# Lesson 17: Phone Numbers & Telephony

**URL:** <https://community.retellai.com/t/lesson-17-phone-numbers-telephony/2935>\
**Category:** Module 5: Deploy & Integrate\
**Created:** [May 31, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://community.retellai.com/t/lesson-17-phone-numbers-telephony/2935 "2026-05-31T01:52:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/uploads/retell1/original/2X/a/a06e2942efdc48016940732a05d1274957507ee3.png) [@system](https://community.retellai.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://community.retellai.com/t/lesson-17-phone-numbers-telephony/2935/1 "2026-05-31T01:52:43Z")

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## Phone Numbers & Telephony

### Getting a Phone Number

- **Buy from Retell** — purchase a number directly in the dashboard
- **Import your number** — bring numbers from Twilio, Vonage, or other providers
- **Custom Telephony (SIP)** — connect your own telephony infrastructure via SIP

### Number Types

- Local numbers (US, UK, CA, AU, and many more countries)
- Toll-free numbers
- International numbers

### Connecting to Agents

1. Go to Phone Numbers in the dashboard
2. Assign a number to an agent
3. Configure inbound/outbound settings
4. The agent is now live on that number

### Custom Telephony (SIP)

- For enterprises with existing phone systems
- Connect via SIP trunk
- Retell handles the AI, your system handles the telephony
- Lower latency possible with direct SIP integration

### Number Management

- View all numbers and their assigned agents
- Transfer numbers between agents
- Release numbers you no longer need
- Port numbers in/out of Retell