United Arab Emirates: SIP providers and connecting a number to the PBX

This page continues the general guide to connecting a provider's number to the PBX: that guide covers everything that is the same in any country — the two trunk modes, what to ask the carrier, what to enter in the form, networking and the connection test. This page covers what is specific to the Emirates: who is allowed to issue a number, what the carrier hands over together with the trunk, and why the hard part in the UAE is not the form fields but the physical shape of the handover.

The data was collected on 9–10 September 2026 from the carriers' own sites, the TDRA regulator and the u.ae government portal; links are in the "Sources" section.

In brief#

• There are exactly two licensed public carriers in the UAE — Etisalat by e& and du (EITC). That is how the official u.ae government portal lists them. Everyone else — the MVNO, integrators and cloud PBXs — runs on their networks and has no numbering of its own.
• A dedicated PBX is not created for UAE locations today. Providing telecom services here requires a TDRA licence, and the regulator explicitly treats unlicensed VoIP as prohibited and subject to blocking. This guide will be useful once a launch becomes possible, and it already helps you understand the market.
• Even then, a UAE carrier trunk cannot reach a cloud PBX. Both Etisalat and du deliver the SIP trunk not over the internet but over dedicated fibre with private addressing: du's handover is a 10.15.34.x/30 pair with the carrier's internal DNS, while Etisalat's vendor guides require static routes to 10.238.0.0/16. There is only one workable topology in this country: the PBX sits inside the UAE — on the venue's premises or on a cloud machine of a local carrier.
• The only carrier with a public trunk price is du: Business SIP Trunk, 10 channels and 100 numbers for AED 580/month plus a one-off AED 1,000 activation on a 12-month contract. At Etisalat, prices and parameters come from an account manager.
• The local numbering catch. The subscriber part of any UAE number is exactly 7 digits, and the PBX matches a line by the last seven digits. The fit is perfect, but a landline 04-2345678 and a mobile 050-2345678 share the same tail and will collapse into a single line.
• A +971 number in a cloud PBX is realistically available only from Telnyx — from $150 per month and through a special procedure (a UAE trade licence and the representative's Emirates ID). Twilio and DIDWW only offer toll-free +971 800 for this country.

Numbers in the country#

• The country code is +971, the international prefix is 00 and the national prefix is a leading 0. The plan is closed: the subscriber part is always 7 digits, and the area code is two (rarely three) digits.
• Landline numbers: 0A-XXXXXXX — 02 Abu Dhabi, 03 Al Ain, 04 Dubai, 06 Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, 07 Ras Al Khaimah, 08 the Western Region, 09 Fujairah.
• Mobile numbers: 05R-XXXXXXX — 050 / 054 / 056 at Etisalat, 052 / 055 / 058 at du, 053 at Virgin Mobile, 057 at DOMC.
• Toll-free and service ranges: 800 plus at least three digits is toll-free; 600XXXXXX and 200XXXX are shared-cost numbers.
• From abroad the number is dialled as +971 followed by the number without the leading zero: +971 4 XXXXXXX.
• In Lines enter the number exactly as the carrier issued it: du writes the range in E.164 without the plus sign (971436509xx), and the PBX will still find the line by the last seven digits — in international or national format alike. The flip side is that the area code never takes part in the match: if the venue has a landline and a mobile number with the same seven-digit tail, do not tell them apart by number.
• Emergency numbers: 999 police, 998 ambulance, 997 civil defence, 996 coastguard, 995 search and rescue, 991 electricity and water faults, 901 non-emergency police.
• The market runs on plain G.711. du's parameter sheet states "codec priority: G711 (PCMA)" and RFC 2833 for tones. That is exactly what our PBX accepts: there is no codec incompatibility in the UAE.

Who issues a number with a SIP trunk#

du — Business SIP Trunk#

The country's second licensee and the only UAE carrier with an open SIP trunk product page: tariffs, prices and answers are published openly, while the parameters of your specific trunk arrive on a sheet at installation. du does not supply PBXs and says plainly that a customer may buy one — in other words, a third-party PBX is officially expected.

Tariffs as of 9 September 2026: 10 channels and 100 numbers for AED 580/month, 20 channels for AED 1,120, 30 for AED 1,650, 60 for AED 3,180, and 100 channels with 200 numbers for AED 5,000. All tariffs carry 5% VAT and a one-off AED 1,000 activation, the contract runs for 12 months, billing is per second, and local and national calls are unlimited. An ISDN 30 line can be converted to SIP.

How to get it. A new customer visits a du store with a document pack (company trade licence, signatory documents); an existing one writes to business.customercare@du.ae or contacts an account manager. Then come the fibre installation, the port on the carrier's side and the parameter sheet.

