Rwanda: SIP providers and connecting a number to the PBX

We do not issue numbers: the venue buys a Rwandan number from a provider and connects it to its own PBX as a trunk. Everything that is the same in any country — trunk modes, form fields, network requirements and the connectivity check — is described in the overview “Connecting a provider's number to the PBX”. This page covers only the Rwandan part: where to buy a number, what to enter in the admin panel and what people stumble over in this country.

The data was collected on 10 September 2026 from provider websites and documents of the regulator RURA; links are in the “Sources” section.

In brief#

• You can buy a trunk for your own PBX in Rwanda: the licence is needed by whoever sells telephony, not by the venue. RURA licenses whoever provides the service: network operators (NTO, FNO) and service providers on top of someone else's network — the “Application Service Providers” category, which explicitly lists VOIP. A venue's own corporate PBX is not in the list of licensed activities.
• The country's main characteristic: not a single provider publishes trunk parameters. Neither MTN, nor Airtel, nor Liquid, nor BSC has a “SIP settings” page or an Asterisk/FreePBX guide, and Yeastar and 3CX do not list Rwanda among certified providers at all. Host, port, transport, codecs and the number format in the incoming call are disclosed only when the contract is signed, so the tables below show what will end up in which field, not ready-made addresses.
• First candidate — MTN Rwanda with the “MTN Unicall” product: the only operator in the country that names a SIP trunk as a product in plain text, and the one with the widest number inventory — landline range 28, mobile 078/079, toll-free 0800 28/78/79. The subscription is available only to registered companies, NGOs and government institutions: an individual cannot subscribe.
• Second — Liquid Intelligent Technologies: its own landline range 25, an office in Kigali and a service description that matches our scheme exactly — “SIP Trunking allows you to securely connect your onsite or hosted PBX to the Liquid voice network”. Rwanda is on their list of countries with voice.
• Modifying the caller ID on outbound calls is not allowed, and this is a regulator's rule. Under the international gateway traffic verification regulation an operator may block calls without a CLI or with a modified CLI and must carry traffic with an unmodified CLI. In the “Show as” field put only the number issued to you.
• Landline numbers in Rwanda cannot be ported at all — portability is launched for mobile numbers only. The choice of operator for a +250 25… or +250 28… number is irreversible.
• The number has nine digits, while a line is matched by the last seven. The range code never makes it into the match: 280 123 456 (MTN) and 220 123 456 (Airtel) give the same tail 0123456.

Numbers in the country#

The country code is +250. The national dialling prefix is 0, the international exit code is 000. The national number (N(S)N) is 9 digits. Regional prefixes apply inside the East African Community: 004 — Rwanda, 003 — Burundi, 005 — Kenya, 006 — Uganda, 007 — Tanzania.

• No Rwandan provider publishes the format in which the number arrives in an incoming call. Regional practice suggests the national number without the leading zero (252100100, 788310105) or the international format, but be ready for anything: on the first connection look at the SIP trace to see what the provider actually sends, and only then create lines.
• The seven-digit tail. A line is matched by the last seven digits while the number has nine — the first two digits are always lost. Landlines of different operators collide (280 123 456 and 220 123 456 → 0123456), and so do mobiles (788 310 105 MTN and 728 310 105 Airtel → 8310105). One number per venue is safe; with two or more check the tails manually.
• Codecs. Nobody names them publicly, so ask explicitly: we need at least one of G.711 a-law, G.711 u-law, G.722. We do not have G.729.
• Emergency calls. From the official government list: 112 — general emergency, 912 — ambulance, 111 — fire brigade, 113 — road accidents, 114 — health, 118 — traffic police, 110 — water transport, 116 — child helpline, 3511, 3512, 997 — police complaints, gender-based violence and anti-corruption. Emergency calls are not served through our PBX: keep an ordinary phone on the shift, and do not let routing rules “swallow” short numbers with a prefix. Remember as well that a call from a cloud PBX is located by the contract address, not by where the caller is.

Who sells a number with a SIP trunk#

Below are cards for the four providers whose “trunk to your PBX” product is confirmed. The full list of questions for a sales manager is in “What to ask the provider”; in Rwanda this is the only way to obtain the credentials.

MTN Rwanda — "MTN Unicall", a trunk by contract#

An umbrella enterprise communications product by MTN Rwanda: “these products include SIP Trunk, Hosted PBX (Office lines) and Hosted Call Centre”, and about the trunk itself it says plainly — “the focus for the initial phase of the project is to deploy a SIP Trunking solution which will be used as a TDM replacement technology in order to continue to deliver fixed line access”. This is the only operator in the country that has named a trunk as a product publicly.

