Pakistan: SIP providers and connecting a number to the PBX

This page continues the general guide to connecting a provider's number to the PBX, which covers everything that is the same in any country — the two trunk modes, what to ask the operator, what to enter in the form, network and compatibility and the connectivity check. Here we cover what is specific to Pakistan: who issues a number with a trunk, why the first question to an operator is not about the host but about the IP white list, and what paperwork you will be asked for.

The data was collected on 10 September 2026 from operator websites, regulator (PTA) documents and the ITU bulletin; links are in the "Sources" section.

In brief#

• A dedicated PBX is created for Pakistani locations — Pakistan is not on the list of countries where the server cannot be raised. But the technical side is secondary here: the regulatory question comes first.
• ⚠️⚠️ Voice over IP in Pakistan only passes from addresses on the PTA white list. The White Listing of IP Addresses Regulations, 2019 are in force: the address is entered into the international traffic monitoring system, and the application is filed not by the venue but by a licensee (an operator holding an LDI or LL licence). The package includes a justification, a letter on company letterhead, an undertaking on stamp paper and PKR 500 per address; call centres also need a valid PSEB certificate. Our PBX address is foreign (cloud) and must get onto that list too.
• ⚠️ No Pakistani operator publishes trunk parameters. Neither PTCL, nor Nayatel, nor Wateen, nor Multinet, nor Jazz give a server address, a port or a codec list — everything is issued in the contract or by the engineer during provisioning. That is why the tables below say where to take each value from instead of quoting ready-made ones.
• Where to start: PTCL — if you need landline numbers, a 111 UAN or 0800 in any city; Nayatel — in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where the trunk is a standalone product with a channel calculator; Wateen or Multinet — for chains that want a single UAN across all sites; Vision Telecom and IP Phone Pakistan — when you need a local integrator willing to handle a non-standard setup.
• A number "right now" and without a Pakistani legal entity is only possible through international aggregators (DIDHub, DIDWW, Telnyx), and it is expensive: a local number at Telnyx starts at $42.50 per month, and KYC plus allocation takes 10–15 business days.
• ⚠️ Call recording requires consent from all parties. In March 2026 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that secretly recording a private conversation is unlawful; a spoken recording notice at the start of the call is mandatory, and a guest's refusal must actually switch recording off.

Numbers in the country#

• Country code +92, national (trunk) prefix 0. International calls are dialled with 00 followed by the number in international format (the ITU bulletin does not state an international prefix for Pakistan explicitly; operators use 00).
• Mobile numbers — code 3X (X from 0 to 6) plus 8 digits, 10 in total: +92 3XX XXXXXXX.
• Landline numbers:

• UAN — the area code plus 111-XXXXXX (for example 042-111 20 20 20), toll-free numbers — 0800 XXXXX. Both are issued by the operator together with the trunk.
• In Lines enter the number exactly as the provider issued it: the PBX matches the last seven digits, so writing it with +92, with a leading 0 or without either makes no difference.
• ⚠️ The seven-digit trap. In most cities (two-digit area code other than 21 and 42) the subscriber part is exactly 7 digits, so the tail equals the number without the area code: 051-2345678 and 055-2345678 look identical to the PBX. Do not add two landline numbers from different cities with the same last seven digits to one account.
• Emergency numbers: 15 — police, 16 — fire brigade, 1122 — rescue, 115 — Edhi ambulance, 130 — motorway police. The PBX passes them through unchanged, but a call over a trunk of a PBX abroad shows the service the provider's address rather than the venue's — keep a mobile phone nearby.
• Codecs. Pakistani operators do not publish their codec lists; when agreeing the trunk, ask for G.711 a-law/u-law — that is what our PBX accepts.

Who provides a number with a SIP trunk#

PTCL — the incumbent with a SIP TRUNK product#

The state-owned incumbent holds both local and international licences, runs the only nationwide network and is the main source of 111 UAN and 0800 numbers. The service is described plainly in its business catalogue: "PTCL deliver telephone services to corporate customers equipped with SIP-based private branch exchange (IP-PBX)", with Multiple DID/DOD Options and Mapping with UAN & TFN.

How to get it. Through the corporate desk only: a request by phone at 1260 or 042-111 20 20 20, or by email to care@ptcl.net.pk. The contract is with a legal entity, pricing is customised, and there is no public price list for the trunk.