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

The values above reflect the shape of the sheet as reported by community engineers in 2024; du publishes no parameter page, so before connecting take them from your own sheet rather than from here.

What to set up with the provider: pick a tariff by channel count → sign the 12-month contract → accept the installation and the parameter sheet → ask for the required numbers to be routed to the trunk → port numbers if needed (see "Number porting"). Then continue with the connection test, Lines and Outbound calls.

Pitfalls ⚠️

• The handover is private. The trunk arrives on a separate port with an address from the 10.15.34.x network with a /30 mask and the carrier's internal DNS, while the host …duvoip.fmc lives in a non-public zone. From an outside cloud there is neither a route to it nor a way to resolve the name — the PBX has to sit inside the UAE.
• Outbound calls leave with the pilot number. Engineers who connected a trunk with a hundred numbers reported that they could not set a specific DID as the caller ID; check whether substitution is possible when ordering and test the Display as field on a live line.
• Host name and the From domain. Our PBX takes the From header domain from the trunk host: substitute an IP for the name and the domain becomes an IP as well. Ask du which domain it expects.
• Our form has no separate outbound proxy field. In the community the du trunk came up as a static peer and failed without an external proxy — worth raising with the carrier in advance.
• du's own FAQ warns: "VOIP calls on SIP are currently not permitted in the UAE" — the trunk is sold for ordinary telephony, not for internet-calling scenarios.

Source: du — Business SIP Trunk (tariffs and FAQ) · du — Enterprise Voice — 09.09.2026.

Etisalat by e& — SIP Trunk#

The state incumbent and the larger of the two licensees. The SIP trunk is sold as part of corporate telephony: the business voice FAQ lists it alongside ISDN PRI and PABX lines. Etisalat has no dedicated page with prices or parameters — the request goes through an account manager or a business centre, and the parameters are handed over as a document at installation.

How to get it. A contract with a company holding a valid trade licence; fibre is run to the office address, the carrier installs its own equipment and delivers the trunk on an Ethernet port. A price benchmark from a local integrator's public estimate is about AED 3,600 per year for 8 channels with number porting. Residential plans (eLife) do not include a SIP trunk at all.

What to enter in the admin panel:

Etisalat publishes no official instructions for connecting a third-party PBX: the shape of the parameters above is known from a Yeastar vendor guide and working configurations shared by community engineers. Take the exact values from the carrier's sheet only.

What to set up with the provider: request a SIP Trunk through an account manager → agree the number of channels and the number range → fibre and equipment installation → receive the parameter sheet → ask for the numbers to be routed to the trunk. The full list of questions for the manager is in What to ask the provider.

Pitfalls ⚠️

• The trunk is only reachable from the premises. The vendor guide requires static routes on the PBX to 10.238.0.0/255.255.0.0, 195.229.241.222 and 213.42.20.20, plus 213.42.20.20 as the preferred DNS; the carrier's line lands on the PBX WAN port. No such routes exist from an outside cloud: one published case had the trunk gateway answering pings from another country in 190 ms while calls did not go through at all.
• The carrier supports only its own scenarios. You will have to build the Asterisk-side configuration yourself — support only helps with equipment it supplies.
• Signalling changes without notice — an observation by local integrators: re-check the trunk parameters after any work by the carrier.

Source: Etisalat by e& — Business Voice FAQs · Unified Communications — 09.09.2026.

Local integrators: Logixer, DVCOM, Quicknet#

They have no SIP servers or numbers of their own: they arrange a licensee's trunk in your company's name and connect it to the PBX — which is why there is no "what to enter" table here, the parameters will be the same as Etisalat's or du's. For the UAE this is the practical route: the contractor knows how the carrier delivers the handover and does the on-site installation.

• Logixer (Dubai) — "SIP Trunk & PBX installation services": installs trunks on Yeastar, Asterisk and 3CX systems and publishes material on configuring an Etisalat trunk.
• DVCOM Technology (Dubai) — a distributor of Yeastar and Grandstream systems; a separate practice is Microsoft Teams Direct Routing on top of Etisalat and du trunks through a session border controller. The company's website is closed to visitors from a number of countries, so details have to be checked from inside the UAE or through a partner.
• Quicknet Technologies (Abu Dhabi) — a 3CX integrator with a public market guide: an Etisalat trunk with 8 channels and number porting at about AED 3,600 per year, a cloud machine for the PBX at Etisalat at about AED 1,800 per year, number porting in 5–10 business days. It warns explicitly that the residential Etisalat eLife and du Home plans do not include SIP — a business plan is required.

