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🇨🇦 Canada: SIP providers and number connection

Where to get a number with a SIP trunk in Canada, which parameters providers issue and what to enter in the admin panel so the number rings in the PBX

Documentation

Canada: SIP providers and connecting a number to the PBX

We do not issue numbers: the venue buys a Canadian number from a carrier or a DID provider and brings it into its own PBX over a trunk. The steps that are the same everywhere — trunk modes, form fields, network and connectivity check — are described in the overview «Connecting a provider's number to the PBX»; this page covers only what is specific to Canada: where to get a number, what the provider issues and what of it goes into the admin panel.

The data on this page was collected on 9 September 2026 from provider documentation, the numbering administrator and the regulator; links are in «Sources».

In brief#

  • The Canadian trunk market is crowded, but very few providers publish parameters. Almost every carrier has a «SIP trunk to your own PBX» product, yet most hand out the server address, port and authorisation method only in the onboarding order. Three publish full documentation: ThinkTel, Cloudli and IXICA.
  • The first candidate is ThinkTel (Distributel Business). It is the only one that published its SBC addresses, ports, RTP ranges and codecs. The mode is IP authorisation: the provider explicitly asks you not to register. Next come IXICA (registration, an official knowledge-base article for Asterisk/FreePBX, published pricing) and VoIP.ms (a Montreal aggregator with self-service and a choice of POP city).
  • The main local pitfall is the last 7 digits. A line is matched by the last seven digits of the number, and in the North American numbering plan they are not unique: +1 416 555 1234 and +1 604 555 1234 are the same line for the PBX. With one number this goes unnoticed; with several numbers in different area codes the routing rules start to misfire.
  • 9-1-1 is part of the provider's service, but you enter the address. Every number in the provider's portal has an emergency address, and it must match the venue's actual address. With IXICA the number in «Show as» must be a number registered for 9-1-1, otherwise outbound calls are rejected.
  • Paperwork. The venue needs no licence: you are a customer, not a carrier. Canadian providers work under a contract with a legal entity; international ones usually settle for an ID document and an address. Either way the trunk only works on a dedicated PBX with a static IP — take the address on the «Server» tab.
  • Quebec. For locations in Quebec, keep in mind the requirement to be served in French: orders, support and voice scenarios in the language of the province.

Numbers in Canada#

The country code is +1, the national number is always 10 digits: area code NPA (3) + NXX (3) + line number (4). Canada shares the numbering plan with the USA within NANP; the Canadian part is run by the CNA (Canadian Numbering Administrator) under CRTC oversight.

  • Local and mobile numbers look the same: the area code is shared, and you cannot tell from the number itself which is which.
  • There are about forty area codes, and the count grows through overlays: code 942 was overlaid on the 416/437/647 complex (Toronto) on 26 April 2025. In such zones dialling is strictly ten-digit.
  • Service numbers: 911 for emergencies, 988 the national crisis helpline (live since 30 November 2023), 611 and 411 for directory services. Because of 988 and the overlays, seven-digit patterns must not be left in outbound rules.
  • Toll-free for the caller: codes 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, 888 — a pool shared with the USA and administered by SOMOS. Canadian toll-free numbers are sold by ThinkTel, IXICA and Iristel.
  • How the number arrives in an inbound call. Two schools: 10 digits (that is how ThinkTel identifies a trunk — by a ten-digit «pilot number») and 11 digits with a leading 1 (IXICA sets the inbound route up as 14162734828, Iristel uses 1NPANXXXXXX). Either format suits the PBX: it matches the last seven digits — what matters is only that the number arrives in the call at all instead of being replaced by the trunk login.

⚠️ Consequence for several numbers. The area code is not part of the match. If a venue has two numbers with identical NXX-XXXX in different cities, a call to the second may follow the rule of the first. When ordering a second number, ask the provider to pick one with a different ending — in DID portals the number is chosen from a list.