What to enter in the admin panel (Telephony → "Trunks and connections" → "Add provider"):

What to set up at the provider: order a SIP trunk for your legal entity → hand over the "Static IP" from the "Server" tab and ask for it to be added both to the PTCL border gateway and to the PTA white list application → point your numbers, UAN and 0800 at the trunk → agree on G.711 codecs → clarify in which format the operator sends the number on inbound calls. The full question list is in "What to ask the provider".

Pitfalls ⚠️

• White listing is not a formality. Until the licensee has entered your PBX address into the PTA list, international SIP exchange may simply not get through, and the regulations explicitly say that commercial VoIP detected on a non-listed address becomes a candidate for blocking.
• The catalogue has two adjacent entries — "SIP" and "SIP TRUNK" with identical descriptions; only the sales desk can say which is the live product. Ask specifically for a trunk to your own PBX, not for their cloud telephony.
• Parameters are issued at the very end, after the contract: plan on filling in the trunk in the admin panel from the sheet they send you.

Sources: PTCL — SIP TRUNK · PTCL — SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) — 10.09.2026.

Nayatel — SIP TRUNK with a channel calculator#

A fibre operator in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and the most product-minded of the Pakistani providers: the trunk has its own page, a price calculator based on the number of channels and a promise to "manage unlimited concurrent calls". The same catalogue lists ISDN PRI, Hosted PBX and a cloud contact centre, so the outbound trunk is sold as a standalone service rather than an add-on to their own PBX.

How to get it. The "Get a quote" button on the product page → a manager → a contract with a legal entity, billed monthly per channel.

What to enter in the admin panel

What to set up at the provider: order the SIP TRUNK with the required number of channels → hand over the static IP of the PBX and ask Nayatel, as the licensee, to file it for the PTA white list → point the numbers at the trunk → agree on G.711 codecs → check that outbound calls are enabled and with which caller ID.

Pitfalls ⚠️

• Coverage is limited. Nayatel is a fibre operator in a few cities; it cannot serve a venue in Karachi or Lahore, and a chain spread across cities will need several operators.
• The calculator figures are loaded by a script — confirm the final per-channel price with the manager in writing.
• The operator has no Asterisk guides: the manuals section on its website covers home routers and set-top boxes.

Source: Nayatel — SIP TRUNK — 10.09.2026.

DIDHub — the only one publishing parameters for Pakistan#

An international reseller that, unlike the local operators, prints the technical details right on its country page: the entry point is a POP in Dubai (Singapore as failover), authentication is "digest registration (PBX behind NAT) or IP-ACL (static peering)", codecs are G.711a, G.722, Opus (G.729 on request), DTMF follows RFC 4733, trunks carry 5 to 200 channels, a number starts at $10 per month plus per-minute charges, and activation takes 10–15 business days after KYC. The numbers are landlines in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, obtained through local licensee partners.

What to enter in the admin panel

What to set up at the provider: pass KYC (company documents, an authorised contact, a use-case justification) → buy a number → create the trunk and explicitly ask for the UDP option instead of the recommended TLS → choose the mode (registration or address list; for the latter hand over the "Static IP" from the "Server" tab) → check in Outbound calls that the caller ID is one of your own numbers.

Pitfalls ⚠️

• The caller ID is strictly validated: an arbitrary number is rejected at the provider's session border controller. Either leave "Display as" empty or use a number from the same trunk.
• The country page looks templated — the Pakistani text contains wording from their European section. Confirm every parameter (address, port, transport, codecs) by email when ordering instead of treating them as guaranteed.
• The call still lands through a Pakistani licensee, so the white-list and route-quality questions do not disappear — they are simply handled by the provider rather than by you.

Source: DIDHub — Pakistan SIP Trunk — 10.09.2026.

Providers by contract and integrators#

These companies do sell a trunk to a third-party PBX, but they do not publish the parameters: a manager issues them after the contract is signed. There is no "what to enter" table here — fill in the form from the sheet they send you, and take your questions from "What to ask the provider".