The subscription is available only to registered companies with an RDB certificate, to NGOs and to government institutions, not to individuals; billing is postpaid. Entry points: toll-free line 3111, sales.RW@mtn.com, any service centre. MTN does not publish trunk credentials — they arrive in the contract and the connection letter.

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

What to arrange with the provider: a Unicall contract for a legal entity with an RDB certificate → state plainly in the application “SIP Trunk to our own PBX (Asterisk), static public IP” → get numbers from the 28 or 0800 28 range, or port existing landline numbers → hand over the PBX public address → agree the number of simultaneous calls → request by e-mail the host, port, transport, G.711 codecs and the number format in incoming calls.

Catches ⚠️

• It is easy to be sold the wrong product. By default Unicall is sold as Hosted PBX “Office lines” — the operator's cloud PBX, which has no place for your station at all. The application needs exactly the wording “SIP Trunk to our own PBX”.
• An individual or a sole trader without an RDB certificate cannot be connected. Postpaid billing means a contract and a creditworthiness check, not a card payment in a self-service portal.
• Our PBX is located outside Rwanda. Ask the question “do you accept a trunk towards a foreign IP address” in writing before signing — see “If it does not work”.

Source: MTN Rwanda — MTN Unicall — 10.09.2026.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies — its own 25 landline range#

A pan-African operator with its own network in Rwanda and the landline range 25 in the RURA numbering plan. Office: Avenue De L'Armee, KN 67 ST #3, Kigali, phone +250 252 100 100, support@liquid.tech. Voice in Rwanda is confirmed by the group's storefront: “our services span over six African countries, namely South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, where we offer voice calling (In country regulations apply)”.

The service is framed exactly as our scheme: “SIP Trunking allows you to securely connect your onsite or hosted PBX to the Liquid voice network over your internet connection”. The declared trunk features are a configurable number of simultaneous calls, a selectable number of DIDs per trunk, a credit limit both per trunk and per individual number, per-second billing from the first second, and porting of geographic and non-geographic numbers.

What to enter in the admin panel:

What to arrange with the provider: a request via the Kigali office or support@liquid.tech → a contract for a SIP Trunk, not for a cloud PBX → choose the number of simultaneous calls and of DIDs per trunk → hand over the PBX public address → set a credit limit (they apply it both per trunk and per number — good protection against fraudulent traffic).

Catches ⚠️

• Liquid's product pages are group-wide. The set of services and the tariffs in Rwanda may differ — the caveat “In country regulations apply” is their own wording. The entry point for Rwanda is still the local office.
• When the credit limit is exhausted it cuts outbound calls entirely — watch the trunk balance, not only the overall account.
• Some materials lead to the Liquid C2 brand — the same group under a different name, not a separate provider.

Sources: Liquid C2 — OneVoice Calling, Liquid — Rwanda office — 10.09.2026.

Africhat Communications — a regional aggregator#

An East African provider of enterprise SIP trunks, numbers and termination in six countries; the contacts are Kenyan — +254 719 034 888, sales@africhat.co. In the coverage table Rwanda is marked “DID · SIP · Voice”, meaning both numbers and a trunk are offered.

It is interesting because it is the only source on Rwanda that names our platforms directly: the technical integrations list includes Issabel PBX, Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, Yeastar, Grandstream, FusionPBX and Microsoft Teams Direct Routing. For an aggregator this usually means readiness to issue an ordinary SIP trunk rather than access to its own cloud PBX only. A fit when there is no Rwandan legal entity and you do not want to spend a month negotiating with an operator.

What to enter in the admin panel:

What to arrange with the provider: request rates and Rwandan numbers (there are no prices on the site, only “Request Rates”) → contract and payment → receive a trunk account or have the PBX address whitelisted → ask for the +250… number to be routed to that trunk → check the outbound caller ID: it must be their number.

Catches ⚠️

• The company is young and discloses neither public corporate details nor a regulator's licence. Start with a trial period and a small deposit, and ask in writing about the local partner's licence before paying.
• Check that the number really is Rwandan — of the +250 2X… form, not a forward through a foreign number: the number type is not described on the site.
• A number from an intermediary means no direct relationship with a Rwandan operator. In a dispute over the number or a block there will be nowhere to appeal.

Source: Africhat Communications — services and coverage — 10.09.2026.

