This quickstart goes from a carrier account to a ringing phone, in the dashboard. It assumes you already have a published voice agent — if not, do the voice agent quickstart first, since a number cannot be assigned to a draft.
You bring a number you already own at a carrier. Talqing does not sell numbers. Buy or port the number at Plivo, Exotel, Vobiz or Twilio, then import it here. Your carrier keeps billing you for the minutes; Talqing charges its per-minute platform fee on top.

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Three things have to line up

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Do it

1

Open Phone Numbers

In the dashboard sidebar, Telephony → Phone Numbers. Click Import number (or Import your first number on an empty workspace). One modal walks the whole thing.
2

Pick your carrier

Four are supported: Plivo, Exotel, Vobiz and Twilio. Pick the one you already buy numbers from.
3

Connect the account

Give the account a name, then fill in the credentials the carrier asks for. Plivo, Vobiz and Twilio each want two fields — an Auth ID or Account SID, and an auth token. Exotel wants five: Account SID, API Key, API Token, account region and subdomain, plus three optional SIP edge fields that are already filled in correctly for an Indian account.Click Connect. Two things then happen in order, and you watch them tick off: Verifying credentials with your carrier, then Setting up call routing. The second one is what builds the SIP trunk. The credentials are stored as encrypted workspace secrets — the dashboard never reads them back.
Over the API this is two calls, not one: POST /v1/telephony/accounts leaves the account at connected, and POST /v1/telephony/accounts/{account_id}/provision is what takes it to ready. Nothing works until it says ready.
4

Select the numbers to import

Talqing reads the numbers this account owns live from the carrier, which is also the proof the credentials work. Numbers already in Talqing are shown checked, disabled and tagged Already imported.Tick the one you want and click Import. Each number reports its own result — read every one rather than trusting the modal’s success. The usual failures are not found on this {carrier} account (the DID is not in the carrier’s list) and already registered on this platform.
5

Assign a published voice agent

On the results screen, pick one under Answer calls with and click Assign. You can also do it later from the number’s row — the Answered by column is a dropdown listing every published voice agent, and choosing the blank option unassigns.Only a published agent appears there. Assigning a draft is refused with publish the agent before assigning a number, and a published version whose channel is not voice or video with only published voice agents can answer SIP.
6

Finish carrier-console setup, if your carrier needs it

Plivo, Twilio and Vobiz are fully API-driven — there is nothing to do in their consoles, and the number is live as soon as it is assigned.Exotel is the exception, because Exotel can only hand an incoming call to a Flow, never straight to a trunk. After provisioning, the carrier’s card on the Phone Numbers page grows an amber band headed “Incoming calls are blocked until you finish setup at the carrier”, with the four steps written out: create a custom app in Exotel’s App Bazaar, drop the Connect applet on Call Start, paste the sip: value the band gives you into Dial Whom → Dial phone number(s), and attach the Flow to your ExoPhones. It takes about two minutes, once per account.Then click I’ve done this. No API can verify carrier-console work, so that button is the confirmation.
Until you confirm it, inbound is off and outbound still works. The number provisions, dials out normally, and never rings. Its status reads Setup needed with the line “Outgoing calls work. Incoming calls need the Exotel setup finished.”, and assigning an agent is refused with this number cannot take incoming calls yet — finish the carrier setup first.
7

Check that readiness reads live

The number’s badge on the row is the honest answer to “does this work”. Live — green, with the line “Answering incoming calls.” — is the only value that means an inbound call will be answered. Anything else is covered in the table below.
8

Place a test call

On the number’s row, click the phone icon (Place a test call). Fill in To in E.164 format — +919876543210, with the country code and the leading + — pick the agent, and click Call. Then answer your phone.
This is a real, billable call. It rings the number you typed, it spends your own provider keys, and Talqing debits the platform fee for every minute of it. Dial your own phone, not a customer’s. If the workspace has no credit left it is refused with a 402 before anything is dialled.
9

Read the call back

The dialog turns into a View call link once the call is queued. That opens the call record: the transcript with every tool call and its output, the per-stage latency breakdown, the cost split into provider spend and platform fee, the recording, and the exact frozen agent version that ran. Inbound calls land in the same place — Monitor → Calls.

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When the number is not live

Two more that are not the number’s fault:
  • The carrier account is not ready. Creating it is not the same as provisioning it. Everything that touches a number then fails with this carrier account is not set up yet; finish its setup first. Use Finish setup on the carrier card.
  • The agent declares a required variable with no default. An inbound call carries no request of yours, so nothing can supply one. Assignment is refused, naming the variable: '<name>' is required and has no default, and an inbound call carries no request to supply it. Give the variable a default, or make it optional. See variables.

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Next

Phone numbers

Import, provision, assign, per-number settings and the full readiness vocabulary.

Carrier accounts

Every carrier’s credentials, the trunk, and the console steps in full.

Outbound calls

Placing one call from the API, with userdata and caller ID.

Telephony troubleshooting

No inbound audio, calls failing at setup, credentials expiring.