Sales Director
In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about VoIP and more. Here already knowing you need a VoIP service? Click the button below and request a free quote.
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VoIP phone numbers are fast becoming one of the hottest technology trends on the market today, with consumers and businesses adopting them en masse. But what is a VoIP phone number? How can you get one in the UK? And notably, how much does it cost?
VoIP, or voice over internet protocol to give it its full name, is a telephone service delivered over the internet, rather than traditional PSTN or ISDN business phone lines.
As is the case with many parts of our lives, the internet has redefined what's possible from a telecommunications perspective. It is VoIP that is at the forefront of that revolution. Larger businesses have been using this technology for quite some time. Still, it's only been in the relatively recent past that it's become more accessible to smaller businesses and even consumers.
The most prominent distinction between old telephone services and VoIP numbers is that VoIP phone numbers aren't tied to a physical telephone line. While on the face of it, that may sound relatively unimpressive, it's a profound change and opens up a considerable number of opportunities. Gone are the days of needing to have multiple telephone lines for various numbers; you can now have single VoIP phone service and pretty much have as many numbers as you wish. As we'll explain further into this guide, you can get a number in any town, city or even country you choose.
One word that stands out when it comes to VoIP numbers vs traditional fixed-line services - portability. Whereas you were previously tied to a single physical location with a VoIP number, you can take it anywhere with an internet connection. You could be on a far-flung beach and picking up calls on your UK phone number over the internet. The flexibility and portability a VoIP number gives you is simply brilliant.
BT Openreach is planning to turn off the UK's PSTN and ISDN networks in 2027. What does that mean in layman terms? Everyone will need to move to VoIP phone services. Whether you're a consumer or business, if you want to have a phone service other than your mobile, you'll need to upgrade to VoIP. While this may sound like a tremendous amount of upheaval and disruption, it's going to be hugely beneficial to everyone. You'll get more functionality, more flexible service, and you won't need one or more phone lines for it. Next, we'll look at all of the benefits moving to a VoIP number brings, hopefully encouraging you to take the plunge sooner rather than later.
As we've already mentioned, the most prominent benefit of a VoIP phone number is portability, but there's much more to them than that. Let's now look at the most significant benefits of using VoIP services over a traditional telephone.
VoIP providers such as ourselves have invested heavily into cloud-based phone systems, meaning those located in data centres across the UK. When you sign up for a service like ours, we'll provision you with a free UK VoIP phone number and arrange for your existing number to be "ported" across to us.
In years gone by, individual businesses would invest in telephone systems to give them more functionality, but those days are gone with a hosted VoIP phone number. You pay a monthly fee and get access to a state of the art phone system, one that arguably you wouldn't be able to afford if you were buying the equipment outright. Instead, you subscribe to the service and benefit from all of the great things a VoIP service has to offer.
In another recent article, we answer the question "What is VoIP?" getting into the nitty-gritty from a technical perspective of how it works. If you'd like to learn more and see some diagrams of how calls are connected, click the link.
Remember that there are a couple of parts to your VoIP phone services. Firstly you have the service itself, which is usually charged on a per user basis. Typically a VoIP service like Horizon, our hosted system, will include a free local telephone number and even a certain amount of free calls per month. What isn't typically included in the cost is premium numbers that you may wish to add.
In this section, we look at the current cost for various VoIP numbers, all priced on a per number per month basis. Please use these numbers as a guide; the pricing is accurate as of January 2022, but as you can appreciate, subject to change.
These numbers are the least expensive, and as we mentioned, we often bundle a certain amount of them into service, effectively giving you free VoIP numbers.
03 numbers replace 0870 as non-geographic (i.e. national) numbers. They cost the caller the same to call as geographic (local) numbers, and importantly, they cost the same to call from a mobile or a landline and will be covered by most people's monthly free minute's allowance.
There are currently two types of 03 number:
We recommend that these numbers are an excellent alternative to 08xx numbers, except for 0800.