Cloud One — "Country Presence SIP Trunk"#

An East African cloud telephony provider with a separate Rwandan storefront. The product that suits a venue is the Country Presence SIP Trunk Subscription: a local number of the country plus a “robust 30-channel SIP trunk”, unlimited inbound calls, toll-free optionally. The company warns itself: “each country has its own specific regulations that apply — contact us to find out more on your specific country”.

⚠️ Do not confuse it with their BYOC Interconnect subscription — there it is your trunk that is pulled into their cloud PBX. It does not fit our scheme of “the number arrives in your PBX”.

For neighbouring Kenya Cloud One publishes technical requirements, and they show what to expect: UDP, port 5060, support for both register-based and address-based trunks, a mandatory whitelist of one static IP or DDNS name, G.711 a-law/u-law codecs (as well as G.729, which we do not have) and RFC 2833 tone dialling. Confirm the Rwandan node and port separately: there is no address of their own for Rwanda in public sources.

What to enter in the admin panel:

What to arrange with the provider: a request for Country Presence in Rwanda (prices are not filled in on the storefront, invoices are issued manually) → confirm in writing whose number it is and under whose licence it is issued → hand over the PBX static IP for the whitelist → disable SIP inspection on your perimeter if it is on (their requirement) → check that the channels are enough: the basic package is 30.

Catches ⚠️

• The Rwandan storefront is not Rwandan in content: some links lead to the Ugandan subdomain, the phone number is Kenyan and prices are not filled in. Before paying, demand written confirmation that a +250 number really is issued.
• The whitelist is strictly one address. Their Kenyan guide says it plainly: fail to report an address change and the connection gets blacklisted. Agree a move of the PBX between clouds in advance.
• They have G.729 in their codec set and we do not — ask explicitly for G.711.

Sources: Cloud One — Country Presence SIP Trunk, Cloud One — Firewall Configuration for SIP Trunks (Kenya) — 10.09.2026.

Who else sells telephony in the country#

International providers with Rwandan numbers#

What is confirmed by provider documents as of 10.09.2026:

• Twilio, Telnyx, Zadarma — no Rwandan numbers. The country pages of Telnyx and Zadarma do not exist, and Twilio does not list Rwanda among countries with regulatory requirements. They are fine as termination for outbound calls to Rwanda, but not for an inbound number.
• Africa's Talking operates in Rwanda but without voice. By their own help centre the country's products are SMS (bulk and short codes) and USSD only. Their Kenyan scheme with IP authorisation and a “PBX on cloud or on premise” does not extend to Rwanda.
• DIDWW states it literally on the country page: “Local SIP Trunking — Not available”, only international termination is offered. A local +250 number cannot be bought from it.
• PBX.IM looks like a ready Rwandan provider in search results, but the text of its own page is honest: “virtual numbers aren't available there just yet, but you can join the waitlist”. There is nothing to buy.
• CommPeak — a “Rwandan virtual phone numbers” page exists, but the number type and document requirements are not described on it: confirm them in the portal or by e-mail before paying.
• Global Call Forwarding — sells “Rwanda national numbers reachable from the entire country”. ⚠️ The same page describes the number format incorrectly, which shows the level of country expertise: confirm the number type and its suitability for forwarding to SIP in writing.
• HotTelecom, Hivoox, Sonetel, AVOXI and other “200 countries” catalogues — some of them do have Rwanda pages, but the presence of +250 numbers could not be confirmed.

Trunk parameters of international providers are the same for every country and are described in the catalogue cards when adding a provider: for most it is registration with a login and password from the portal, for some — IP authorisation.

⚠️ A general caveat: none of them holds a Rwandan regulator's licence — the number, where it exists, is issued through a local partner. That works for inbound calls, but in a dispute about the number, a port or a block the venue will have no direct relationship with a Rwandan operator.

Number porting#

• ⚠️⚠️ Landline numbers in Rwanda cannot be ported at all. The portability regulation says it plainly: only mobile numbers may be ported, while porting “landline to landline” and “mobile to landline” is not permitted. The practical conclusion: if the venue wants to keep a +250 25… or +250 28… number, it cannot change operator — the number lives only with whoever issued it. This is the main argument for choosing a provider you will stay with from the start, and for printing the number on the signboard only after the trunk works.
• Mobile portability is live between the Airtel, KTRN and MTN networks — according to MTN the service started in May 2026, in Kigali first, with requests accepted from 08:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday. Confirm the date and the coverage with the operator.
• Timings for mobile numbers. Validation of the request by the donor operator takes no more than 4 hours of a working day, activation after its consent also no more than 4 hours; a working day counts as 09:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, excluding weekends and holidays. A refusal is possible for an unpaid eligible debt, for a blocked or lost number and on other grounds of the porting business rules.
• Register the number in the company's name from the start. The porting request is submitted by the holder of record, and a landline number cannot be recovered at all — a number registered to an employee or a contractor will leave with them.
• ⚠️ A change of the PBX public address breaks a trunk with IP authorisation. Warn the provider in advance when recreating the dedicated machine.