Who issues a number with a SIP trunk#

Provider Numbers Trunk to your own PBX Mode How to connect
ThinkTel (Distributel Business) local, toll-free yes, business by IP (registration is possible but discouraged) request + uControl portal
IXICA Communications local (Canada and USA), toll-free yes REGISTER self-service, published pricing
VoIP.ms local, toll-free yes both (REGISTER suits us) self-service in the portal
Cloudli (formerly babyTEL) local, toll-free yes REGISTER self-service, but see the section below
Iristel local, toll-free yes REGISTER sales team, parameters in the order
VoiceMeUp local, toll-free yes, «SIP / IAX Trunking for PBX» REGISTER self-service, PBX Flex plans
net2phone Canada (formerly Versature) local, toll-free yes REGISTER or by IP sales team
Virtutel local yes, «Lignes SIP» static or dynamic IP request by phone or e-mail
RingOffice local (Canada and USA), toll-free yes, per channel issued on connection request a quote
Fidalia Networks local yes, enterprise by project engineering engagement
Convergia local, toll-free yes issued on connection sales team
Bell, TELUS, Rogers full numbering yes, but on the enterprise model usually by IP on the customer site contract and order, weeks
Fongo / Freephoneline local no (consumer service, no support) — not suitable, see below
Telnyx, Twilio, Bandwidth, DIDWW, Plivo, SignalWire, Flowroute, didlogic, Vonage local, toll-free yes REGISTER or by IP online, see «International providers»

The first three rows are providers with confirmed parameters; each has a «What to enter in the admin panel» table below. The rest hand out credentials in the portal or in the onboarding order: what to ask them is in the overview section «What to ask the provider».

ThinkTel (Distributel Business)#

A Canadian carrier with data centres in several cities; its «SIP Trunking» product is aimed precisely at third-party PBXs — the vendor claims support for more than a hundred PBX models. It is the only one of the verified Canadian providers to publish the full picture: SBC addresses, RTP ranges, ports, codecs and authorisation methods. Ordering and managing the trunk happens in the uControl portal; channels are enabled after an interop stage.

What to enter in the admin panel (Telephony → «Trunks and connections» → «Add provider» → the «SIP trunk (custom provider)» card):

Field Value
SIP host tor-isc-ws1.sbc.tprm.ca (Toronto) or edm-isc-ws1.sbc.tprm.ca (Edmonton)
Port 5060
Transport UDP
Registration ⬜ IP-auth (no registration) — as the provider requires
Login not used
Password not used

What to set up at the provider: order a SIP trunk and obtain a pilot number → write to Technical Services so they manually add your PBX static IP to the whitelist (a mandatory step on the new SBCs) → declare the binding your_IP:5060 → order numbers and the channel count in uControl → point the numbers at the trunk → optionally configure unavailable-call forwarding.

Pitfalls ⚠️ The provider explicitly asks you not to enable registration: its switch polls your PBX with an OPTIONS request every 30 seconds and disables the binding if there is no answer for 30 seconds. The whitelist is maintained by a support engineer — there is no «switch it on and go», and in the logs this looks like silence from the provider. ThinkTel's codecs are G.711 and G.729, so compatibility is there, but do not count on G.722 in this trunk. A custom number in «Show as» is allowed for one trunk per binding only and is billed to its pilot number — use a number from your own account. Up to eight addresses are allowed per trunk, distributed Round Robin or Lowest Available.

Source: helpcentre.thinktel.ca — How SIP Trunking works with Thinktel, thinktel.ca/services/sip-trunking — 09.09.2026.

IXICA Communications#

A Canadian carrier with access to most rate centres in Canada and the USA. Pricing is published: «Unlimited incoming» from $7/month, «Unlimited Canada or USA» from $14, «Unlimited Canada & USA» from $18, a metered plan from $10/month at 1.5 ¢ per minute with an unlimited number of channels. There is a ready knowledge-base article on connecting Asterisk/FreePBX — which means the parameters are official.

Field Value
SIP host the domain issued by IXICA on connection (also the domain in the headers)
Port 5060 (not named in the article — the standard one)
Transport UDP
Registration ✅ Register with the provider (REGISTER)
Login the trunk username from the order
Password the password from the same place

What to set up at the provider: buy a plan and numbers → obtain the domain, username and password → register the 9-1-1 address and the number used for outbound calls → point the numbers at the trunk → optionally order Caller ID Passthrough.

Pitfalls ⚠️ The provider's template allows a single codec — G.711 u-law — so G.722 will not negotiate on this trunk; DTMF is RFC 2833, same as ours. The number in «Show as» must be registered for 9-1-1 (the provider's own example is "IXICA" <4162734828>), otherwise outbound calls are rejected. Test dialling of 911 is allowed only by prior arrangement. The inbound number arrives as eleven digits with a leading 1 — our last seven are taken as usual. The provider itself requires that the number is not passed in the Remote-Party-ID header — which is exactly how our PBX behaves.

