Bring your own carrier (BYOC)
Bring your own carrier to Dialpad
Keep your existing SIP carrier, phone numbers, and negotiated rates while your AI agents and contact center run on Dialpad's AI platform for customer experience. No number porting required.
What is bring your own carrier (BYOC)?
Bring your own carrier (BYOC) lets a business keep its existing voice carrier for phone service while running its calls through a cloud communications platform. With Dialpad BYOC, your SIP carrier connects directly to Dialpad through a SIP trunk, so your numbers and carrier relationship stay as they are while calling, call routing, and AI run on Dialpad.
Dialpad's own carrier network is the default and simplest way to run calling on Dialpad. You get one vendor for software and telephony, and with Dialpad as your carrier of record, text messaging, caller ID, and spam labeling work natively on your numbers. BYOC is there for deployments where keeping your carrier is the better fit, like existing carrier contracts, in-country carrier requirements, regional coverage needs, or a phased migration.
You may see "BYOC" used for other things, like Bring Your Own Cloud (infrastructure) or Bring Your Own Channel (messaging). Here, for the Dialpad platform, BYOC refers to bringing your own voice carrier and the related ways you can connect your existing telephony to Dialpad.
Types of BYOC connections
Customers bring their own SIP-enabled connections to Dialpad in a few different ways.
BYO-VA: Bring your own voice agent
Bring your own agentic AI voice agent and transfer calls between it and Dialpad over SIP, with context. Dialpad already has several out-of-the-box integrations with third-party agentic AI voice agents. Contact sales to see if yours is on that list.
BYO-C: Bring your own carrier
Connect your existing carrier to Dialpad for inbound and outbound calling.
BYO-GW: Bring your own gateway
Connect local digital or analog trunks (POTS, T1, E1, or J1) to Dialpad using an on-premise gateway. Dialpad also refers to this as an OPG (on-premise gateway) deployment.
BYO-PBX: Bring your own PBX
Similar to BYO-GW, but instead of connecting to a local phone line, your on-premise equipment connects to an on-premise PBX. This setup is less common and sometimes connects through a local SBC (physical or virtual) instead of a gateway.
Why companies bring their own carrier to Dialpad
Keep your numbers, contracts, and rates
Stay in the carrier agreements you already have and keep the per-minute pricing you negotiated. Your numbers stay with your carrier, so there's no porting process to schedule, and you can avoid the early termination fees that can come with ending a carrier contract ahead of schedule.
Choose the simplest path to in-country requirements
Dialpad's carrier network can help you meet many in-country and industry requirements. For some deployments, though, connecting a carrier you already use is simpler than setting up numbers on Dialpad country by country, which can involve steps like sharing identification documents. BYOC gives you that option when it's the better fit.
Extend your coverage
If your carrier has stronger coverage in certain regions, keep using it there. BYOC can help you reach geographies where your carrier's footprint complements Dialpad's native telephony.
Migrate at your own pace
Move to Dialpad in phases instead of through a disruptive rip-and-replace of your telephony. Keep critical lines on your carrier while offices, departments, or contact centers move over on your timeline.
Use your own carrier with Dialpad AI agents and contact center
If you're bringing AI agents or a contact center to Dialpad first, BYOC lets you assign the numbers on your existing carrier to Dialpad AI voice agents and call centers. You can start where the impact is clearest while your carrier relationship stays the same.
AI agents that answer on your existing numbers
Assign BYOC numbers to Dialpad Resolve, AI agents for voice and digital interactions, to resolve routine requests like scheduling, order status, and intake. When a conversation needs a person, Dialpad Resolve hands it off to a human agent with context.
Contact center queues on your carrier's numbers
Route BYOC numbers into call centers in Dialpad Support for contact centers, so your agents get Dialpad's calling, AI, and collaboration experience on calls that still run through your carrier.
Calling for the rest of your teams, when you're ready
Assign BYOC numbers to users in Dialpad Connect to bring other teams onto the same platform on your timeline.
