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What is Plivo used for in a Bolna voice agent?
Plivo is a telephony provider that lets a Bolna voice agent make outbound calls and answer inbound calls on Indian phone numbers, either bought inside Bolna or from your own Plivo account. Pick Plivo for calling within India when you also want features that are Plivo-only on Bolna today, such as IVR menus and transferring calls to a SIP URI.
How do I set up Plivo with Bolna?
- Get a number. Either buy one at platform.bolna.ai/phone-numbers (India, provider Plivo), or connect your own account under Settings, then Integrations: filter by Telephony, click Connect on the Plivo card and enter your Auth ID and Auth Token.
- Open your agent's Calling tab, set the telephony provider to Plivo and save.
- For outbound calls, enter recipient numbers in the dashboard or call the Bolna call API with your agent ID.
- For inbound calls on a Bolna-bought number, turn on Inbound Calling in the Calling tab and pick the number. On your own Plivo account, create an XML Application in the Plivo Console, paste the agent's inbound URL into the Primary Answer URL and Hangup URL, and assign the application to your number.
Step-by-step screenshots: Plivo setup guide in the Bolna docs.
Which numbers and features does Bolna support with Plivo?
| Feature | Plivo on Bolna |
|---|---|
| Supported country | India |
| Outbound calls | Yes |
| Inbound calls | Yes |
| Bring your own Plivo account | Yes |
| Buy a number in Bolna | Yes, Karnataka (80) and Maharashtra (22), $5 per month |
| 160-series (transactional) numbers | Yes, after DLT registration and KYC |
| IVR menus | Yes, Plivo only |
| Keypad input (DTMF) | Yes |
| Ambient background noise | Yes (Plivo and Vobiz) |
| Transfer to a SIP URI | Yes, Plivo only |
Prefer a SIP trunk? See Plivo SIP trunking. For 140-series telemarketing numbers, Bolna uses Vobiz. Number rent is separate from per-minute call costs; see pricing.
What can you build with Plivo and Bolna?
Department routing with IVR. Play a menu like "Press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Support" and send each caller to a different agent, with the choice passed in as context.
Hindi and English language selection. Let callers pick English or Hindi at the start of the call and route them to an agent set up for that language.
Account verification before the conversation. Collect an account number or PIN on the keypad, then hand the call to the agent with those digits already available.
Reminder and collection calls in India. Run appointment reminders, payment follow-ups or lead qualification at volume with batch calling.
Escalation to your own call center. Transfer a live call to a SIP URI on your own trunk, so escalations land on your PBX instead of going back out over the phone network.