The topic of getting an 0870 number for personal use has been brought up previously. What are the options for having a 03 number, particularly for the low user?

I have found the following:


UK2Numbers

Setup from £9.95
Receiving calls on landline 1ppm; on mobile 26ppm
Minimum usage 3 minutes per month (if not, then they may charge £4.95 for low usage)
No monthly charge
Minimum charge is 0.05p (not sure whether that is a typo and should be £0.05 or 5p)
Can change destination number once a month. It will cost £19.95 to change it again within that period.

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Telephone Number Discount Warehouse (Telswitch)

Setup from £24.95
Receiving calls on landline 1ppm; on mobile 9ppm (18ppm for 3 mobile)
May withdraw numbers that receive less than 10 minutes of call traffic a month for three consecutive months
No monthly charge although some tariffs are available that have inclusive minutes.
This is a pre-pay service and the minimum top-up is £25.
There is no connection charge. The minimum charge is 1p.
Features include ringing up to five numbers simultaneously, first one to answer gets the call.
Call Whisper "whispers" a message to you so you know that the call you are receiving was made through your 03 number.
01/02 numbers available for the same price and call rate as the 03 numbers.


All charges in this post are exclusive of VAT.


The Telephone Number Discount Warehouse looks particulary attractive for mobile users. A tradesman who is often out could get his own number within the local area code and point it straight to his mobile. Rates are lower than BT's diversion charges.

UK2Numbers is more restrictive as you can't change destination number as often. If you wish to have unlimited instant redirection it will cost £59.95 per year.

Andrews & Arnold (http://aaisp.net.uk/kb-telecoms-03.html) provide 03 numbers. As far as I'm aware, there is only a one-off set up fee and ongoing monthly charge (£1.15 at present for both) and no incoming call charges either.

jgxenite wrote on Jun 9^th, 2009 at 10:35pm:

Andrews & Arnold (http://aaisp.net.uk/kb-telecoms-03.html) provide 03 numbers. As far as I'm aware, there is only a one-off set up fee and ongoing monthly charge (£1.15 at present for both) and no incoming call charges either.

What are their charges for routing to mobile numbers? What about STD numbers?

Good question, you'd have to check their price list for outgoing calls. Their system is primarily for routing to a VoIP system, so you wouldn't be paying any call re-routing costs.

jgxenite wrote on Jun 9^th, 2009 at 10:44pm:

Good question, you'd have to check their price list for outgoing calls. Their system is primarily for routing to a VoIP system, so you wouldn't be paying any call re-routing costs.

This page gives outgoing call charges. Most of the main mobile rates are between 9ppm and 12ppm including VAT.

£1.15 plus VAT per month is very reasonable when you consider that there are no incoming call charges to route it to a landline*.

[edit]* As jgxenite says below, incoming calls are free when received on the VoIP phone. Calls routed to 01/02 landline numbers incur costs of 1.3ppm plus VAT.[/edit]


I like the Telephone Number Discount Warehouse (Telswitch) "Hunt Group" service which rings up to five numbers when a call comes in. With this it is possible to set it up to ring both landline and mobile numbers and if you are at home, answer it from the landline as it's cheaper. A&A also provide this service.

I presume you will have to pay the outgoing rate for the service you route the call to (so around 1.5ppm for a landline, 9-12ppm for a mobile) - it is only free if you are routing it over VoIP.

jgxenite wrote on Jun 9^th, 2009 at 11:06pm:

I presume you will have to pay the outgoing rate for the service you route the call to (so around 1.5ppm for a landline, 9-12ppm for a mobile) - it is only free if you are routing it over VoIP.

That's what I was wondering.

£1.15 setup is the lowest I've seen by far!

Is there a minimum call traffic level specified?

I don't think so - I've not seen anything to that effect from my browsing around.

irrelevant would be the person to ask - they were the one that originally brought it to my attention. I've not personally got around to giving it a go (I already had a free VoIP number, so didn't fancy shelling out for an 03 number just to test it).

A&A look to be setting themselves apart from rip-off changes that have come into telecommunications today:

• Calls are timed to the next second rather than next whole minute.
  
• Calls are worked out to a "fraction of a penny" rather than being rounded up to the next whole penny for each individual call.
  
• The minimum call charge is 2.5p whereas landline providers have so-called call set-up fees such as BT's 8p.

Incoming call charges to landlines and mobiles are slightly higher with A&A than Telswitch.


Anyone have any experience of Telswitch? For a 01/02/03 number routed to a landline or mobile, they are cheaper than A&A, although the initial setup fee is higher.

Dave wrote on Jun 9^th, 2009 at 11:12pm:

Is there a minimum call traffic level specified?

jgxenite wrote on Jun 9^th, 2009 at 11:23pm:

irrelevant would be the person to ask - they were the one that originally brought it to my attention. I've not personally got around to giving it a go (I already had a free VoIP number, so didn't fancy shelling out for an 03 number just to test it).

I've got two 03's from A&A.  Neither currently receives any calls bar my testing things, and they've never batted an eyelid about it.  (They are plublished in a few places..)  Just bill me the £1.15 each every month..

To confirm, incoming calls via VoIP are free.  This can be to a PBX/phone connecting to them via SIP, or they connect to you via SIP, IAX or H323.