Rules and documents#

If it does not work#

1. The operator asks why traffic goes to a foreign address. Our dedicated PBX sits in a cloud outside Rwanda, and the regulator specifically targets bypass of international termination. There is no direct ban in the acts, but ask “do you accept a trunk towards an IP outside the country” in writing and before paying. Answer plainly: this is the venue's corporate station, the caller ID is not modified, the trunk is covered by a contract.
2. The provider offers encryption or port 5061. That is TLS, while for trunks our PBX supports only UDP and TCP without encryption, and there is no SRTP either. Ask for plain SIP on 5060; if the interconnect is encryption-only, there will be no connection.
3. The call goes through but there is silence. Usually a codec mismatch: Rwandan providers do not publish their sets, and G.729 occurs in the region (Cloud One has it, for example). Ask for G.711 a-law/u-law to be enabled on the trunk explicitly and make sure voice traffic is allowed towards the PBX address.
4. The trunk is “green” but there are no inbound calls. Check the number format in the SIP trace: a Rwandan provider may send nine national digits, the international format or the trunk login instead of the number — a line is matched by the last seven digits of whatever actually arrives.
5. Two numbers collapsed into one line. The number has nine digits and the tail seven: landlines 280 123 456 and 220 123 456 give the same 0123456. Choose numbers with different tails or create one per venue.
6. You were sold the wrong product. MTN's “Hosted PBX / Office lines”, BSC's per-user VoIP and Cloud One's BYOC subscription are the provider's cloud PBXs, with no place for your own station. What you need is exactly a SIP trunk terminating on your PBX.

The general table of symptoms and causes is in the overview, section “If calls do not go through”, and the provider's address and port are verified with the “Check connection” button.

FAQ#

Can a Rwandan number be connected to my own PBX at all?#

Yes. The regulator licenses whoever provides communication services: network operators and service providers of the “Application Service Providers” category, which includes VOIP. A venue's own corporate station is not in the list of licensed activities — you buy the number and the trunk from a licensed provider and terminate them on your PBX.

Who should I approach first?#

If you need a large operator's number and a contract in local currency — MTN Rwanda with the Unicall product: the only operator in the country that has named a SIP trunk publicly. If you need a landline number and wording that explicitly covers a PBX in a cloud — Liquid Intelligent Technologies. If there is no Rwandan company or you need it fast — Africhat or Cloud One, but with a trial period and a small deposit.

Why does nobody publish a host and a port?#

That is how the market works: Rwandan operators sell a trunk as an enterprise service under a contract, and the credentials arrive in the connection order. Neither Yeastar nor 3CX lists Rwanda among certified providers at all, so do not look for “settings for Rwanda” on the internet — request by e-mail the host, port, transport, authorisation mode, codecs and the number format in incoming calls, as listed in the overview.

Can I buy a +250 number without a company in Rwanda?#

From a local operator — hardly: MTN writes plainly that the subscription is available only to registered companies with an RDB certificate, to NGOs and to government institutions. The practical route is a regional aggregator (Africhat, Cloud One) or an international provider; the number there is held by a local partner, and you will have no direct relationship with an operator.

Will I be able to port my number to another provider?#

A landline — no: the regulation allows porting of mobile numbers only, and “landline to landline” is forbidden in plain words. A mobile number can be ported between Airtel, KTRN and MTN. Choose the operator for a landline number as if the choice were final.

Do I need a static IP?#

Yes, and the dedicated PBX already has one — the value is shown on the “Server” tab. In address-based authorisation mode it is mandatory, and with ordinary registration it is almost always requested in advance anyway, to be whitelisted. Cloud One's whitelist holds strictly one address: a change must be reported, otherwise the connection is blocked.

How long will the connection take?#

A contract with MTN or Liquid — weeks: a legal entity, postpaid billing, a creditworthiness check, the connection order and tests. An aggregator such as Africhat — days. Setting up the trunk on our side with the parameters in hand — hours.