What to agree up front: that the PBX is yours (Asterisk) and that you need a SIP trunk rather than the contractor's own cloud system; where the PBX physically sits and how the trunk reaches it; who is responsible for porting the numbers. If the PBX must live somewhere other than the premises, discuss a secure link from the site or a session border controller separately — without one the carrier's handover stays inside the building. Integrator price benchmarks are not a carrier quote.

Source: Logixer — SIP Trunk & PBX Installation Services in Dubai · Quicknet — 3CX Phone System Guide UAE 2026 — 09.09.2026.

Carrier cloud PBXs and Teams Direct Routing#

International providers with UAE numbers#

Cards for the popular international providers are already in the catalogue when adding a provider — the server address and the mode are filled in for you. The UAE specifics:

• Telnyx — the only international provider with local +971 numbers: "Local numbers for United Arab Emirates start at $150 per month". Activation is a special procedure through a local partner: it requires the company's UAE trade licence, the representative's Emirates ID and a service description; access is restricted for financial, forex and debt-collection companies.
• Twilio — for the UAE the directory lists only toll-free +971 800, with no local or mobile numbers. The paperwork is a letter of authorisation plus a name and address, and the address may be anywhere in the world.
• DIDWW — local SIP trunking for the UAE is marked as not available; of the numbers only toll-free ones exist, and they require a letter of intent and extra documents. Local, mobile and national numbers are "not currently available for this country".
• didlogic — for the UAE it sells outbound termination only ($0.1467 per minute over direct routes landing in Dubai and Fujairah). There are no inbound UAE numbers: in the Gulf they are available only for Bahrain.
• United World Telecom / Global Call Forwarding — advertises "UAE SIP trunking": a basic package at $92.95 per month for 10 channels with a local number, activation in 1–2 business days, trunk credentials issued after signup. The parameters and the origin of the number are not disclosed publicly — before paying, ask in writing for the number type and the name of the underlying carrier.
• A regulatory caveat for this whole section. TDRA states plainly that international providers are not licensed in the UAE and may terminate voice traffic into the country only in collaboration with a licensee. A +971 number bought outside a licensed channel is no longer a technical problem but a legal one for the customer.

Number porting#

• Portability works for both mobile and landline numbers. Both procedures are run by the recipient carrier: you apply to it, and it handles the process with the losing carrier. Porting is free for the customer.
• Timelines according to TDRA: about 3 business days for private customers and up to 10 business days for enterprise ones; requests are accepted around the clock, while the work itself happens during business hours. Integrators report 5–10 business days for business numbers in practice, with the PBX cutover planned for a weekend.
• What can be ported: landline numbers of all emirates (codes 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 09) between Etisalat and du; mobile numbers 050, 052, 054, 055, 056, 058; du also offers a separate portability service for 800 toll-free numbers. A number can be returned to the previous carrier within 7 business days of the port.
• Paperwork: with the new carrier you sign up as a new customer — companies need a trade licence and signatory documents, private individuals only an Emirates ID. A port is refused if the details do not match the losing carrier's records or if the line is suspended. Debt does not block the port, but debt left unpaid after it may lead to disconnection at the new carrier.
• Two traps. Porting a landline number cancels the non-voice part of the bundle — if the number came with internet or TV, those have to be arranged again. And the new carrier may refuse if it cannot serve your address on its own network: fibre does not reach every building from both of them.

Rules and paperwork#

If it does not work#

1. The trunk is not visible at all and the address looks like 10.x.x.x or a name in the .fmc zone. This is not a configuration fault: at both UAE carriers the handover is private and can only be reached from the venue's network. There is no such thing here as "a PBX in another country plus a UAE trunk" — either the PBX sits inside the UAE or a secure link is built between the premises and the PBX.
2. Registration with du fails. Check the login: it is the pilot number with a p suffix (97143650900p), not just the number. Then check that the host in the form matches the parameter sheet and that its name resolves through the DNS the PBX actually uses.
3. The Etisalat trunk is silent on the premises. Check the static routes and DNS from the carrier's sheet: without routes to the carrier's service networks and its DNS the signalling never reaches the node, even though internet access on the PBX works.
4. Outbound calls show the wrong number. By default du puts the trunk's pilot number in the caller ID. Test the Display as field on a live line and, if needed, ask the carrier to allow substitution with a specific number.
5. Two numbers landed on the same line. The subscriber part in the UAE is seven digits, so landline 04-2345678 and mobile 050-2345678 share the same tail. Check the tails when adding numbers and tell such pairs apart by something other than the number.
6. The carrier says SIP is not included in your plan. The residential Etisalat eLife and du Home plans include no trunk — a business plan with the SIP Trunk service is required.
7. It used to work and stopped after carrier maintenance. Local integrators note that Etisalat and du change signalling parameters from time to time without warning: ask for an up-to-date parameter sheet.

