Cloud telephony is business calling hosted on a provider’s servers, with virtual numbers, IVR, queues, recording and dashboards, billed per seat plus per minute. Right for high inbound volume and compulsory recording.
Definitions checked 2 September 2026.
Cloud telephony moves the business phone system to a provider's servers. The business rents virtual numbers, calls travel over the internet to and from the provider, and because the provider sits in the middle of every call it can answer with an IVR menu, queue callers, ring several agents at once, record the conversation, and show it all on a dashboard. Exotel, MyOperator, Knowlarity, Ozonetel, Acefone and Tata sell it in India, priced per seat plus per minute or per number.
It solves inbound and infrastructure problems well: one published number answered by many people, menus and routing, compulsory recording, numbers that survive an employee leaving, and campaign numbers for attribution. It solves outbound selling badly for a small Indian team: calls from virtual number ranges are screened as spam and answered less, every minute is metered, and a customer who calls back reaches a routing table rather than the person they spoke to. The rule of thumb is direction and size: mostly inbound or above twenty agents, cloud; mostly outbound and under that, the phone itself.
A SIM-based dialer is the other architecture, not a cheaper version of the same one: the call runs on the mobile network from the caller's SIM, there is no server in the middle, so there is no IVR and no live monitoring, and also no virtual number, no per-minute bill and no answer-rate penalty. RMDialer, which we make, is that second architecture with the CRM attached. The linked post explains cloud telephony and the cases where a business genuinely needs it.
Cloud telephony and related telecalling terms, with what each one means
Term
What it means
Cloud telephony
Business calling hosted on a provider’s servers: virtual numbers, IVR, queues, recording, dashboards: billed per seat plus per minute. Right for high inbound volume and compulsory recording.
A phone number that exists in software rather than a SIM, routed wherever its owner configures. Flexible for teams: and increasingly screened by Indian phones on outbound calls.
“Press 1 for sales”: menus that answer and route incoming calls without a human. Call-centre infrastructure that small businesses often buy when their real problem was remembering customers.
Voice over Internet Protocol: calls travelling as data instead of cellular voice. The transport underneath cloud telephony, with its costs and its answer-rate consequences in mobile-first markets.
Auto dialing that runs on an ordinary Android phone through its own SIM: the customer sees a real local number, calls cost normal operator rates, and no cloud telephony is involved.
From the term to the tool
Can you try cloud telephony in RMDialer for free?
A definition is easier to hold once you have watched it happen on a real call. The dialer is free for good and needs no account, so reading about the term and trying it are about a minute apart.
Free forever
₹0, no expiry
Your phone app: keypad, contacts, call log and caller ID
Spam and unknown-number screening on every incoming call
Call analytics: your day counted, by outcome, and by who you called
Missed calls kept in their own list, so nothing is returned late
Sending WhatsApp from a call, free every day
Free WhatsApp sends every day with a free account: 15 a day for your first 15 days, then 3 a day. The dialer itself needs no login at all.
On a plan
₹159/user/month, yearly
$29 per user per year, or $12 per user for 3 months, outside India
The customer record: lead status and remarks saved against every call
Follow-up reminders that ring like an alarm on the day you set
Auto dialing a whole list without touching the phone
Your team: seats, assigned calling lists and per-person reports
Automatic WhatsApp after calls, bulk sending and the WhatsApp API inbox
Backup and restore, so a new phone carries on where the old one stopped
Leads arriving on their own from Google Sheets, APIs and lead portals
Try it free for 3 days: unlimited use, no credit card required. Prices are per user, exclusive of taxes.
Questions
What do people ask about cloud telephony?
What is cloud telephony?
Business calling hosted on a provider's servers: virtual numbers, IVR, queues, routing, recording and dashboards, with calls travelling over the internet and billed per seat plus per minute.
Do I need cloud telephony for a small sales team?
Usually not. Cloud telephony suits inbound desks, call centres and compulsory recording. An outbound team under roughly twenty callers is better served by a SIM-based dialer on the phones it already has.
What is the difference between a power dialer and a predictive dialer?
A power dialer calls one number at a time for one agent and waits for that call to end, so every answered call has a person ready. A predictive dialer calls several numbers at once and connects the ones that answer to whichever agent is free, which needs a call-centre server and causes dropped "silent" calls. Mobile auto dialers like RMDialer are power dialers on a SIM.
What is a SIM-based dialer and how is it different from cloud telephony?
A SIM-based dialer places calls from the SIM in the user's own phone, so the customer sees a normal mobile number and the call costs whatever the operator plan charges. Cloud telephony routes calls through a virtual number on a server and bills per user plus per minute, in return for features like IVR and recording. For outbound sales on mobile numbers, SIM calling gets answered more often and costs far less.
Do I need a virtual number to run a calling team?
No. A virtual number is only needed when calls must be routed through a cloud platform, for example for an inbound IVR. An outbound sales team can run entirely on business SIMs in the reps' phones, with the app logging every call and the owner reading the reports. Customers also answer known mobile numbers more readily than unfamiliar virtual ones.
Why do customers not answer calls from virtual numbers?
