Moving offices - You Can keep Your Phone Number with Cloud Net
Posted by Cloud Net on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 04:05 AM
If you are a BT Business customer you may be told: “If you're 
moving out of the area covered by your existing telephone exchange but want to keep your existing number, we can arrange for your old number to be redirected to your new number for an additional fee.” The additional fee depends on your contract with BT. However you will have two sets of numbers and pay for calls to be diverted for ever.
BT alternatively will play a message to any one calling your old number “we have moved and our new phone number is….” To avoid missing important calls from customers and suppliers who still have your old number on file, you will want to pay for this service for at least a year, which can mount up and is a waste of money.
This is not an ideal situation to be in – far better to preserve your existing numbers and have the calls go directly to your new address. That way at least your existing customers don’t have to learn anything new and your phone numbers in all the marketing materials stays correct.
With Cloud Net small business VoIP system you can be moving from one location to another and still keep your original phone number. There are no divert charges because there is no diversion. You get a brand new phone system with a very powerful and feature rich online PBX (switchboard), new sophisticated telephone handsets and no maintenance charges. Most of our customers make savings of around 40% off their old BT charges.
So, if you are closing down one office and simply don’t want to lose your phone numbers then that again is no problem, since Cloud Net can put the phone numbers from the closing office on to the system in the remaining offices. Again it doesn’t matter where the offices are. Your customers need never know that you closed the office.
The reason we are able to do this is because we offer a hosted VoIP (voice over IP) service which means that you plug special phones (called SIP phones because of the protocol they work with – they have a computer inside them) directly into your network. Your conversations are carried over the internet using our network. You transfer your numbers to these phones – technically this is called porting your number. BT has been forced by Ofcom to allow this to happen. This means that your phones can be anywhere on the planet but they will still use the numbers you transferred to them. Whilst your new phones must be SIP phones you can choose which ones you want.
So to recap the advantages of hosted VoIP:
• Keep your phone numbers forever
• Get a brand new free system including a free pbx and free handsets
• Get great voice quality
• Get clear low call charges
• Pay no maintenance charges ever again
• Save money when you pay one low subscription per month.
What are the downsides? Well you will never get to talk to those friendly BT people again. Sorry.
We have helped lots of companies save their phone number when moving offices. If you need any help about this please feel free to call us on 01922 21 33 33.
Written By David Hill, Chairman, Cloud Net