E-Volution IT

My clients and customers in the United Kingdom have two local options for contacting me. They can call my UK mobile number (free if their mobile plan covers this, or the normal cost to call a UK mobile which is about 20-50p) and the call will reach me on my mobile phone here in New Zealand. They can also call my local UK phone number (costing them about 5p a minute) and they will reach me on whatever New Zealand land-line number I choose to forward the call to. The cost to me? Nothing at all.

I am in fact able to have as many phone numbers, in different regions/areas of the UK as I like, and all at no cost. Of course I have no need for anything more than one land-line and one mobile number there, so that’s what I’ve got. The companies providing these services take a small cut of the money the caller pays to phone the UK based number, and that is how they cover their low costs and make a profit. Someone living in NZ and use to the sort of insane rates we pay for calls might wonder how these UK companies afford to cover the call redirection costs to a New Zealand phone number. Well, the truth is that the costs involved are tiny. As far as I know it costs Telecom NZ a few dollars a day (for 24 hours) to rent the lines they use to channel NZ outbound international calls through to countries like USA, UK, Australia, etc. Yet it was only a year or two ago that they charged over $1 per minute to each and every person making a call to these countries.

So how do I achieve this phone set up?

There are two telecommunications companies I have come across that provide these sorts of services in the UK. I am on the prowl for similar services from the USA. I suggest you check out their websites to find out more:

• OpenTelecom (is the one I use at present)
  OpenTelecom provides a great range of UK based communication services including fax-to-email numbers, Global Roaming mobile SIM cards, toll-free UK numbers, and more.
• Simwood eSMS Limited (is another one I have checked out recently)
• dmClub - I suspect this company is now owned by (or at least closely affiliated with) OpenTelecom because there is a link to their user control panel on the OT site. You may, however, wish to check them out. They provide a similar line-up of services to the above two sites.

If you need a hand setting up any of these services let me know. It is, however, fairly straightforward.