Bring your own carrier (BYOC)
Keep your carrier if you need to
Use phone.systems™ numbers, your existing carrier, or both. Call flows, apps and call history work the same either way.
Bring your own carrier (BYOC) in phone.systems™ lets a business keep its existing telecom carrier — instead of, or alongside, phone.systems™ numbers in 93 countries — while call flows, apps and call history work the same way.
Why businesses keep their carrier
Keep existing contracts and numbers
Continue with a carrier you already have an agreement with, and use the numbers you hold there without moving them.
- Existing rates and contracts
- Numbers stay where they are
- Port them later if you choose
Choose connectivity per market
Use the carrier that fits each country or site — for local requirements, existing infrastructure or call quality you already trust.
- A carrier per country or site
- Combine with numbers in 93 countries
- One account for every location
One phone system on top
Whatever the carrier, calls follow the same call flows, ring the same apps and appear in the same call history.
- Same call flows
- Same desktop and mobile apps
- Same call history and analytics
Three ways to connect
phone.systems™ numbers
Local, national, mobile, toll-free, shared cost and UIFN numbers in 93 countries, shown in the account automatically.
Your own carrier
Connect an existing carrier for incoming and outgoing calls, and add its numbers to your call flows.
Both together
Use phone.systems™ numbers in some countries and your own carrier in others, in the same account.
How a BYOC call reaches your team
A call on a number from your own carrier follows the same call flow as any other number.
- Step 1: Virtual number: Call arrives at your carrier
- Step 2: Carrier passes the call to phone.systems™
Through a dedicated inbound trunk.
- Step 3: Call flow runs
Time routers, voice menus, ring groups and queues apply as usual.
- Step 4: Team answers
In the phone.systems™ app, on a SIP device or via forwarding.
How BYOC connects technically
For the person setting up the carrier connection. Configured in the Trunks area of the admin.
Show technical setup
- Inbound trunks
- Each inbound trunk gets its own SIP domain, so your carrier can send incoming calls to phone.systems™. POSIX regular-expression rewrite rules adjust the caller name and destination number, and simpler CLI normalization rules tidy the source number.
- Termination gateways
- Outgoing calls are sent to your carrier's gateways.
- Prefix routes
- Termination routes choose the gateway by longest-prefix match on the dialled number.
- Caller ID rewrite rules
- Rewrite the caller ID on outgoing calls where your carrier requires a specific format.
- Third-party numbers
- Numbers from other providers are added in E.164 format and connected to call flows like any other number.
- Background reading
- What a SIP trunk is and how BYOC works in general.
What BYOC means
Bring your own carrier (BYOC) lets you choose where your phone connectivity comes from. You can use phone.systems™ numbers in 93 countries, connect your own SIP carrier, or use both in the same account. See the BYOC definition and what a SIP trunk is for background.
Numbers from your carrier are connected to a call flow exactly like any other number, ring in the phone.systems™ app or on SIP devices, and are logged in call history. If you later want to move numbers, number porting is free in 42 countries plus UIFN.
Where BYOC fits
BYOC fits companies that already have carrier contracts or numbers they want to keep, companies that need a specific carrier in certain countries, and businesses with several locations that use different carriers per site.
Frequently asked questions
What does bring your own carrier mean?
Bring your own carrier (BYOC) means connecting a phone carrier of your choice to a cloud phone system, so calls use that carrier's network and numbers while the phone system provides routing, apps and call history.
Can I use my own carrier and phone.systems™ numbers together?
Yes. You can use phone.systems™ numbers, your own carrier, or both in the same account.
How do I connect my carrier?
Add an inbound trunk in the Trunks area; each trunk gets its own SIP domain that your carrier sends calls to. For outgoing calls, add termination gateways and routes, with longest-prefix routing and caller ID rewrite rules.
Can I move my numbers to phone.systems™ instead?
Yes. Numbers can be ported free of charge in 42 countries plus UIFN. After porting, they appear in the account automatically.
Set up a phone system that fits how you work
Configure numbers, users and call routing in one place, and change them whenever your business changes.