Source: IXICA knowledge base — Connecting FreePBX or Elastix to IXICA SIP Trunks, ixica.com/sip-trunking — 09.09.2026.

VoIP.ms#

A Montreal DID provider with full self-service: numbers are bought one at a time, connections are created as sub-accounts, and the server is chosen by city — Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and others. Formally it is an international player, but by residence and by Canadian numbering it is local, and it is the one most often found at venues that set up Asterisk themselves.

Field Value
SIP host the server of the chosen city, e.g. toronto.voip.ms — the exact POP name is shown in the portal
Port 5060
Transport UDP
Registration ✅ Register with the provider (REGISTER) — IP authorisation is also available in the sub-account settings
Login the sub-account name, e.g. 123456_name
Password the sub-account password

What to set up at the provider: create a Sub Account → choose the SIP protocol and the authorisation method → buy a number under DID Numbers → point the number at that sub-account → fill in the emergency address.

Pitfalls ⚠️ The values above are as reported by the provider on 09.09.2026; the exact POP server name, the sub-account login format and the codec set are visible in the portal when you create the connection — verify them there before entering them in the admin panel. Choose registration mode: with IP authorisation inbound calls are matched by the single SIP host of the trunk, whereas the POP city can be switched in the portal in one click — registration survives that without any settings change.

Source: wiki.voip.ms/article/Asterisk — 09.09.2026.

Cloudli (formerly babyTEL) — why this pairing does not work yet#

A Montreal carrier; since 2021 the babyTEL brand has been called Cloudli. Its Asterisk guide is the only Canadian document that spells out the registration string in full, and the trunk is sold as a PRI replacement with number retention. But it cannot be connected with our form at the moment, and the reason is technical.

The provider requires that all SIP messages are sent to a personal Outbound Proxy over UDP port 5065, while the domain in the headers stays sip.babytel.ca. In other words, the send address and the domain are two different values. The trunk form has a single «SIP host» field, and it sets both: enter the proxy and the domain will not match, so the provider rejects the registration; enter the domain and the messages go to the wrong place. There is no separate «Outbound proxy» field in the admin panel yet; once it appears, the Cloudli card on this page will be filled in.

What this means in practice: if a venue already has a number with Cloudli, it either ports it to another Canadian provider or waits for the improvement. The credentials for a future connection are in the portal: babyTEL Service → SIP Parameters (User ID, Authentication ID, SIP Password and the personal Outbound Proxy); additional numbers are enabled by the provider's customer service on request.

Source: babyTEL Asterisk Configuration Guide (PDF), cloudli.com — SIP Trunking — 09.09.2026.

Providers by contract and those that will not work#

Iristel, VoiceMeUp, net2phone Canada, Virtutel, RingOffice, Fidalia, Convergia, the large carriers and consumer services

All of the providers below do have a trunk for your own PBX, but the server address, authorisation mode, login and password are issued in the portal or in the onboarding order. Questions for the account manager are listed in «What to ask the provider»; be sure to say that the PBX is your own (Asterisk) and that phone provisioning from the provider is not needed.