0800 freephone numbers are perfect for sales and marketing lines where attracting inbound calls is the strategy. Most people know that 0800 numbers are free to call - so they can be an excellent marketing tool.
As the caller doesn't pay for the call, you, the company, is charged instead how much will depend on your service agreement.
0845 numbers were designed as Lo-Call numbers, meaning that they were charged at local rates (if called from a landline) regardless of what the caller was in the UK.
A significant disadvantage of 0845 numbers is that they are typically not included within mobile phone user's free monthly allowance, meaning that they would need to pay extra to call you. This puts people off and doesn't give customers the best experience, so we typically recommend you opt for 030/033 numbers instead.
056 numbers are new non-geographical numbers that have been created specifically for VoIP. So in the purest sense, they are UK VoIP numbers! The only disadvantage of these new numbers is that currently, some providers can't route calls to them. We're sure this will change in time, but it's something to be aware of.
0844 and 0843 phone numbers used to provide revenue sharing, i.e. the owner of the number and the company that uses it each gets a proportion of the income generated from the call. While on the face of it could be seen as a great way to make some extra money, charging your customers to call you isn't the fairest way to do business, especially as most of our calls these days are free.
Of course, these numbers make good business sense for some companies, so we can provide them but don't usually recommend them.
Similarly to 0844 and 0843 numbers, 0870 numbers were initially introduced to allow companies to charge their customers for calls. Examples included helplines etc. Unfortunately, the numbers were regularly used abusively, and Ofcom eventually reduced their call costs to national rates. From a consumer perspective, good news, from a company standpoint, removes a potential way to generate revenue.
We're not going to get into too much detail about the specific features that a business VoIP system can give you as we've covered it in other guides, but we will summarise, so you can see the added value switching brings.
By using a VoIP phone service, you open up new possibilities in call handling. If you work in a small business, get ready to enjoy enterprise-grade features for low monthly costs. Hunt groups, presence, call forwarding, call screening and more.
An auto-attendant is the automated way to route your customers to the correct person in your company. Gone are the days of needing a dedicated receptionist; with an auto-attendant, people are connected to the right person every time, minimising costs and improving customer experience. Want to go further than that? Add music on hold and even record your sales and marketing messages to play to customers while they wait.
Regardless of the industry, you're in, having the ability to record conversations that your team have with clients and suppliers can be crucial to handling complaints and disagreements further down the line. Once only used by companies in financial services, companies of all types are now adopting call recording to improve customer service and ensure accountability from both the customer's and the employee's perspective. One of the significant benefits of a hosted VoIP phone number is that you can both record and monitor calls regardless of your employee's location; it's great for training and ensures that your team always communicates to the best of their abilities.
Today, most businesses will use a CRM, and by moving to VoIP, you pave the way for your phone calls to be integrated with your desktop applications. Think contact popping when someone calls, or even automatic call logging. It's powerful stuff.
There are too many features to get into right now; some of them may well be surplus to your requirements, with others being game-changing. The critical point to bear in mind is that our service will be continually developed, with more features being added over time.
2027 may seem like a long way away, but as we have hopefully demonstrated, you could be saving money and enjoying improved functionality now! We'd love to speak with you about your business and offer a free no-obligation quote so you can see for yourself how much you could save. All of our customers have a Dorset based account manager; you'll have their contact details, so you'll always be able to speak to someone you know. Join the thousands that trust T2k to provide their VoIP services.
Having worked for T2k for nearly 25 years, it's fair to say that Lee is an expert when it comes to all things telephony and business communications. Overseeing the commercial side of the business, he has helped the company evolve and grow through the decades. In recent years, and with the advent of VoIP and hosted telephony, Lee has made sure that T2k is at the forefront of technological developments. With a firm interest in helping businesses navigate the world of telecoms, Lee is responsible for the majority of the content on this website.
