in one IcloneU account, as a Twilio number or as a SIP line.
• Everything else works as on any line: the clone and its greeting, the answering modes, the limits, the countries your clone calls and what you see in Messages. The few differences are in the sections below. For a number in Twilio, see Connecting your phone number.

Step 1 — Ask your phone company or administrator

Before you start, ask whoever runs your phone line or phone system for these, and tell them you are connecting a SIP trunk to an outside voice service:

• The number in international format, with + and the country code, exactly as their system will send calls to it.
• Whether they can send the number's calls to an outside SIP address, signing in with a username and a password. IcloneU gives you both in Step 3. TLS (an encrypted connection) is best; TCP works too.
• Only if your clone should also make calls from this line: their trunk's address (a host name or an IP address, and the port if it isn't the usual one), the transport (TLS, TCP or UDP), and the username and password that calls into their trunk must sign in with.
• Only if your clone will hand calls to a person: whether their trunk accepts call transfers (SIP REFER).

Step 2 — Connect the line in IcloneU

1. Open Connections

   In IcloneU, open Connections from the left menu, click New connection and choose Voice number. On a plan without phone calls, the entry carries an UPGRADE pill, and choosing it shows Not included in your plan.

2. Switch to the SIP trunk tab

   The window opens on the Twilio number tab. Click SIP trunk.

3. Fill in the name and the number

   Name for this connection (optional): how the line shows in your list, for example Sales. Leave it empty and the number is used. Number, international format: with + and the country code, for example +52 55 1234 5678. Spaces and dashes are fine.

4. Add the outgoing part, if you want it

   If your clone should also make calls from this line (your automations' calls and the test call), tick This line also places calls (your trunk accepts calls from us) and fill in the four fields that appear. Your trunk address (host name or IP, without sip:): for example sip.your-provider.com, with : and the port after it if your trunk uses another one. Transport: TLS, TCP or UDP, as your provider says; TLS is selected to start. Trunk username (optional) and Trunk password (optional): if your trunk asks for them. Fill in both or neither: a password without a username isn't used. Leave the box unticked for a line that only answers calls; you can't add this part later without removing the line and connecting it again.

5. Connect

   Click Connect number. When it works, a message says your number is connected and the window shows three values for your phone system (next step). If something is wrong, a red message says what; see When connecting fails.

Step 3 — Point your phone system at IcloneU

The window now shows what to type into your phone company's or phone system's settings:

Copy them and close the window with Done, not with ×: Done shows the new line in your connections list, while × leaves it out until you reload the page. Give the three values to whoever runs your phone system; treat the password like any other password. You can see all three again at any time: select the line in your connections list, click Settings and look at the SIP trunk card. Use TLS when your system supports it. And make sure your system sends the calls for the number with + and the country code (00 and the country code also works): a call sent for the number written another way, for example without the country code, isn't matched to your line.

Step 4 — Turn answering on and call the line

1. Open the line's settings

   Select the line in your connections list and click Settings. Besides the usual cards, a SIP line has a SIP trunk card with the three values and, under Our calls go to, your trunk's address or This line does not place calls.

2. Check the clone

   In the Clone card, pick the clone that should answer. The line starts with your account's default clone.

3. Choose when to answer

   In Answer calls, choose Always or Only outside the clone's staffed hours, and click Save. What each choice does is in Answering phone calls.

4. Call the number

   Call your number from your own phone. Your clone should pick up.

If you change the line's clone later, the first call after the change still uses the previous clone's voice and language: the line switches over during that call, and the next one is right.

Calls your clone makes from this line

A SIP line makes calls only if you ticked This line also places calls (your trunk accepts calls from us) when you connected it. Then it works like any number: an automation's call step can pick it, the test call rings from it, and your clone calls numbers in Mexico (+52) and +1 numbers (the United States, Canada and the other North American Numbering Plan countries). The number a call goes out from must be of the contact's kind: a Mexican number for contacts in Mexico, a +1 number for contacts with +1 numbers. A line whose number is outside Mexico and the +1 countries can't place calls. See Calls your clone makes.

• Without the outgoing part, no call goes out from the line: the test call says The call was not placed: platform_unconfigured …, and an automation's call step goes on along Failed.
• The default for calls. Calls that don't pick a number go out from the line marked as the default or, while no line is marked, from your oldest line. Your first line becomes the default only if it makes calls, and a line you connect later is never marked by itself. So if your oldest line is a SIP line that doesn't make calls, open a line that does and tick Use this number for outgoing calls unless an automation picks another in its Outgoing calls card. That card lets you mark any line, so mark only one that makes calls. If you remove the default, the oldest remaining line takes over whatever it is, so check it afterwards.
• Adding the outgoing part later means removing the line and connecting it again; see Disconnecting a line.

Handing a call to a person

The number in Hand calls to a person at works on a SIP line too, with three differences:

• Your trunk makes the transfer. Your clone asks your phone system to put the call through to that number (a SIP REFER). If your provider or phone system doesn't accept transfers, the call can't be handed over; ask them to allow it.
• No spoken brief. On a Twilio number, the person who picks up first hears who is calling and why. On a SIP line the call simply rings through.
• During staffed hours your clone picks up first. With Only outside the clone's staffed hours, a call during staffed hours rings straight through on a Twilio number. On a SIP line your clone answers, says One moment, I will connect you with a person at the business. and hands the call over. If the hand-over fails, its instructions are to apologize and take a message. Because your clone picks up, that call is charged to your Messaging purse for the call's connected time and shows in Messages like an answered call, even when your purse is empty.

Test the line

• Calls coming in: with answering on, call the number from your own phone. Calls from your number in Hand calls to a person at don't count toward the per-caller daily limit, which makes it handy for testing.
• Calls going out: if the line makes calls, use the Test call card in the line's settings, as for any number; see Make a test call. It is charged like any other call.

When connecting fails

If IcloneU can't connect the line, a red message tells you why:

IcloneU doesn't test your trunk when you connect: a wrong trunk username or password shows up only when your clone makes a call.

When calls don't work

Who bills what

• Your phone company bills you for the line and for each call's minutes, at its own prices.
• IcloneU charges the call itself to your account's Messaging purse, for the connected minutes, the same as on any line. You find it under Account settings → Billing. If the purse can't cover a call, the call isn't placed or answered. A call your clone hands to a person during staffed hours is charged too, for the call's connected time, even when the purse is empty.
• The AI work around a call uses units. The written summary IcloneU makes after a call in which the person spoke, and any lookup your clone makes in its knowledge during a call, draw on your units, like a chat reply.
• The SIP trunk tab's own text says IcloneU charges the call in Units. The call itself is charged to your Messaging purse, as above; only the summary and any lookup use units.
• Your plan decides whether you can call at all. Phone calls come with the Expert and Enterprise plans. See Comparing plans.

Disconnecting a line

1. Remove it

   Select the line in your connections list and click Remove. A Remove Connection window opens. Its text says the number stays in your Twilio account; on a SIP line it stays with your phone company or phone system.

2. Confirm

   Click Remove in that window. IcloneU removes the line from its voice service, so calls sent to it no longer reach your clone.

Nothing changes at your phone company: the number stays yours and keeps being billed there, so stop sending its calls to IcloneU's address in your phone system. Automations that called from this line fall back to your default number. To use the line again, for example to add the outgoing part or change your trunk's address, connect it as new: IcloneU creates a new username and password, which you type into your phone system again, and the line starts with fresh settings, so set answering and the call settings again.

Frequently asked