Choosing a VoIP number for your business
Hopefully Part 1 of our VoIP Guide gave some food for thought, and that is the reason you are reading this article about moving towards a VoIP telephony system for your business.
One of the next things to consider on your VoIP move is the type of telephone number you need for your business .
This number can be
- A geographical number i.e starting 01 or 02
- A 03xx – these numbers were introduced as UK Wide numbers as an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers
- A 084x/087x style number
- A 0800 style Freephone number
Need more than one number? This isn’t a problem!
Some businesses often have multiple geographical numbers for advertising a “local” presence in areas outside their dialling code, or have multiple local numbers to differentiate between different departments.
Do you want each employee to have a direct dial number ? If so, it is worth ordering these in one go so that you have a range of consecutive numbers that you can assign to your staff. It would be advisable to order more VoIP numbers than you actually need at the present time to cope with increases in staff levels.
Do you already have a telephone number you would like to use, such as your current landline number? In most cases, an existing landline can be “ported” to VoIP for a small fee. You can find out more about number porting in our VoIP Number porting article.
Technical Note : One thing that can be a bit confusing with VoIP is that one number does not mean you can only take one call as with a normal landline.
With a typical landline number (excluding any PBX or features installed), you can only make OR receive one call at a time. With VoIP, you can have one telephone number that has multiple lines (in VoIP terminology – channels). The number of channels you need normally varies, depending the amount of calls your business will be making, simultaneously.
Interested on finding out more or have any questions ? Please contact us to discuss your VoIP requirements
