Mobile Phone Contract & Hello!!

[thewasherman]

Hi

I'm new to the forum, so firstly; I'm own a small business in Leeds which repairs white goods. I'm quite new to business hence arriving here on this forum. From what I can see, the forum looks like a great source of information and I look forward to contributing where I can.

My question with this thread is.....

I use ttnc to provide me with landline numbers that I divert to my mobile phone so that I get all of my calls no matter where I am. Currently this is costing a lot of money on a payg contract.

Does anyone know of the most cost efficient way/ best provider to use to reduce this cost whilst avoiding having to get too technicial by getting into voip phones etc?

Thank you

DC

 

[anandp]

If you get calls diverted to the mobile a lot, best bet and cheapest I found is just to stick with a BT business line (about £20pm) and get a BT mobile (£15 per month).

Diversions are then free!

 

[thewasherman]

Hi
Thanks for your reply..

Where I'm a bit confused with it is that ttnc numbers aren't landline numbers like the one I use in the house, I think they are probably voip or something else. I simply redirect it to my mobile during the day and my land line in the evening. I have a couple of numbers which has got me a few confused faces when I have asked in the mobile phone shops.

I guess that if the minutes bought with a monthly contract could be used against incoming phone charges, then that would be perfect, however, no one in a phone shop can tell me(not yet anyway).

I think it may be one to contact ttnc about.

Thanks again

 

[anandp]

What is a ttnc number? Can you provide an example?

 

[lockie]

Bt one plan again as its unlimite diverts betweens phones on the package.Downside is its bt.

 

[thewasherman]

Hi
Ttnc is a company which sells phone numbers and provides various call related facilities. They also provide premium rate numbers, 0800 and others.
You pay for a number of your choice starting at £25 then a call rate per minute after that.

I use about 500 minutes a month at a cost of about £35- £40. However, you have to pay the incoming rate for each call which is what I'm finding so costly as the divert is to my mobile. I used to use bt with one number but that meant paying for a land line plus rental. It also restricts the amount of numbers you can have as I have many to measure different advertising campaigns.

I thought there was a simple answer to it as many businesses use multiple numbers but maybe not because of the mobile divert being used for the majority of the time.

Thanks again....

 

[anandp]

Right I thought TTNC was a company like that - at least thats what I found on their website.

There are many companies that provide what TTNC do and the numbers they provide can be diverted to any other landline number.

If you have massive diversion charges, I'd reiterate that the best way is to go for a BT business line, and a BT mobile.
For your different campaigns, just get those promotional numbers to divert to your BT landline instead.

 

[longleaf1]

Something like this may be good http://soho66.co.uk/87203/all/1/Mobile-VoIP.aspx - it is the very thing i am thinking of doing although i havent done it yet so cant provide any real feedback but a couple of people on here have rated the service.

 

[anandp]

I've been using Soho66's landline VOIP services for about 3 months now. To be honest, I'm not very happy with their service. There seem to be quite a few outages in service and on the whole I'd say its at a sub-par level.

Never tried their mobile VOIP though.

 

[thewasherman]

thanks for everyones input. I think I'll get an unlimited mobile contract with divert set up on all the numbers on the ads. Voip etc is all a bit too confusing yet, maybe give it consideration when I understand it.

Just going to have to live with a phone bill the size of a call centres!

thanks again.....

 

[longleaf1]

Just bear in mind - it isnt the mobile that takes the bill though its the landline.

 

[thewasherman]

Hi
Thanks, that's right, it just costs a lot less than diverting through a mobile provider...

 

[longleaf1]

not sure what you mean by diverting through a mobile provider?

You will be looking at 12p/m + really though for a standard landline divert to mobile - you wont be able to buy a minutes bundle?? If you can please advise the provider, as i found this the most expensive route!

Thanks

 

[thewasherman]

Hi
When a customer calls me, the call is diverted from the ttnc (I think they call it a virtual server or something of the like) to my mobile phone, I pay for this to be diverted. I also pay for the call as normal.
By sending the call to my business landline, the cost from ttnc to to the landline is a lot less than to my mobile. 12p per min sounds exactly what I've got for the landline divert.

I'll give it a go for a while and see how it goes. I'm spending about £250 a month a the moment, bearing in mind that this is for one user, I'm keen to try and reduce it before I start employing anyone.

I guess on the plus side, its always ringing.

Thanks for your help...

 

[cjd]

Can I suggest that you use a VoIP provider to do this?

The simple divert service does everything the non-VoIP service does (because it's not really VoIP, the divert happens in the network) it's as simple as it can get because it's all done online from a web site and it cost's the same or less.
( With us it cost £2 per month for the number and 1p pm to divert to a landline and 12p to a mobile - change the divert anytime and as often as you like.)

However, the major advantage is that if you get bigger or just decide to use the number to make outgoing calls - you can, just by plonking a VoIP telephone onto your Internet connection. When you answer the calls using the VoIP phone, the incoming calls are then free - no divert needed.

It means that when you grow, you don't have to junk the number - it can stretch any size company you get to be.

http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Call_Forwarding_And_Divert.php

 

[thewasherman]

Hi

Thanks for the info...All sounds great from my point of view.

Would I be able to keep my current numbers? I know that when I bought them, I noticed that there was something about them belonging to me. This is only important because I've quite a lot of advertising with these numbers in them and a lot business comes from old customers who I've given cards and stickers.

Other than that, it sounds the bees knees.

Thanks again

 

[cjd]

Whether you can keep your numbers depends on which network they're on - a lot of providers can't transfer them. (It's called porting). We can port numbers from most of the big companies and some of the better smaller ones but the only way we can tell is by checking the actual numbers.

Unfortuantely UK numbers are not owned by the customer who rents them, they're owned by Ofcom and allocated to the telco. Whether a telco can port a number is a good test of how good a company they are - many of the grotty ones won't allow it (even though they are technically legally obliged to.)

If you'd like to email us with the numbers to support at Voipfone co uk we can check for you. More info here:

http://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php

 

[xylen]

Hi Washerman,

Im not sure whether im too late or not but i have the perfect solution where you can keep your existing phone number and recieve them on your mobile absolutely free of charge - so that means no divert charges. It also includes a phone system at no extra cost with features like call queing, music on hold, call transfer etc. The best bit is that you also get unlimited calls to UK landlines, mobiles & 08 numbers plus unlimited texts + 500MB internet.

In fact, we specialise in this area and i believe this is the perfect solution to your current issue. I will send you a PM shortly.