What is BYOC? 

Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) service configuration optimizes your business telephony infrastructure by leveraging the Zoho Voice features without having to port the numbers. You can use your business phone numbers by plugging in your existing carrier to Zoho Voice's cloud platform.

Configuring BYOC offers extensive interoperability and scalability by making certain tweaks to the processing path of your call traffic via SIP trunks. The BYOC solution enables subscribers of Zoho Voice services to define SIP trunks between the Zoho Voice cloud platform and your current carriers over the public Internet.

What are the prerequisites to use the BYOC solution?

For Zoho Voice to work with your current carrier, ensure your current carrier:

• Is SIP compliant

• Extends support for the TCP, UDP, or TLS trunk transport protocols. Only TCP, UDP, and TLS over IPv4 are supported. IPv6 is not supported.

• Possesses one or more publicly routable IP addresses or domain names

Who can benefit from configuring the BYOC? 

BYOC is a telecom strategy that helps organizations to draw the best of benefits from both their current telecom provider and Zoho Voice.

Organizational benefits of BYOC:

• Use Zoho Voice in countries where Zoho Voice does not offer phone numbers.

• An easy migration path into Zoho Voice while retaining their current phone numbers.

• Retain their current telecom providers all while availing Zoho Voice's IVR, Call queues and metrics, Power Dialer and other advanced cloud telephony features that enables them to program voice calls.

• Retain long-term contracts with their current carriers.

• Retain the consistent pricing benefits and loyalty discounts offered by their favorite carriers.

• An efficient replacement for number porting, as number porting tends to become exhausting, time-consuming, and expensive with certain telecom providers.

• Expand global reach by gaining single-point access to a global inventory of phone numbers from carriers across various countries through the Zoho Voice platform.

• Ensure compliance across multiple regions and have greater control over call routing and their offerings.

 How to setup BYOC in Zoho Voice ?

 Getting Started 

1. Configure and define SIP trunks and IP Access Control List for a new BYOC trunk.

Note: Only the super admin and admins can define these.

2. Each BYOC trunk defined is subject to further verification by Zoho Voice. Upon successful approval, the status of the trunk becomes active and enabled to transfer and receive calls.

3. Upon approval of BYOC trunk, add your existing numbers to the newly approved BYOC trunk. Zoho Voice will verify it via call OTP and approve the numbers.

4. Configure all the call settings for the numbers added under the Call Config page.

5. Send and receive calls from your existing carrier utilizing Zoho Voice.

Below are the detailed steps for creating and configuring a new BYOC trunk in Zoho Voice:

 Creating a BYOC Trunk

1. Navigate to the left menu bar and select Settings → BYOC.

2. On the BYOC page, click the + Add button to create a new BYOC trunk.

3. You'll be taken to the Add BYOC form, where you can add configurations for the new BYOC trunk and define how the calls are handled between Zoho Voice and your current carrier.

4. Add a suitable name under the Name field to identify the new BYOC trunk.

5. Mention the SIP Trunk and IP ACL details.

 Defining BYOC SIP trunks  

• Under SIP Trunks section, configure multiple publicly routable Fully Qualified Domain Names(FQDNs) or hostnames or IP addresses belonging to your current carrier, along with their associated priority levels, so that Zoho Voice can use them to send calls.

• SIP URI field: Add the list of publicly routable SIP domains or hostnames or IP addresses procured from your current carrier.

• Protocol field: Specify the appropriate trunk transport protocol supported by your current carrier for establishing connections.

 Note: Only UDP, TLS, and TCP over IPv4 are supported. IPv6 is not supported.

• Priority field: You can assign priority numbers from 1 to 10 to each of your current carrier's SIP domains. Zoho Voice routes the SIP traffic while handling calls based on priority levels, with the lowest number having the highest priority. If the trunk with the highest priority experiences an outage and becomes unavailable, the SIP traffic will be rerouted through the trunk with the next highest priority level.

• The Username and Password fields are optional,which lets you configure the credentials to connect to your SIP Trunks in case you need them.  