Causes that do not depend on the country are covered in If calls do not go through.

Frequently asked questions#

Can a UAE number already be connected to our PBX today?#

No. A dedicated PBX is not created for UAE locations: providing telecom services here requires a TDRA licence, and the regulator treats unlicensed VoIP as prohibited. There is a technical limit too: a licensee's trunk arrives over dedicated fibre in a private network, and a cloud PBX cannot reach it.

Which provider should a venue already operating in the UAE start with?#

With du Business SIP Trunk: it is the country's only trunk with an open price and clear terms — 10 channels and 100 numbers for AED 580 a month on a one-year contract. The alternative is Etisalat through an account manager. In both cases the PBX has to sit inside the UAE, and the installation is easier to order from a local integrator.

Does a venue need a telephony licence?#

Not for its own PBX: the regulator states that installing VoIP equipment in a private network requires no licence as long as you do not provide telecom services to others. The licence is needed by whoever sells connectivity — and there are only two such companies in the country.

Can a local +971 number be bought from an international provider?#

Only from Telnyx — from $150 a month and with a full document review: the company's UAE trade licence and the representative's Emirates ID. Twilio and DIDWW only offer toll-free +971 800 numbers for this country, and didlogic sells no inbound UAE numbers at all. Remember the regulator's caveat as well: an international provider may deliver traffic into the UAE only in partnership with a licensee.

Can calls with guests be recorded?#

Yes, but only with a notice. The UAE follows an all-party consent regime: recording a private conversation without the participants' consent is a criminal offence with a fine from AED 150,000. Enable the spoken recording notice at the start of the call and make sure it plays in a language the guest understands.

Can guests be called from the PBX?#

With restrictions most other countries do not have: calls are allowed only between 09:00 and 18:00, only from a local number registered to the company's commercial licence, and only after a check against the national do-not-call register. Fines reach AED 150,000 and licence withdrawal, so automated calling for the UAE has to be configured separately rather than "as everywhere else".

Sources#

All links checked on 09.09.2026.

Carriers

• du — Business SIP Trunk, tariffs and FAQ: https://www.du.ae/siptrunk
• du — Enterprise Voice, fixed telephony portfolio: https://www.du.ae/enterprise/fixed/voice
• Etisalat by e& — Business Voice FAQs: https://support.etisalat.ae/en/business/business-voice-faqs.jsp
• Etisalat by e& — Unified Communications (SIP Trunking): https://www.etisalat.ae/en/enterprise-and-government/enterprise-solutions/unified-communications.html
• Etisalat by e& — CloudTalk: https://www.etisalat.ae/en/enterprise-and-government/enterprise-solutions/unified-communications/cloudtalk.html
• Etisalat by e& — Microsoft Teams Direct Routing (brochure, PDF): https://www.etisalat.ae/content/dam/etisalat/business-docs/enterprise-and-government/business-brochures/microsoft-direct-routing-brochure.pdf

Regulator and government

• TDRA — FAQs (VoIP policy, number portability, area codes): https://tdra.gov.ae/en/FAQs
• u.ae — Telecommunications (licensees, emergency numbers): https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/infrastructure/telecommunications

International numbers and local integrators

• Telnyx — United Arab Emirates virtual phone numbers: https://telnyx.com/phone-numbers/united-arab-emirates
• Twilio — UAE regulatory guidelines: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/ae/regulatory
• DIDWW — SIP Trunking in United Arab Emirates: https://www.didww.com/voice/global-sip-trunking/United_Arab_Emirates
• DIDWW — UAE regulatory requirements: https://www.didww.com/resources/regulatory-requirements/United_Arab_Emirates
• didlogic — UAE: https://didlogic.com/international/emirates/
• United World Telecom — UAE SIP Trunking: https://www.unitedworldtelecom.com/services/sip-trunking/uae-sip-trunking/
• Logixer — SIP Trunk & PBX Installation Services in Dubai: https://www.logixer.com/sip-trunk-pbx-installation-services-in-dubai-uae
• Quicknet — 3CX Phone System Guide UAE 2026: https://quicknet.me/3cx-phone-system-guide-uae-2026

Related pages#

• Connecting a provider's number to the PBX — the common steps, trunk modes, networking and the connection test.
• Setting up SIP phones — how to connect desk phones and DECT handsets to extensions.