The short answer
We ring you first, and ask you to press 1 before dialing the destination. That confirms you actually picked up before we spend the second half of the call — and once both legs are connected, both sides can hear each other normally.
Note
This also stops someone else from using your line to place a call without your knowledge, even if they somehow had your login.
If it keeps failing
- Make sure you answer on a line that supports touch-tone (DTMF) — some VoIP-to-VoIP legs strip it before it reaches us.
- You have 3 tries, about 30 seconds total, before the call is cancelled.
- A cancelled call is never billed for the destination leg — see do I get refunded if my call fails?
- Still stuck? Contact support and mention the number you were dialing from.