Already using a third-party AI voice agent?
With BYO-VA, you can keep an AI voice agent from another provider and transfer calls between it and Dialpad through SIP-to-SIP transfer. Dialpad can pass contextual information in SIP signaling as calls move between systems, so context travels with the call instead of starting over at each handoff. Custom SIP headers are also supported, with additional scoping for your specific integration.
How Dialpad BYOC works
With BYO-C, your SIP carrier trunk connects directly to Dialpad.
Your SIP carrier keeps carrying your phone numbers and calls to and from the public phone network, just as it does today.
A Dialpad BYOC trunk connects your carrier to the Dialpad platform for inbound and outbound calling.
The Dialpad platform brings Dialpad's cloud calling, AI, and collaboration experience to the calls on your BYOC numbers.
Your targets in Dialpad receive the call. You assign each number on your BYOC trunk to a user, a call center, or an AI voice agent.
Your carrier carries the call, and the conversation runs on the same Dialpad platform as the rest of your business.
Manage your BYOC numbers your way
In the Dialpad portal
View and manage the phone numbers on your BYOC trunk, and assign each one to users, call centers, and other targets.
With the Dialpad API
Manage BYOC numbers programmatically and fold them into the provisioning workflows you already run. Both options are available to customers and partners.
Dialpad's carrier network vs. bring your own carrier vs. on-premise gateway
The right option depends on what sits on the other end of the connection and where you want your numbers to live.
Dialpad's carrier network | Bring your own carrier (BYO-C) | On-premise gateway (BYO-GW or BYO-PBX) | |
|---|---|---|---|
What connects to Dialpad | No third-party carrier | A SIP carrier trunk | On-premise equipment, like a legacy PBX or POTS, T1, or E1 lines, through a gateway device |
Where your numbers live | With Dialpad | With your carrier | With your local carrier or legacy system |
Managed equipment | None | Sometimes a virtual or physical SBC | Gateway device on site |
Often a fit when | You want one vendor for software and telephony | You want to keep carrier contracts, rates, or required carrier relationships | You're phasing out legacy telephony or need to keep specialized on-site equipment connected |
A quick way to decide: if a SIP carrier is on the other end, BYO-C is likely the fit. If it's on-premise or legacy telephony, an on-premise gateway is. And if you'd rather have Dialpad handle your telephony too, Dialpad's carrier network keeps everything with one vendor, and number porting brings your existing numbers with you.
What to plan for with BYOC
A few things work differently when Dialpad isn't your carrier of record. The Dialpad team walks through each one with you during setup.
Text messaging: SMS and MMS support on BYOC numbers depends on the number type and your carrier. Dialpad validates your messaging needs during setup and can enable hosted messaging where needed.
Caller ID and spam labeling: Caller ID reputation and spam labeling behave differently for BYOC numbers than for numbers provisioned through Dialpad, because your carrier remains the carrier of record.
Is BYOC right for your business?
BYOC can be a good fit if:
You have carrier contracts or negotiated rates you want to keep
You operate in multinational or regulated markets with carrier requirements
You want to connect AI voice agents to Dialpad through SIP-to-SIP transfer
You're migrating off legacy telephony in phases rather than all at once
If none of these apply, porting your numbers to Dialpad is the simpler path.
Your carrier connects to every part of the Dialpad platform
Keeping your carrier doesn't mean keeping your old phone system. Dialpad runs UCaaS, CCaaS, and AI agents on the same platform.
That means conversations on BYOC numbers live on the same platform as the rest of your customer conversations, helping you build a deeper understanding of your customers and turn interactions into operational insight. It's how Dialpad works as an AI platform for customer experience, whichever carrier carries the call.
Bring your carrier to Dialpad
Talk to sales about your current setup. We'll make sure BYOC is the best fit, then our deployment team will help you set up your BYOC trunk and verify it's working.