• Wateen Telecom — a corporate operator that sells voice explicitly as a trunk to someone else's PBX: "Wateen facilitates multiple PBX interfaces such as: SIP", UAN "through PRI, SIP, and POTS trunking interfaces", plus DID and DOD separately. Its strength is distributed customers: one UAN across all sites of a chain. ⚠️ The service page is pure marketing without a single technical parameter.
• Multinet Pakistan ("Clarity") — a voice platform on its own fibre "covering over 130 cities": "SIP Trunking, Hosted Call Center, Direct Telephony Lines, Call Recording, Toll-Free numbers, and UAN services". Ask for the trunk alone, without their contact centre. ⚠️ Their own call recording does not relieve you of the duty to warn the guest that the call is recorded.
• Jazz Business — the largest mobile operator: "Modern IP-based voice connectivity that integrates directly with your IP-PBX system… scalable channels, geographic redundancy". ⚠️ The numbering is mobile and UAN, so do not expect a landline; the key question for them is whether they allow a PBX outside their own network, let alone outside Pakistan.
• Vision Telecom (Lahore) — an integrator with a full voice portfolio: "add any number of trunk lines, from one to hundred without any addition of hardware at your premises". Its value is the willingness to run a non-standard setup and the white-list application through a partner licensee — ask about that first and say up front that the PBX is not in Pakistan.
• IP Phone Pakistan (Lahore) — a "hardware plus provisioning" integrator: phones, gateways, cloud PBX and "SIP Trunk Services in lahore" with a mention of Asterisk compatibility. ⚠️ This is a layer between you and the licensee: ask them to name in writing the operator that owns the trunk and is responsible for white listing.

International providers with Pakistani numbers#

Cards for the popular international providers are already in the catalogue when adding a provider — the server address and mode are filled in automatically. What is specific to Pakistan:

• DIDHub — the only one that publishes parameters specifically for Pakistan (see the card above): landline numbers in the three largest cities, a trunk with registration or an address list, numbers from $10 per month.
• DIDWW — offers landline, mobile and toll-free Pakistani numbers plus two-way local SIP trunking with guaranteed caller ID; the modes and addresses are the same platform-wide, and the paperwork is dictated by the local regulator rather than by the provider.
• Telnyx — Pakistan is in coverage, but local numbers start at $42.50 per month (a European number there costs a few dollars). The high price is a direct consequence of local regulatory costs.
• Twilio — Pakistan is absent from its list of countries with regulatory requirements for numbers, although it does publish termination pricing for Pakistan: count on outbound calls and clarify Pakistani numbers separately before paying.
• Global Call Forwarding — "SIP trunks for Pakistan start at $25" plus the cost of the number itself, with 10 channels; check which numbers the package actually includes when ordering.
• PBX.IM — advertises Pakistani numbers and a trunk, but the text of its country page is copied from the Chinese one (the description mentions the Chinese telephone network and the Chinese regulator). The parameters on that page cannot be trusted — only a live check with their support.
• ⚠️ A general caveat. A foreign aggregator takes the Pakistani paperwork off your hands but does not cancel local rules: the call still lands through a Pakistani licensee, and the IP white list applies on the Pakistani side of the network.

Number porting#

• Mobile numbers can be ported between operators: the service has worked since 2007, there is a central portability database, the receiving operator files the request and the number is kept.
• Landline porting effectively does not exist. The regulator put it out for consultation, but the service was never launched: a landline number is tied to its operator, and changing providers means changing the number. That is the main reason to pick an operator for the long run rather than by first-year price.
• UAN and 0800 numbers are tied to the operator too — if a 111 number is already printed on your signage and menu, changing provider will be expensive.
• The number is registered to a legal entity with a tax number and incorporation documents. A number registered to an employee or to a contractor leaves with them — put it in the venue company's name from the start.

Rules and paperwork#

If it does not work#

1. "Check connection" fails while the operator insists the trunk is up. First find out whether your PBX address has been added to the PTA white list and to the operator's border controller. Until it has, international SIP exchange may not get through at all — no admin-panel setting will help.
2. The provider sent an address that does not answer from the cloud. Check whether you were given an interface inside the operator's own network (a private address for customers on its own last mile). Such a trunk is designed for a PBX physically located at the venue.
3. The operator offers TLS on port 5061 only (DIDHub recommends exactly that). Our PBX will not accept an encrypted trunk — ask for plain UDP or TCP: most providers have it.
4. The operator offers to "install our PRI gateway". That is a digital span on the premises, not SIP: a cloud PBX has neither the card nor the on-site hardware. You need a SIP trunk.
5. One-way audio or silence. Check the codecs: you need G.711 (a-law or u-law) or G.722; "G.729 only" means no audio. While you are at it, ask them to allow media towards the PBX address.
6. Inbound calls work, outbound are rejected. Almost always this is the caller ID: it must be a number from your own contract. Leave "Display as" empty — the line number will be sent.
7. Two numbers from different cities collapsed into one line. Their last seven digits match — see the trap in "Numbers in the country"; split the numbers across accounts or order a number with a different ending.