  • Iristel. A carrier with its own network across 2,100+ rate centres and more than 30 million numbers served; on the consumer market its brand is G3 Telecom. The service page promises compatibility «with any SIP-compatible PBX system» but publishes no parameters — sales issue them. The mode is registration; when ordering, ask separately in what form the trunk delivers the dialled number.
  • VoiceMeUp. A Montreal carrier operating since 1999, with a separate «SIP / IAX Trunking for PBX» product. Pricing is transparent: the PBX Flex 1/5 plan is $32.95 CAD per month (1 channel, 5 simultaneous calls, 2 connections and 1 local number), then 3/10 — $84.95, 5/15 — $159.95, 7/20 — $209.95. ⚠️ Important: their Asterisk and FreePBX support is paid — the basic tier covers only ATA adapters and softphones.
  • net2phone Canada (formerly Versature). The Canadian arm of net2phone with declared interoperability testing for Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and others. There is an official article on the registration mode and a separate description of IP authorisation. When ordering, do not mix up the products: you need «SIP Trunking», not their Unite cloud PBX.
  • Virtutel. A carrier from Laval (Quebec); its «Lignes SIP» product is aimed exactly at customers who already have their own IP PBX. A rare case where the codecs are stated outright: G.711 u-law and G.729 at no extra charge; both static and dynamic addresses are supported, there is no minimum number of lines, and support is round the clock. Contacts: (514) 907-0849, 1-800-922-9958.
  • RingOffice. A Toronto provider with its own network, trunks sold per channel and failover to a backup carrier promised. TLS and SRTP are available on request, so plain SIP is the default — which is what we need.
  • Fidalia Networks. Enterprise SIP trunking with engineered routing and architect support. For a single venue on 2–4 channels this is needlessly expensive and slow.
  • Convergia. A Montreal carrier from the list of providers certified for Canada; parameters are issued on connection.
  • Bell, TELUS, Rogers. All three sell SIP trunks to third-party PBXs, but on the enterprise model: a contract, an onboarding order, often their own access circuit and an interop stage whose certified-equipment lists rarely include Asterisk. Rogers claims coverage of about 95 % of Canadian rate centres, TELUS offers redundancy between sites, Bell sells a wholesale trunk that grows one channel at a time. For a single venue on 2–8 channels this is the worst path: lead times run into weeks, and the trunk gravitates towards their own access line, while your PBX lives in the cloud. Worth it only if the enterprise contract already exists.
  • Fongo / Freephoneline is not a trunk source. It is a consumer retail service, and the site itself warns that there is no support and that it is recommended only to technically advanced ATA adapter users. There is no SIP trunk service and no business contract there.
  • Subscription cloud PBXs (RingCentral, 8x8, Zoom Phone, Ooma and the like) do not hand the number outwards: numbers are included in the per-seat subscription. Two options remain — port the number to a trunk provider or buy a new one.

International providers with Canadian numbers#

Canada is one of the best-served markets: local numbers are available from every major international provider — DIDWW, Telnyx, Twilio, Bandwidth, Plivo, SignalWire, Flowroute, didlogic, Vonage, AVOXI. Their parameters come from the portal, and the Telnyx and Twilio cards are already in the catalogue when adding a provider — the server address and mode are filled in automatically.

  • Paperwork at international providers is lighter than in the EU: the typical set is an ID document and an address (not necessarily Canadian), and a local legal entity is usually not required. Terms differ, so check before paying.
  • ⚠️ Emergency calling is a paid option with its own address. With international providers a Canadian number does not give you 911 by default: for some it is an «Emergency Calling» checkbox, for others a separate service. For a venue this matters, so it is better to take the number from a Canadian carrier where emergency calling is part of the service.
  • Call signing (STIR/SHAKEN). The highest attestation is given by a provider only to calls from numbers it issued itself. Outbound calls with someone else's number over an international trunk risk being flagged as spam — not a block, but a quiet loss of reachability.
  • Sangoma SIPStation, the retail trunk from the maker of Asterisk, also serves Canada; its parameters and pitfalls are covered on the USA page — numbers and emergency calling then follow the North American path.

Number porting#

  • Who runs porting. Canadian local number portability rests on the CLNPC consortium, which manages the corresponding contract on behalf of the industry under CRTC oversight. The request is filed by the new provider under your letter of authorisation; the number must stay in the same rate centre.
  • Timelines. Mobile numbers port within hours, wired numbers and number groups take from one or two business days up to several; there is no single published norm as in the USA, so follow the terms of your particular provider. Cloudli and IXICA offer porting as a standard service; at Bell it is done through a self-serve portal.
  • What actually delays a port: the account name and address do not match the previous carrier's record, the balance is not cleared, an unfinished order is pending on the number. Verify the details before filing.
  • ⚠️ The emergency address does not move with the port. It is entered afresh at the new provider, and it is also the subscriber's duty to update it when the venue moves.
  • A number in a private person's name. Consumer brands (Fongo/Freephoneline, G3 Telecom) sell numbers to individuals, but that is a retail ATA service with no support and no PBX trunk — it will not do for a venue.

