Alternatively you might have 20 office workers having to now work from home due to covid lock down and need to have their main office landline number as a virtual number routing calls to multiple destinations-mobiles, softphones or home office deskphones. Joe the plumber might want a London Virtual Numbers which diverts inbound calls to his mobile. The growing trends are for small businesses, startups or even businesses set up with multi homeworkers now using virtual numbers to manage their inbound and outbound calling. Virtual numbers are very popular among call centers which appear to be located in one country, when they are in one or more countries in different time zone, delivering efficient 24/7 cover.Īs the world of business is starting to move away from offices and fixed office environments, virtual numbers fill the gap. Businesses – a company located in China can have a phone number in Los Angeles or London without paying for a fixed foreign exchange line.The availability (and acceptable use) of virtual phone numbers are subject to the regulatory situation in the issuing country.

Usually a virtual telephone number can be set to forward calls to different telephone numbers depending on the time of day and the day of the week using time of day routing for example, between 9 and 5 on working days incoming calls will be forwarded to one's workplace, but in the weekends to one's cellphone. These are also called a follow-me number, a virtual telephone number or (in the UK) Personal Number. use the numerous available software.Ī virtual private number is a telephone number that forwards incoming calls to any of a number of pre-set telephone numbers. Subscribers to virtual numbers may use their existing phones, without the need to purchase additional hardware, i.e. A virtual number can work like a gateway between traditional calls (PSTN) and VoIP. Usually, these numbers are programmed to forward incoming calls to one of the pre-set telephone numbers, chosen by the client: fixed, mobile or VoIP. For the PBX term, see Virtual Private Numbering.Ī virtual number, also known as direct inward dialing ( DID) or access numbers, is a telephone number without a directly associated telephone line.