I have decided to use a virtual office - primarily to have a city centre adress while working from home - and I have also been offered a telephone number which I can redirect to any other phone or phones I like. The service company providing this facility say I can even use computer software to enable calls to be taken on my PC or laptop.
Does anyone have any experience of this they would like to share? Does this mean I have to install a new line anyway, and can they recommend appropriate software?
Sounds a bit like they are offering a VOIP line. There are services you can use yourself to do this. I'll tell you about voipfone (the service I use) then Shaun or Bill will tell you about the service they use.
VOIPfone (www.voipfone.co.uk) offer a service whereby you can buy geographical numbers for any area in the UK as though you had a landline there. You can use either a VOIP telephone like a snom or you can buy an adapter which you can plug a normal phone into. Alternatively you can redirect it to a mobile or landline although there are costs for each call. The landline transfer is 2.1p/min
VOIPfone charge £2.40/month for a geographic number and you can add many of these to the one account. They don't charge any other monthly fees.
sounds as though you are tieing together skype in order to use the internet as a phone with a service such as vonage where you get a local number of your choice but can direct call to that number to whereever you like.
I don't use Skype so not able to give any advice on that one.
I do use Vonage and have found it to be excellent and no problems with costs (The worry when you sign up to these things is always on the picking up the tab for redirected mobile calls).
Remember that caller pays for a local call to the virtual number but you pay for the redirection to whichever phones you like so if your local number calls a mobile you pay as though you have called the mobile yourself.
If you sign up with Vonage have a search through to find a good number. I landed a little belter with only 3 different numbers in the combination.
So long as you already have a landline able to connect to the internet there is no need for anything else. Vonage send you a little box with flashing lights on it that has been precoded for the number that you purchased. You plug into your router and thats it.
Online you tell your account where to route the calls and ta-dah. Someone calls that number and every number anywhere in the world that you have attached to the account will ring so there is no reason for a client to know when they phone your office in London that you are not answering on a mobile on the beach in the West Indies.
If you don't answer the user can leave a message and vonage send you an email with a voicemail attachment.
If you do answer the software recognises that a phone has picked up and the other phones stop ringing.
Right. The one problem that I have found with the system is that if any one phone in the system is off (say the mobile battery has died) then non of the phones will ring. But, the voicemail messages still work.
HTH,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Think that my basic package is £5.99 pcm inclusive of most landline calls that get transferred.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks, gents. £2.40 or £5.99 including calls beats £10 pm month just for a number hands down!
I don't know what it is, but my mind goes blank when people start discussing these things with me, but I shall certainly look into VOIP/Vonage this afternoon.
Like above you get what looks like a landland number but you can divert it to whatever number you want.
I currently have 13 different numbers across different cities/towns in Central Scotland, so from a marketing viewpoint it "looks" like I am local to that area.
It costs a one off charge of £20 for the number and thereafter you pay for the cost of the call if the person phones you.
What i do is I have a mobile phone that has 600 free minutes as part of the package per month. If someone phones me I tend not to answer the call then call them back thus using the free minutes I have anyway as part of my mobile deal. So effectively doesnt cost me anything other than the £20 cost for the number.
If I do answer the call then the cost is 8p per minute as the call has been diverted to my mobile phone.