Causes that are the same in any country are covered in "If calls do not get through".

Frequently asked questions#

Which provider should I start with?#

If the venue is in Islamabad or Rawalpindi, start with Nayatel: its trunk is a standalone product with a channel calculator and a clear request flow. In other cities start with PTCL: it is the only national network, and it also holds the landline numbers, the 111 UAN and 0800 ranges. Take an international aggregator (DIDHub, DIDWW, Telnyx) when you need a number quickly and without a Pakistani legal entity.

Will the trunk work if the PBX is not in Pakistan?#

This is the key question, and it must be asked before the contract, not after. Our dedicated PBX sits in a cloud outside Pakistan, while voice over IP there is only allowed from addresses a licensee has entered into the PTA white list. Ask the provider verbatim: "our address is static and foreign — will you file it for white listing, and will your border controller accept signalling from it?". A negative answer closes the option.

Do I need a Pakistani legal entity?#

For a number from a local operator, yes: the contracts are corporate and require incorporation documents and a tax number. International aggregators do work with foreign companies, but they require a full KYC package and a use-case justification, and number allocation takes 10–15 business days.

Why does no operator give the address and port in advance?#

That is how the local market works: Pakistani operators sell trunks only under contract and hand over the parameters through an engineer during provisioning. This is why there are no ready presets for Pakistan in the admin panel — the "SIP host" field is filled in from the sheet you receive. If an intermediary quotes a "typical address" before the contract, that is a reason to doubt whose trunk it is.

Can a landline number be ported to another operator?#

No. Portability in Pakistan works for mobile numbers, while landline numbers, UAN and 0800 ranges are tied to the operator. Changing provider means changing the landline number — take that into account before printing it on your signage and menu.

What should I know about call recording?#

Pakistan is an all-party consent jurisdiction: in March 2026 the Supreme Court ruled that secretly recording a private conversation is unlawful, and unauthorised interception is punishable under the cybercrime act. A spoken recording notice at the start of the call is mandatory, and a refusal by the other party must genuinely switch recording off — even when the recording is made by the operator on its own platform.

Sources#

All links checked on 10.09.2026.

Regulator and numbering

• PTA — White Listing of IP Addresses Regulations, 2019 (PDF): https://www.pta.gov.pk/assets/media/ip_white_listing_regulations_21022020.pdf
• PTA — IP whitelisting and VPN registration: https://www.pta.gov.pk/category/ip-whitelisting-&-vpn-registration
• PTA — Mobile Number Portability Regulations (PDF): https://www.pta.gov.pk/assets/media/mnp_reg_fin.pdf
• PTA — consultation paper on the national numbering plan (PDF): https://www.pta.gov.pk/assets/media/nnp_08_final.pdf
• ITU Operational Bulletin — Pakistan numbering plan, PTA communication of 9.XI.2021 (PDF): https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/02/02/T02020000A10002PDFE.pdf
• Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PDF): https://nacta.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Prevention-of-Electronic-Crimes-Act-2016.pdf

Providers

• PTCL — SIP TRUNK: https://www.ptcl.com.pk/Home/PageDetailBusiness?ItemId=271&linkId=5173
• Nayatel — SIP TRUNK: https://nayatel.com/business/sip-trunk
• Wateen — Voice Services: https://wateen.com/voice/
• Multinet — Clarity: https://multinet.com.pk/clarity-by-multinet-best-business-communication-service-in-pakistan/
• Jazz Business — Communication Services: https://jazz.com.pk/business/solutions/connectivity/communication-services
• Zong Business — Voice Solutions: https://www.zong.com.pk/business/voice-solutions
• Vision Telecom — SIP Trunk: https://www.visiontelecom.com.pk/sip-trunk/
• IP Phone Pakistan — Services: https://www.ipphone.com.pk/services/

International numbers

• DIDHub — Pakistan SIP Trunk: https://didhub.io/sip-trunks/pakistan
• DIDWW — SIP Trunking Services in Pakistan: https://www.didww.com/voice/global-sip-trunking/Pakistan
• Telnyx — Pakistan virtual phone numbers: https://telnyx.com/global-coverage/pakistan
• Global Call Forwarding — Pakistan SIP Trunking: https://www.globalcallforwarding.com/sip-trunking/pakistan-sip-trunking/

Related pages#

• Connecting a provider's number to the PBX — the general steps, trunk modes, network, connectivity check.
• SIP phone setup — how to connect desk phones and DECT handsets to extensions.