Rules and paperwork#

Licences, 9-1-1, STIR/SHAKEN, caller ID spoofing, call recording, French in Quebec
  • The venue needs no permits. The service is provided by a carrier or reseller registered with the CRTC, and that registration is required before it starts serving customers. The buyer of a number is an ordinary customer, and the whole regulatory load (emergency calling, call signing, industry contributions) sits with the provider.
  • 9-1-1. Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-21 obliges all local VoIP providers to give their subscribers 9-1-1 access and to notify the customer of the service's limitations before service begins. The practical consequence: every number in the portal has an emergency address, and it must match the venue's actual address. Dialling 911 from the PBX must work without a prefix — discuss the setup with support before launch.
  • STIR/SHAKEN has been mandatory for IP voice since 30 November 2021 (Decision CRTC 2021-123). In 2025 the Commission suspended the semi-annual implementation reports, but the technical obligation remains. For you this is not a duty but a consequence: full attestation goes only to calls from numbers issued by the same provider.
  • Showing someone else's number. Canadian providers pass only numbers from your contract or verified ones in outbound calls. At ThinkTel a custom number is allowed for one trunk per binding only and is billed to its pilot number.
  • Call recording. The Criminal Code of Canada (s. 184) is built on one-party consent, but privacy law also applies to businesses: the federal PIPEDA and the provincial statutes of Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia require you to explain the purpose of recording and to notify the other party. Check the wording of the notice with a lawyer in your province; the notice itself is enabled in the location settings.
  • Quebec. The Charter of the French language requires service in French — this concerns not the trunk but your storefront, voice scenarios and correspondence with the provider.

If it does not work#

  1. ThinkTel: the trunk is «silent», no inbound calls. Your static IP is not on the whitelist: on the new SBCs a Technical Services engineer adds it by hand. Write to them and state the binding your_IP:5060.
  2. ThinkTel: the trunk comes up and drops. The provider polls the PBX with an OPTIONS request every 30 seconds and disables the binding when there is no answer. Make sure nothing between their SBC and your server filters that traffic.
  3. The call connects but there is silence. IXICA allows a single codec, G.711 u-law; ThinkTel and Virtutel offer G.711 and G.729. If only G.729 is enabled on the provider's side there will be no audio — ask them to enable G.711; the PBX codec requirements are in «Network and compatibility».
  4. Outbound calls through IXICA are rejected. The «Show as» field holds a number that is not registered for 9-1-1. Use the number the provider registered to your address.
  5. A call to the second number follows the scenario of the first. The two numbers share the last seven digits — see «Numbers in Canada». Pick numbers with different endings when ordering, or handle both with one shared routing rule.
  6. Guests see «Spam Likely» or an unfamiliar number. The «Show as» field holds a number from another provider: it is either replaced by the trunk number or gets a low attestation when the call is signed.
  7. Cloudli will not register no matter what you enter. This is not a configuration error: the provider needs a separate send address while the domain is preserved — see the Cloudli section above.

Causes that do not depend on the country are in «If calls do not go through». A SIP trace in the trunk menu helps to dissect a particular call, and the address and port are checked by the «Test connection» button.

Frequently asked questions#

Can I get a Canadian number if the company is registered outside Canada?#

With international providers — as a rule yes: the typical document set is limited to an ID document and an address, and they usually do not require a Canadian legal entity. Canadian carriers work under a contract, so it is better to clarify non-resident terms with an account manager before paying. Keep in mind that with international providers 911 is a separate paid service.

Registration or IP authorisation — which to choose?#

Registration by default: it does not depend on whitelists and needs no correspondence with support. The exception is ThinkTel: it asks you not to enable registration and works by IP, so the whitelist there is a mandatory onboarding step. How both modes work is described in the overview.

How long does connecting take?#

VoIP.ms — hours: the account and the number are arranged by yourself. IXICA and ThinkTel — days: an onboarding order is needed, and ThinkTel additionally has to add your address to the whitelist by hand. Porting an existing number takes from one or two business days. An enterprise contract with Bell, TELUS or Rogers takes weeks and still suits a cloud PBX poorly.

Will 911 work over our trunk?#

Emergency calling is provided by the carrier, but you enter the address — for every number in its portal. While the address is empty or outdated the number works, yet a 911 call goes to the wrong place. IXICA adds one more condition: the number in «Show as» must be registered for 9-1-1, and test dialling of 911 must be arranged with the provider in advance.

We have a Fongo / Freephoneline number — can we bring it into the PBX?#

No. It is a consumer retail service with no support and no SIP trunk offering: the provider itself states that it targets self-sufficient users of ATA adapters. A venue needs a number from a carrier with a trunk — see the table above.

Sources#

All links checked on 09.09.2026.

Providers

Numbering and regulation

Documentation
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