• You can add multiple entries by clicking the + button. Similarly, to delete the entry, click the X button.

 Defining IP ACL  

• Under the IP ACL section, define the IP addresses of your current carrier through which the inbound traffics are originated. Only the mentioned IPs are permitted access for inbound traffics. 

• IPv4 and Bitmask field: Add multiple public SIP signaling IP addresses provided by your existing carrier that enables Zoho Voice to verify and allow inbound SIP traffic.

• You can add multiple entries by clicking the + button. Similarly, to delete the entry, click the X button.

• Click Save to save the SIP trunks and IP ACL configurations for the new BYOC trunk. Once saved, you’ll be redirected to the BYOC homepage, where the newly created trunk will be listed along with its current status.

BYOC Status

• Config Approval Status displays the approval status from Zoho Voice. Available status - Pending, Approved, Rejected.

• Trunk PBX Status displays the deployment status of the approved configuration in the Zoho Voice PBX system. Available status - Active, Inactive.

Note: The Config Approval status of the newly saved BYOC trunk will be displayed as "Pending" and the Trunk PBX status will be "Inactive". This indicates that the trunk is under review by Zoho Voice for verification.

• You can edit the trunk configuration by clicking the Edit icon. To remove the submitted trunk, click the Delete icon.

Note: If you edit an already approved trunk (with Config Approval status: Verified and Trunk PBX status: Active), it will be re-submitted for verification by Zoho Voice.

Adding your BYOC numbers 

Upon successful approval, the status of the trunk becomes active and is enabled to send and receive calls.

1. In the BYOC page, click the approved BYOC trunk. You will view the Details and Numbers tabs.

2. Click the Details tab to review and edit the configurations.

3. Navigate to the Numbers tab to add your numbers (from your current carrier) into Zoho Voice.

Note: You can only add BYOC numbers and their configurations after the BYOC trunk configurations are successfully verified by Zoho Voice.

4. To add numbers, click the +Add button.
   

5. Add your numbers one by one under the Number field.

6. For each number, attach a valid document as proof of ownership.

Note: The valid document should be the number purchase invoice from your existing carrier.

7. To add more numbers, hover over the number field and click the + (plus) icon on the right.

8. Once all the required numbers and supported invoice documents are added, click Save.

9. Next, verify each number by clicking the Verify OTP button and entering the OTP received via call to the respective number.

 Each number added to your active BYOC trunk is subjected to further approval by Zoho Voice.

 Once approved, all inbound and outbound calls will be managed through Zoho Voice.

 To remove a number from your BYOC trunk, click the X button next to it and save your changes.

 Disclaimer: Upon removing the numbers, you'll no longer be able to make or receive calls through Zoho Voice for that number.

Note: A specific BYOC trunk can be associated with only one carrier. Create and configure multiple BYOC trunks within your organization, and connect each trunk to a variety of carriers all over the globe.

 Zoho Voice Trunk Details 

Below are the details that have to be configured at your carrier side as you do in Zoho Voice.

Zoho Voice's SIP Trunk URI:

Trunk URI to which calls have to be forwarded from your carrier side,

For US DC:

• sip.zohovoice.com:5060 - TCP/UDP

• sip.zohovoice.com:5061 - TLS

For EU DC:

• eu-sip.zohovoice.com:5060 - TCP/UDP

• eu-sip.zohovoice.com:5061 - TLS

 ZohoVoice's Call Origination IPs:

IP(s) to be allow-list at your carrier's side to get calls from Zoho Voice,

For US DC:

• 8.33.38.218

• 8.33.38.222

• 8.47.10.219

For EU DC:

• 139.162.137.101

• 139.162.165.201

Charges involved in the BYOC setup

BYOC trunk setup charges 

Call charges 

Billing for all the inbound and outbound calls will be in accordance with your current carrier processing the calls.

In addition to the call charges billed by your carrier, Zoho Voice will also charge 0.003 USD/min for each call you make or receive using the Zoho Voice after deducting from the free minutes.

For subscribers of both Business Phone and Enterprise Telephony edition plans: