# Check a phone number before you go live

The path from a caller to an answer has four segments that fail independently: the carrier leg, the routing row, the worker and model session, and the record written afterwards. Test them in that order with your own handset. A single call that felt fine proves only whichever segments it happened to touch, which is why the tests are separate.

- **Status:** Available
- **Audience:** both
- **Channels:** phone
- **In the app:** #/calls, #/phone-advanced
- **Last verified:** 2026-09-10
- **Canonical:** https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/how-to/check-a-number-before-going-live/

## The four segments

| Segment | Proves | Its own failure |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier leg | The network accepts and delivers the number | Verification not passed; the number reaching an old destination |
| Routing row | The number is bound to this workspace | The call arrives and lands nowhere at all |
| Worker and session | A voice session starts and audio flows | No worker checked in, no capacity, or a session the model refused |
| The record | The call produced a transcript, an outcome and timings | A call that connected and left nothing behind |

These fail independently, which is the whole reason for testing them independently. A worker that has not checked in produces an inbound call that reaches nothing at all — and a Phone screen that used to go on saying ready while it happened.

## The tests, in order

1. Read the line's readiness on the Phone screen before dialling anything.
   - Result: It reports four things that escalate into Needs You: a worker that has not checked in, a fleet with no capacity, a run of calls that never rang, and sessions the model refused. Any of those makes the later tests meaningless, and each drains by itself once fixed.
2. Run a Voice Lab test call.
   - Result: This exercises the model session, the resolved profile and the behaviour text without involving the public network at all. If the voice is wrong here, no amount of carrier testing will help — and the settings that ran are snapshotted onto the call for the review.
3. Place an outbound call from Connect to a handset you hold.
   - Result: This proves the carrier accepts the number as a calling identity and that audio reaches a real device. It proves nothing about inbound.
4. Ring the number from that same handset.
   - Result: This is the inbound leg and the routing row together. If it reaches nothing, either the carrier is not sending the number to Connect or no route exists for it — two different fixes, in two different places.
5. Call again and interrupt the greeting deliberately, then stay silent for a while.
   - Result: You are testing the two behaviours most likely to embarrass you: whether the voice yields when talked over, and what happens when a caller says nothing. Both are settings, and both are visible in the review afterwards.
6. Open both call records and read them fully.
   - Result: Transcript, outcome, hang-up attribution and the reply timings. A call that connected and produced no record is a fault of its own, and you would rather find it now.

> **Note** You do not need a stranger. Your own mobile is an outside caller as far as the carrier is concerned, and the browser softphone gives you a second endpoint from a different direction when you want one.

## What each result actually tells you

**Lab call fine, inbound silent** — The engine is healthy; the problem is upstream in routing or at the carrier. Stop testing voice settings.
**Outbound fine, inbound silent** — The carrier accepts the number for outgoing calls but is not delivering incoming ones to Connect. That is a carrier destination question.
**Rings, connects, then nothing is said** — A session that did not start. Read the readiness signals: a refused session and an absent worker look identical from the handset.
**Everything works but the greeting is slow** — Latency, not setup. It belongs to the review and the profile, and the floor on this path is real — the best measured call sat at 3.3 seconds median reply, not one or two.
**Works, and no record appears** — The conversation happened and nothing captured it. This is worth reporting before the number carries real traffic.

## Before you publish the number

- Business hours are set, and you have called outside them once to hear what an out-of-hours caller gets.
- Autonomy on the voice channel is what you intend, at the scope you intend — a line on approval with nobody to approve answers and then goes quiet.
- The behaviour text names the business correctly in the opening, and you have heard it rather than read it.
- Any commitment the voice might make has somewhere to land: a promise on a call is meant to become a dated follow-up, not a sentence in a transcript.
- Nothing in Needs You relates to this line.

> **Careful** Two capabilities people assume are present are not, and it is better to learn that now than during a real call. Recording is a foundation capability that is not enabled on the live carrier, and a completed warm transfer to a person depends on a provider capability that is not enabled either — an escalation phrase queues a transfer and the supervisor panel can act on a live call, but do not design a process around a finished hand-off.

## Questions

### Can I test without spending call minutes?

The Lab test call exercises the model session and the resolved profile without the public network, so it is the cheapest of the tests and catches most behaviour problems. The carrier legs cannot be simulated — they are the thing being tested.

### How many test calls are enough?

Four: one Lab call, one outbound, one plain inbound, and one inbound where you interrupt and then go quiet. Anything beyond that repeats a segment you have already proved.

### The line says ready but nobody can get through. Where do I start?

At the carrier. Readiness reports what Connect can see, and it cannot see a call that never arrived — so a healthy-looking line with no inbound calls is almost always the number not being delivered here.

## Related

- [Make a test call](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/getting-started/make-a-test-call/)
- [Carrier callback verification](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/phone/carrier-verification/)
- [Phone line health](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/phone/phone-health/)
- [Nobody can reach the number](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/troubleshooting/phone-line-not-ringing/)
- [The call connected and nobody spoke](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/troubleshooting/call-answered-in-silence/)
- [Review a call properly](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/how-to/review-a-call/)
- [Calling from the browser](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/phone/softphone/)

## What this page is based on

- Connect source pack: phone (docs-source/sources/PHONE.md §5 — line health and capacity)
- Connect source pack: phone (docs-source/sources/PHONE.md §12 — what is not available)
- Connect capability registry (docs-source/facts.py — line_health, call_recording, call_transfer)