Glossary · Telephony & India rules
What does BYO telephony (BYOC) mean?
BYO telephony (BYOC)
BYO telephony, or bring your own carrier (BYOC), means the voice AI platform makes and takes calls on your phone numbers and your telecom account. You keep the numbers, the carrier contract and the carrier's bill, and the platform supplies the agent.
On a call
A clinic has printed one number on every prescription pad for years. With BYO telephony, the new AI receptionist answers that same number, and patients keep dialling the one they know.
AI agents from ₹1 a minute.¹
Explained
Here is how it works, in plain words.
There are two ways to get a voice agent onto the phone network. The platform can rent you its lines, or you can plug the agent into lines you already have. The second is BYO telephony.
People choose it for the number more than anything. A number customers already know, from a website, a delivery slip or years of calls, is hard to give up. Moving the agent onto it means callbacks and repeat callers land in the right place from day one.
The carrier side matters too. Some businesses already have negotiated rates, registered sender details and declared number ranges with their operator. Under TRAI’s rules those belong to the business, not to the AI vendor, so keeping them in one place is tidy.
The trade-offs are practical. You get two bills, one for the voice AI and one for the carrier. When a call fails, the cause could sit with either company, and you’ll be the one connecting them. Carriers also differ in what they pass through: caller ID, recording, audio formats and how they report an unanswered call.
Ask four questions before you commit. Which carriers or connection types does the platform support today? Does it cover both inbound and outbound on your numbers? What happens to calls if your carrier account runs out of balance? And who handles the TRAI duties, which stay with you either way?
If the answer to most of them is unclear, a rented number is the faster start. You can move to your own line later, once the agent has earned it.
In Frequency
This is what Frequency does about it.
You can connect your own Plivo account and import a voice number you already own, for calls in and out on Indian +91 numbers. Calls on your own line carry no Mirai telco charge, and your provider bills you for them directly. If you'd rather not run a carrier account, rent a dedicated number through us instead.