Sources#

• RURA — Rwanda National Numbering Plan, June 2023 (operator ranges, number length, prefixes) — https://www.rura.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/RURA/Documents/Sectors/ICT/Key_ICT_Documents/Rwanda_National_Numbering_Plan___1_.pdf (10.09.2026)
• RURA — Regulation No 013/R/EC-ICT/RURA/2021 governing licensing in electronic communication (licence categories, VOIP as ASP) — https://www.rura.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/RURA/Documents/Sectors/ICT/Regulatory_Instruments/ICT_Regulations_and_Guidelines/Regulation_Governing_Licensing_in_Electronic_Communication_in_Rwanda.pdf (10.09.2026)
• RURA — Regulations for International Gateway Traffic Verification System, Reg. 4-ICT of 2012 (caller ID, bypass, fines) — https://rwandalii.org/akn/rw/act/reg/2012/4-ict (10.09.2026)
• RURA — Regulation No 019/R/ICT/RURA/2024 governing Mobile Number Portability (mobile only, timings) — https://www.rura.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/RURA/Documents/Sectors/ICT/Regulatory_Instruments/ICT_Regulations_and_Guidelines/Regulation__governing_Mobile_Number_Portability_in_Rwanda.pdf (10.09.2026)
• Government of Rwanda — Emergency Numbers (112, 912, 111, 113, 114, 118, 110, 116) — https://www.gov.rw/emergency (10.09.2026)
• RwandaLII — Law N° 058/2021 relating to the protection of personal data and privacy — https://rwandalii.org/akn/rw/act/law/2021/58/eng@2021-10-15 (10.09.2026)
• MTN Rwanda — MTN Unicall (SIP Trunk, subscription terms, contacts) — https://www.mtn.co.rw/mtn-unicall/ (10.09.2026)
• MTN Rwanda — MNP FAQs (launch of mobile number portability) — https://www.mtn.co.rw/helppersonal/mnp-faqs/ (10.09.2026)
• Liquid C2 — OneVoice Calling and SIP Trunking (“onsite or hosted PBX”, six countries) — https://liquidc2.com/onevoice-calling/ (10.09.2026)
• Liquid Intelligent Technologies — Rwanda office — https://liquid.tech/local-offices/country/rwanda/ (10.09.2026)
• Liquid Intelligent Technologies — Unified Communications — https://liquid.tech/services/unified-communications/ (10.09.2026)
• Africhat Communications — services and coverage (Rwanda: DID · SIP · Voice) — https://www.africhat.co/ (10.09.2026)
• Cloud One Rwanda — Country Presence SIP Trunk Subscription — https://rwanda.cloudone.co/shop/country-presence-sip-trunk-11085 (10.09.2026)
• Cloud One Rwanda — BYOC Interconnect Subscription (the opposite direction) — https://rwanda.cloudone.co/shop/bring-your-own-carrier-byoc-interconnect-subscription-11049 (10.09.2026)
• Cloud One — Firewall Configuration for Cloud One SIP Trunks (ports, whitelist; Kenya) — https://www.cloudone.co/knowledge/article/113 (10.09.2026)
• Broadband Systems Corporation — Voice over IP — https://bsc.rw/voice-over-ip/ (10.09.2026)
• UNITECH — Business Telephone Services in Rwanda — https://www.unitech.rw/service/business-telephone-services/index.html (10.09.2026)
• VDS / PBX System Rwanda — catalogue and services — https://www.pbxsystemrwanda.com/ (10.09.2026)
• DIDWW — SIP Trunking in Rwanda (“Local SIP Trunking — Not available”) — https://www.didww.com/voice/global-sip-trunking/Rwanda (10.09.2026)
• Africa's Talking — which countries their products are in (Rwanda: SMS, USSD) — https://help.africastalking.com/en/articles/2727792-which-countries-are-africa-s-talking-products-in (10.09.2026)
• PBX.IM — SIP Trunking Provider in Rwanda (waiting list) — https://www.pbx.im/services/sip-trunking-provider/rw (10.09.2026)
• CommPeak — Rwandan Virtual Phone Numbers — https://www.commpeak.com/services/virtual-numbers-dids/rwanda (10.09.2026)
• Global Call Forwarding — Rwanda Virtual Phone Numbers — https://www.globalcallforwarding.com/services/virtual-phone-numbers/rwanda-virtual-phone-numbers/ (10.09.2026)

Related pages#

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