Because caller ID apps and phone dialers increasingly flag pooled virtual and VoIP numbers as spam or business calls, and because the same virtual number is often used for many campaigns. A real mobile number from a local SIM looks like a person calling, which is why SIM-based dialers report higher connect rates in India.
Can I use two SIMs for business calling on one phone?
Yes. On a dual-SIM Android phone the dialer lets you choose which SIM makes each call, or set a default business SIM for all sessions. You can also decide which SIM's calls are backed up and reported, so personal calls on the other SIM stay out of the team account.
How do I stop my business number being marked as spam?
Call from a real SIM rather than a pooled virtual number, keep daily volumes reasonable, do not call DND numbers with offers, save your business name in Truecaller and similar caller ID apps, and send a WhatsApp before or after the call so the customer recognises you. Numbers get flagged by patterns of unanswered cold calls, not by calling your own enquiries.
Which is better for an Indian sales team: SIM-based CRM or cloud call centre software?
For outbound sales on mobile numbers, SIM-based: higher answer rates, no per-minute bills, calls that need no mobile data, runs on phones the team already has. For high-volume inbound with IVR, queues and recording, cloud call-centre software. Many businesses run both: cloud for the support line, SIM-based for the sales team.
What is an auto dialer app?
An auto dialer app calls a list of phone numbers one after another so the caller never types a number. On Android, an app like RMDialer runs the session on the phone itself using the SIM already in it: you pick a list from Excel, a Google Sheet, an API or assigned leads, press start, and the app dials each number in turn while you mark the outcome between calls.
What is a telecalling CRM?
A telecalling CRM is customer software built around phone calls: the lead list, the dialer, the call outcome and the follow-up live in one place. The mobile kind, such as RMDialer, replaces the Android phone app on each rep's handset so every call automatically becomes a record with a status, a remark and the next follow-up, and the manager sees the whole team on a web dashboard.
What is the difference between telecalling software and a CRM?
Telecalling software is built to make and track calls (dialing lists, call logs, per-caller reports). A CRM is built to hold customer records and pipeline stages. Most Indian sales teams need both at once, which is why a telecalling CRM combines them: the call itself creates and updates the customer record, so nobody types into a separate system after the call.
What is a CRM dialer?
A CRM dialer is a single app where the dialer and the customer record are the same thing: the call screen shows the lead, and ending the call updates it. It differs from a CRM with "dialer integration", which is two products joined by a sync. RMDialer is a CRM dialer for Android that runs on the user's own SIM.
What is a business dialer app?
A business dialer app replaces the default phone app on an Android phone with one made for selling: caller ID from your own leads, the last remark on screen when a customer rings, two-tap status and follow-up after each call, automatic WhatsApp, and a call log that filters by lead status. It is a personal CRM for one owner and a team system when several people use it.
Is RMDialer free?
The dialer is free forever. Install it, make it your phone app and you keep the keypad, contacts, call log, caller ID, spam screening and your call analytics with no account, no payment and no expiry date. Free WhatsApp sends are included every day once you make a free account. What you pay for is the memory around the call: the lead status, the remark and the follow-up reminder saved against every number, plus list auto dialing, team reports, backup and WhatsApp automation.
Customer reviews
RMDialer reviews from business users
Real businesses, real numbers: how owners and sales teams across India and 12+ countries use RMDialer every day.
Rated 4.9 by customers 4.7 on Google Play 5K+ downloads India + 12+ countries
“Telecaller app for Android that my staff actually use. Enquiry list is assigned to each telecaller, the auto dialer calls it from their own SIM, and test ride bookings come to me live. Punjabi interface for the girls at the desk. Price is honest, everything included, no per-user surprises.”
“We needed an auto dialer app that works on our own MTN and Airtel lines, not a call centre subscription in dollars. RMDialer runs on the phones my agents already have, dials the enquiry list, and the WhatsApp follow-up goes out after every call. Calls still go out on the SIM when data drops, and the notes sync once we are back on the network.”
GOGrace OkaforManaging director · Travel agencyLagos, Nigeria
“We looked for telecalling software for a nine-person loan team and every quote came with cloud seats and per-minute bills. RMDialer telecalling software runs on the callers' own Jio SIMs: the lead list dials itself, the remark goes on the number, and I get dials, connects and talk time per caller every evening. Cost is one flat price per user.”
KIKavita IyerOperations head · Loan DSAChennai
“Earlier I was dialling 80 to 100 portal leads a day by hand from Excel. With RMDialer auto dialer app I import the sheet, press start and it calls one by one from my own Jio SIM. Between calls I mark Interested or Site visit in two taps and the follow-up rings me on time. Closed 3 flats last month from leads I would have forgotten.”
“We tried two telecalling CRM software before this and my counsellors stopped filling them within a week. RMDialer is the phone app itself, so every admission enquiry gets logged whether they like it or not. The auto WhatsApp after call sends the fee structure by itself. I see all 4 counsellors' calls on the web CRM every evening.”
PNPriya NairOwner · Coaching instituteKochi
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₹159/user/month on yearly in India, $29/user/year elsewhere · every feature included · Prices are per user, exclusive of taxes.
Free forever: the business dialer never expires, and needs no account
Call recording supported · our team sets it up with you during training
On iPhone and Android. The iPhone app has every feature except the native call log.