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If your phone system is Unitel, you can keep your existing number and your existing setup — Verbu just becomes one of the destinations Unitel can route calls to.

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What you’ll set up

A rule in Unitel that says: “When a call comes in on this number, send it to Verbu.” That’s all. The number stays yours. Your existing phones still work. If you ever want to switch the agent off again, you just flip the rule back in Unitel.

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Best practice: concurrent calls with OneConnect

Normally, one Verbu agent can answer multiple calls at the same time. With Unitel / OneConnect, the setup is different: OneConnect sends calls to a local extension, so a single local extension can become the limiting factor. If you want the AI receptionist to answer concurrent calls, the best setup is:
  1. Create multiple local extensions in OneConnect for the AI receptionist.
  2. Create a queue, for example Agent Queue.
  3. Add all of the AI receptionist’s local extensions to that queue.
  4. Set the queue strategy to ring all.
  5. Route the relevant incoming calls to the queue.
When the queue rings all extensions, Verbu picks up on whichever extension has an available agent. The number of local extensions in the queue directly controls how many calls the AI receptionist can answer in parallel. For most businesses, three to five local extensions is enough. If you have very high call volume, add more. Concurrent calls are simpler with most other PBX solutions. This queue setup is specific to how OneConnect handles calls.

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Before you start

You need:
  • Access to your Unitel admin panel (or the contact details for whoever manages it on your behalf)
  • The phone number you want the agent to answer on
  • The SIP endpoint from Verbu — you’ll find it in the dashboard under Phone numbers → Connect existing number
If you don’t have the SIP endpoint yet, ask your Verbu contact and they’ll send it across in a few minutes.

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Steps

1

Open your Unitel admin panel

Sign in at your Unitel admin URL. If you don’t have an admin account, your IT person or Unitel reseller will have one.
2

Find the incoming number

Locate the phone number you want the agent to handle. It will be listed under your numbers or DIDs.
3

Change the routing

Set the call routing for that number to forward to a SIP URI (sometimes called “SIP trunk” or “external SIP destination”). Paste the Verbu SIP endpoint as the destination.
4

Save and test

Save the rule. Call the number from your mobile to check that your Verbu agent picks up. The first ring usually rings through within a second or two.

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Optional: hand off to humans during business hours

A common setup is “Verbu answers when nobody is around, and rings the team during business hours”. You can do this two ways:
  • In Unitel — set a time-of-day rule so calls during business hours go to your team and after-hours calls go to Verbu.
  • In Verbu — let the agent take every call and use Forwarding on the agent to transfer to a human when needed (lunch break, complex case, VIP customer, etc.).
Most teams start with the Unitel time-of-day rule because it’s the simplest, then gradually let the agent take more calls as they get comfortable with it.

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Common scenarios

The call arrived but the audio isn’t flowing. Nine times out of ten this is a SIP codec mismatch. Ask Unitel to allow PCMU and PCMA (also called G.711 µ-law and A-law) on the trunk to Verbu.
The forwarding rule didn’t save, or the SIP endpoint was typed with a typo. Go back to Unitel, open the rule, and verify the destination matches the SIP endpoint Verbu gave you exactly.
Usually a firewall or session-border-controller issue between Unitel and Verbu. Send a sample call ID to Verbu support and they’ll match it against the logs on our side.
In Unitel, change the routing for the number back to where it was before — usually a queue or a hunt group. Calls will go straight back to your team the moment you save.

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Next steps

  • Make sure your agent is ready: Building your first agent
  • Set up Forwarding under your agent so the agent can hand off to a colleague when needed
  • If Unitel isn’t your PBX, see Most PBX solutions for the general pattern