Buying telephone numbers

[stuart bloomsbury]

Has anyone got any advice about buying telephone numbers. We want to buy a landline number that will stay with us wherever we go. One of the problems we have at the moment is that we are moving offices, and we cannot print any promotional material until we have moved and know for definate what our telephone number will be.

I know you can buy 0845, 0870, 0800 numbers etc, but I think these companies were set up before mobile phone operators realised that they could make a packet charging through the nose for calling these type of numbers. Therefore we just want to purchase a landline number. Anyone any experience of this?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

buy a VoIP based number! You can take it aroubd the world, office in the day, home at night etc!

 

[Martin P]

Has anyone got any advice about buying telephone numbers. We want to buy a landline number that will stay with us wherever we go. One of the problems we have at the moment is that we are moving offices, and we cannot print any promotional material until we have moved and know for definate what our telephone number will be.

I know you can buy 0845, 0870, 0800 numbers etc, but I think these companies were set up before mobile phone operators realised that they could make a packet charging through the nose for calling these type of numbers. Therefore we just want to purchase a landline number. Anyone any experience of this?

I use TTNC basically you can buy any geographical landline number (which a customer can ring), or 0800, 0845 Etc., and through the control panel on their website you divert it to any exsisting number you have, like another landline, (when you get to your new office), a mobile number, or VOIP. It's ideal for me, when I'm out of the office I divert calls to my mobile, - no one knows

It costs £25 for a landline number, and the diversion costs 2p a minute to a landline, and 14p a minute to a mobile or is free to VOIP,
You 'top up' your number through the control panel, and the 2p's, Etc. come out of this,

There's lots of other ways, which i'm sure the guys will be along to tell you

 

[trilby274]

If you are staying in your current code area, most providers allow you to take your existing number to the new location. You can arrange for the switch over to be timed to your move into the new premises.

 

[Greg1006]

Stuart

We can provide telephone numbers which can be redirected to any existing landline or mobile. These are available for all geographic area codes, as well as the new 03 number range.

I would recommend a non-geographical 03 number for your purposes. Unlike 0845 and 0870 numbers, calls to 03 numbers cost no more than geographic numbers and are included as part of any inclusive call packages (BT Together, inclusive mobile phone minutes, etc.).

We can offer this service for £3 a month, plus the cost of the call diversion (1.25p/min to landlines). Feel free to PM me if you would like to discuss this further.

 

[cjd]

If you need a geographic telephone number that you can take with you anywhere you go (even outside the UK) without having to pay to divert the call, the ONLY solution is VoIP.

Our geographic numbers cost £1.99 per month. No other costs and no contract.

You should also read this information about choosing numbers:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46850

 

[stuart bloomsbury]

That guy above says £1.25 a minute?! Your joking....

For the VOIP thing, do I need a special phone to do this?

 

[Greg1006]

1.25 pence per minute, not pounds

To do VoIP, you will either need to buy a VoIP telephone, or an adapter to enable a standard telephone to make/receive VoIP calls.

 

[stuart bloomsbury]

wow - I try calling all these people who specialise in telephone numbers and they are all on voicemail...

 

[inspiremydesign]

LoL!

I'm looking for a good decent voipfone provider, although its for the businesses im advertising online. How do you compare in prices and quality of service compared to Skype?

Thanks.

Naweed.

 

[cjd]

Here's something I prepared earlier:

(and we're cheaper)

What is the difference between Voipfone and Skype?
There are many very important differences between Voipfone and Skype – things like call quality, reliability, customer service, price, services & features and technology - but the simple and critical difference between Voipfone and Skype is that Skype is NOT a telephone service and Voipfone is. (Voipfone is a business class telephone service too.)
Skype is a software application that runs on your PC, not a telephone service. Skype go out of their way to explain that they are not a telephone company and they do not, for instance, provide a 999 service - in defiance of UK telephone regulation.
What is VoIP?
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls over the internet (and other data networks). It’s the next generation of telecoms technology and over the next few years all of BT’s core networks will be converted to it by their 21st Century Network project. All new PBX (switchboard) equipment is already VoIP enabled.
VoIP is a general description of a technology, the specific technology used by VoIP has now been standardised internationally – this is called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).
So what is Skype?
Skype is a form of VoIP.
But Skype use its own technology which is secret and will not interwork with any other system or service. The world of telecommunications relies totally on accepted international standards so that any telephone anywhere in the world can call any other – this is not the case with Skype.
Skype is also a peer to peer system - that is, it uses your own PC and all the other PCs with Skype software on it, to carry their calls. Sometimes it even uses your own bandwidth ie your broadband connection to carry traffic for other people over your connection. See ‘Skype Super Node’ to find out more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernode_(networking)
This makes it extremely cheap for them as they do not need to provide their own network infrastructure but it also means that it can not control the quality of your calls.
Skype is a wonderful application which brought VoIP to everyone’s attention and the industry would not be what it is today without it, but it was never designed or even envisaged as a business application or even a telephone service - and it isn’t

 

[BrecklandGroup]

Check out Sipgate, their VoIP numbers are free. Service is very good, ive used them for our inbound IVR services as they support multiple calls per number.

David