Picking a SIP provider

A SIP provider (sometimes called a “SIP trunk provider” or “ITSP”) is the company that hands out phone numbers and routes calls between your softphone and the rest of the phone network. WaveKat Voice connects to one or more of these — it doesn’t replace the provider, it just gives you a desktop app to use the account.

If you don’t have a provider yet, this page is what to look for. If you do and it isn’t in WaveKat Voice’s dropdown, this page explains the fields you’ll need to fill in yourself.

What to look for in a provider

Most home and small-office users pick on three things:

• Coverage. Does the provider serve your country, give out numbers in the area codes you want, and let you call the places you call most? Domestic-only providers (e.g. 2talk in NZ) are usually cheapest if you’re staying local; global providers (Twilio, Telnyx) cost more per minute but let you mix and match regions.
• Pricing model. Pay-as-you-go (per-minute) vs. flat-rate subscriptions. Per-minute is cheaper for light use; flat-rate beats it past a few hundred minutes a month.
• SIP friendliness. Some providers are SIP-native and hand out registrar / username / password the moment you sign up. Others (carriers selling consumer “VoIP” plans) lock SIP behind a support ticket or don’t expose it at all. WaveKat Voice needs SIP — pick a provider that advertises “SIP trunking” or “BYO device” support.

Providers we have ready-to-go presets for

The dropdown in WaveKat Voice’s new-account form pre-fills the technical details for these. Pick the one matching your account:

• 2talk — NZ / AU
• OnSIP — US
• Plivo — Global
• Telnyx — Global
• Twilio — Global

These are SIP providers we’ve validated against WaveKat Voice; the list is not a recommendation or an endorsement. Your own provider may be a better fit for your use case.

Using a provider that isn’t in the dropdown

Pick Enter details manually at the right of the Provider field. You’ll need four things from your provider:

The Advanced section of the form covers the long tail of fields most providers don’t need:

• Login name — only if your provider uses a different login name than your username. Most providers don’t.
• Server — only if your provider gave you a separate registrar address from the domain. Most providers use the same value for both.
• Port — almost always 5060.
• Connection — UDP by default, which is what most providers want. Use TCP only if your provider explicitly asks for it (some providers force TCP for accounts behind strict NATs).
• Refresh sign-in (seconds) — how often the app re-registers with your provider. 60 (one minute) is the default and works for most providers. Some providers want longer values (e.g. 600 for 2talk); the per-provider guides call out the right number.
• Keep-alive (seconds) — leave blank unless your provider tells you a value.

Common failure modes

• “Password rejected” (HTTP 401): double-check the password — providers usually have a separate “SIP password” distinct from your account login. Some providers also use a different “login name” (auth username) than the SIP username; check the Advanced section.
• “Couldn’t reach your provider’s server”: the domain you typed didn’t resolve, or your provider’s registrar is down. Check the domain spelling first — twilio.com and sip.twilio.com are different hosts, for example.
• No incoming calls but outgoing works: your provider isn’t routing inbound calls to this registration. Some providers require explicit DID-to-trunk mapping in their dashboard; check your provider’s docs.

If a provider you’d like to see added isn’t in the list, drop us a line at hello@wavekat.com.