Their control panel offers facilities to divert to anywhere else if the VoIP is not conected or based on a time of day schedule, ring a sequence of numbers with various ways of prioritising them, use fax and voicemail to email, record calls and mail you the mp3s, or any or all of the above..  You can also reject anonymous calls, and put callers in a queue if you're busy.

You can also call out with them via VoIP in which case your 03 will be the CLi given out.  Rates will be as per the link to their website above.

HTH..

Just as an aside, and to show one way of using VoIP and failure routing..

Several mobile phones these days (such as my Nokia N95) have built-in WiFi and SIP capabilities.  I have mine set up for my home network and asterisk server, but you could just as easilly set it up for A&A's SIP server or whichever other provider you use.  Set the "on fail" number in the control panel to your normal mobile number.  

Then, when you are in range of a suitable WiFi network, the phone logs in automatically and you can make calls via VoIP rather than via your mobile network.  If somebody phones your 03, it'll ring on the phone as normal, but for free!!  Should you move out of WiFi coverage, then it will forward the call via a normal phone call.  

irrelevant wrote on Jun 10^th, 2009 at 12:27am:

Several mobile phones these days (such as my Nokia N95) have built-in WiFi and SIP capabilities. …

So with a wireless router and Nokia N95 you would have all you need to make this work then?

What other alternatives are there if your mobile doesn't support WIFI and SIP? Presumably an IP phone plugged into the ADSL router such as these available from A&A.

Dave wrote on Jun 10^th, 2009 at 12:41am:

So with a wireless router and Nokia N95 you would have all you need to make this work then?

Yep, spot on.  (although I gather some networks were disabling SIP in their locked N95s when it was launched..)


Quote:

What other alternatives are there if your mobile doesn't support WIFI and SIP? Presumably an IP phone plugged into the ADSL router such as these available from A&A.

Yes, that's one way. There are Wi-Fi cordless phones available too, that don't need any cabling or base station, just a charger, if you've got a wireless router.

Or you can use a router with built in VoIP ports (Here's a cheap one!) that you just plug a standard phone into.  Or an adapter like these) that connects to your LAN and a standard phone.  I'm not sure if any of those particular ones do it, but some types (such as the SPA3000) have a FXO port, or a simpler pass-through port, that allow you to link to your normal phone line and use the same phone for both services.  (I've actually used one of those cheap routers just as an adapter, not using the ADSL part, before now...)

What you DON'T want is anything that says "USB" in the description ..... there are loads of cheap "VoIP phones" that are really juse USB sound devices that have to connect to a PC or laptop to do the work.  Avoid those..

irrelevant wrote on Jun 10^th, 2009 at 7:35am:

Quote: What other alternatives are there if your mobile doesn't support WIFI and SIP? Presumably an IP phone plugged into the ADSL router such as these available from A&A. Yes, that's one way. There are Wi-Fi cordless phones available too, that don't need any cabling or base station, just a charger, if you've got a wireless router.

I noted above that A&A allow ringing of several phones when a call is made to one's 03 number. If the solution is a separate VoIP phone, as opposed to one built-in to one's mobile phone as it were, then is it possible to have it ringing the Voip phone and mobile phone simultaneously?

The user knows that if both ring together (when they are at home), that the call is coming in on the 03 number and hence answer the call on the VoIP phone rather than mobile.


Also, how reliable is A&A's service? From what I've read, they've got a very good reputation.

TBH I've not used the forwarding via normal phone call options, so I don't know for sure how they interact with the VoIP.  It'd probably be worth a quick email to sales@aaisp.net.uk to ask, though. I've found them to be very responsive to emails, and, as you say, they've got a pretty good reputation.  Point them at this thread and they'll probably contribute... I can't really comment on reliability, as my usage is minimal, but I've certainly never had any problems.

I need an 03xxxx

Who's the cheapest to go with?

thanks

Engagement in this forum, strong support for the principle of 03 numbers and promotion of their use by public services has been shown by the company that presents its offer here.

It could be worth asking how their prices compare with those offered by others.

One must hope that the cheapest prices are found in the deal done by BT and the Central Office of Information to provide public bodies with 0300 numbers.

If you want an 03 number for personal use, Andrews & Arnold (http://www.aaisp.net.uk/) offer the cheapest 03 numbers available as far as I'm aware. £1.18 initial cost and then £1.18 per number ongoing charge.

From my limited understanding, there are basically two ways of delivering calls received to a 03 number. You can either:

1. Route it to your geographic landline number or mobile. These will usually cost you relative to the volume of call minutes going through the 03 number, and forwarding it to your mobile will be more expensive than forwarding it to your landline.

2. Receive calls over the internet using a VoIP phone, usually with no incoming call charges, although you may have to pay a service fee.


Not all 03 providers support the second option and in those cases you would likely be stuck with paying for all calls received. The provider suggested by jgxenite offers both VoIP delivery and routing to another normal telephone number.

not the cheapest http://www.pmn-telecom.co.uk/03-uk-wide-numbers.html at £19.99 per year,  I have used them myself to port my geographic number away from BT (by the way they are offering this facility for free this month at no cost), I then point this to my free sipgate number and route it where ever I want from there.

I just found their customer service to be good and their pricing a cheap way of keeping my old geographic number at minimal cost.