What the external phone type in VICIdial does

When you set phone type to external on a VICIdial phone record, you are telling the system that the audio device is a real telephone — a home landline, a mobile, or any number reachable through your carrier — rather than a SIP Softphone or Hardphone (deskphone) that registers on the server. Instead of waiting for a SIP device to check in, VICIdial calls the number in the dialplan number field as soon as the Agent submits their login.

How an external phone entry differs from a normal SIP phone

A standard VICIdial phone record expects a SIP device to register against an Asterisk SIP URI using the extension and registration password. The device announces its location when it registers, and calls route to it because Asterisk knows where it is. An external phone entry works the opposite way: there is no registration step. The phone IP and computer IP fields are left blank, because no device is going to check in from a known IP address.

The only location information the system has for an external entry is the dialplan number. When an agent tied to that phone record logs in, VICIdial instructs Asterisk to place a call to that number. Your trunk carries the call to the agent's real phone — home landline, cell, forwarding service — and when they answer, Asterisk bridges that audio leg into the dialer session.

Decision flow: external vs SIP phone type

flowchart TD
  A["Agent logs into VICIdial"] --> B{"Phone type on record?"}
  B -->|"SIP"| C["Check for active SIP registration in Asterisk"]
  C --> D{"Device registered?"}
  D -->|Yes| E["Route audio to registered SIP endpoint"]
  D -->|No| F["Login appears to complete but no audio path"]
  B -->|"external"| G["Skip registration check entirely"]
  G --> H["Read dialplan number from phone record"]
  H --> I["Asterisk places outbound call to that number"]
  I --> J["Agent answers their real phone"]
  J --> K["Session active — calls can be bridged"]

Fields that matter when phone type is external

Only a subset of the phone record fields are relevant when setting up an external entry. The ones that actually drive behavior are:

• Dialplan number: the full number as dialed from your system, including any outside-line prefix. This is the number Asterisk calls. Get this wrong and the agent's phone never rings.
• Client protocol: must be set to EXTERNAL. This tells VICIdial the device will not send a SIP registration, so the outbound-dial logic applies. Setting phone type to external but leaving client protocol at a SIP value causes inconsistent behavior.
• Phone IP and Computer IP: leave blank. Filling them in does not enable anything and can confuse diagnostics.
• Local GMT: the agent's timezone offset. Used by the Campaign call-time logic to decide whether the agent is within permitted hours. It does not auto-adjust for Daylight Saving Time.
• Outbound callerid: the number shown on the agent's phone when the dialer calls them. Use a recognizable number or agents will reject the incoming call.

When to use the external phone type

Use the external phone type when an Agent works from home or a mobile device and you cannot or do not want to configure a SIP client on their end. It is also suitable for monitoring-only entries where a supervisor's mobile number receives a read-only audio feed of a live call. Any scenario where the dialer must initiate the audio connection rather than the device registering first is the right fit for phone type external.

To see the full login-to-call flow in practice, read how to run a VICIdial agent on a home phone. The remote agents guide covers where external phone entries fit in the larger remote-agent picture. To get a managed VICIdial server without building infrastructure yourself, check our pricing plans — a dialer can be running in under 40 seconds.