Bring your number or get one through us

A voice agent is only useful if customers can actually reach it. That means a phone number, and a phone company behind that number.

Most companies already have both. Numbers printed on cards, on your website, on the back of every invoice you've ever sent. A provider you negotiated a rate with, and often a call center platform sitting on top of it. Nobody wants to unpick all that to try something new.

You don't have to. Aethex connects to what you already run, and where something is missing, we help you put it in place.

If you already have a phone provider

The most common case, and the simplest. Your provider connects to Aethex over a SIP trunk, the modern replacement for the physical phone lines that used to run into an office.

Your provider keeps delivering calls exactly as it does today. We pick them up and hand them to your agent. Your rates, your contract, and your numbers stay where they are.

Two ways to connect:

• Direct SIP trunk. Share your carrier's credentials with Aethex. Fastest to start.

• PBX forwarding. If you already run a PBX, forward calls from it to the Aethex SIP edge instead. Both methods can run concurrently while you compare, before dropping one.

If your PBX is Asterisk or FreeSWITCH, there's a third option: Aethex can control your box remotely over a WebSocket connection. Your DIDs, your SIP trunk, your PBX, with no call forwarding and no double-billing.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to port my numbers?

No. Your existing numbers stay with your carrier. Calls route to Aethex over your existing SIP trunk, and customers dial the same number they always did.

What if my carrier uses IP authentication instead of a username and password?

Both are supported. Provide either your carrier's source IPs for allowlisting, or credentials for digest authentication.

What if my carrier expects a national number format instead of full international format?

Aethex renders the number the way your carrier expects. Set the outbound dial format and it handles the rest.

Can I keep my existing caller ID?

Yes. Outbound calls can display your existing customer-facing number. This matters more than it sounds: customers are far less likely to pick up a number they don't recognize.

What if I already run a PBX?

Supported. You can register your SIP trunk carrier details directly with Aethex, bypassing the PBX, or register via the PBX as a SIP client. We recommend starting with direct registration and adding PBX routing later if you need it.

What concurrency can Aethex handle?

The ceiling is set by your SIP trunk channel capacity. Our infrastructure supports hundreds of simultaneous calls, so at very high volumes the constraint is your carrier's channel allocation rather than ours.

What ports and protocols do I need to open?

SIP signaling runs on port 5060 over UDP or TCP, and media on RTP or SRTP over UDP ports 10000 to 60000. SIP and RTP can't be proxied, so connect directly to the Aethex edge rather than through a CDN.

Can I enforce media encryption?

Yes. Set media encryption to require to enforce SRTP rather than merely offer it.

Do I need SIP trunking enabled on my account?

Yes, it's enabled per account.

If you don't have a provider yet

We'll help you get set up with a provider that suits how you operate, then connect it. In practice that takes days rather than a procurement cycle.

What we ask a provider for:

• SIP trunk credentials, or source IPs for allowlisting

• Numbers in full international format

• Whether they expect national or international format for outbound dialing

• Channel capacity aligned to your expected call volume

If you run call center software

Plenty of teams already have a contact center platform handling queues, routing, and agent desktops. That doesn't need to move.

Aethex sits alongside it. An agent can take a call end to end, absorb overflow at peak, cover out of hours, or handle routine calls before a person is needed. Your routing rules, reporting, and workforce tools carry on unchanged.

When a call needs a human, Aethex transfers it, with a pre-call summary read to the live agent before they pick up.

Why this matters

Most voice AI platforms only work if you buy a number from them, which quietly limits you to wherever that vendor holds inventory. Connecting your own provider removes the limit: if you have working phone service, you can have voice agents on it.

It also means adopting voice agents stops being a telephony migration. No porting numbers, no new contracts, no switchover date.

For developers

Connecting a trunk is a few API calls.

Register a trunk. Point your carrier at the Aethex SIP edge on port 5060:

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/sip-trunks \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme inbound",
    "type": "inbound",
    "numbers": ["+15551234567"],
    "allowed_addresses": ["198.51.100.10"]
  }'

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/sip-trunks \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme inbound",
    "type": "inbound",
    "numbers": ["+15551234567"],
    "allowed_addresses": ["198.51.100.10"]
  }'

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/sip-trunks \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme inbound",
    "type": "inbound",
    "numbers": ["+15551234567"],
    "allowed_addresses": ["198.51.100.10"]
  }'

List the numbers your carrier will deliver in numbers. Either allowlist the carrier's source IPs in allowed_addresses, or set auth_username and auth_password for digest authentication.

Or register a number directly if you're using a Twilio account rather than your own trunk:

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/phone-numbers \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "number": "+15551234567",
    "twilio_account_id": "'"$TWILIO_ACCOUNT_ID"'",
    "agent_id": "'"$AGENT_ID"'"
  }'

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/phone-numbers \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "number": "+15551234567",
    "twilio_account_id": "'"$TWILIO_ACCOUNT_ID"'",
    "agent_id": "'"$AGENT_ID"'"
  }'

curl -X POST https://api.aethexai.com/api/v1/phone-numbers \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AETHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "number": "+15551234567",
    "twilio_account_id": "'"$TWILIO_ACCOUNT_ID"'",
    "agent_id": "'"$AGENT_ID"'"
  }'

Then place calls with POST /calls/trigger, or POST /calls/batch for bulk outbound. You'll receive call.ended with the final transcript on your webhook when each call finishes.

Validate numbers in full international format before triggering calls. The platform enforces this, and the test call button stays greyed out until telephony is enabled on the account.

Full reference: SIP trunking, Phone numbers, Webhooks.

Getting started

Tell us what you have today, whether that's a carrier, a call center platform, or neither, and we'll map out the shortest route to a working agent on a number your customers recognize.

Book a demo with sales at: https://aethexai.com/book-demo