Zhanna

Hi! We landed in August and my husband has just begun looking for a job (IT Director). We are still in the UK and I've read a Canadian phone number on his resume would be very useful. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a company/site where we can get a (virtual, I think, it's called) redirected number.
I found:
http://www.citynumbers.co.uk/canada-phone-numbers/
Has anyone heard of it?
Many thanks!

rivingtonpike

Hi

this is right up my street! I am a huge fan of the whole VOIP thing and have been using it for years!

OK - here goes. We've been in Canada a few years now but still have friends and family in the UK. By using a VOIP (voice over IP) service we can have numbers wherever we want. We still maintain our old 0208 (London) number as an extension on our home 'phone here in BC. We also have a Canadian "home" number which is another extension. We then have a Canadian "office" number which is yet another extension. So, by choosing which extension, you can appear to be dialing out from that numeric location (i.e, if I want to call my Dad in the UK, I choose the UK extension and it appears like I'm calling from the 0208 number. I also only pay the corresponding UK telephone rates - which is 1p per minute). If I want to call someone in Canada, I choose the Canadian extension and I only pay Canadian rates. There is no line rental to Shaw, for example, and you only pay for the numbers and extensions you need. Calls to Canadian numbers cost 1.3p per minute.

I use a company called Voicehost who are based in Norwich - although where they are is not relevant. I shamelessly promote them and their service to anyone who'll listen as they have done a fantastic job for me and my company over the years. The main man is Phil Collin - although not sure if he's dealing with sales any more (he's the MD I think).

Just remembered another cool thing; with an app on my iphone, I have a "virtual" phone on my cell phone. this means I can call UK numbers from my cellphone at UK rates. To call UK or European numbers from my cell normally would cost a fortune. Conversely, if I was ever back in the UK, I could use the "virtual" phone on my cellphone to call Canadian numbers at local Canadian rates.

If you, or anyone else is interested in more info, just PM me and I'd be happy to call you (!?!?!) to explain more.

By the way - I don't have anything to gain from this company - but they have genuinely given me a great service over the years and any little payback I can give them is well deserved. Actually, just given them a quick call and the guy to speak with is called Charles. If anyone is interested, I'm in line for a chocolate orange! (so I guess now I do have a vested interest!).

cornmatthew

Also take a look at http://www.voip.ms/. They're quite popular in techie and money-saving circles. I've used them (in Canada) as a landline replacement service for the past several years and I've been very happy with them. $0.99/month for the number and $0.01 per minute to receive calls on a VoIP device. If you want to forward calls to a regular phone, you'd pay another $0.01 or so for the outbound leg. It's all prepaid, so there's no chance of running up a crazy bill.

Pay a little bit of attention to which city your number is from — it's all very well getting a "Canadian" number but if you're applying for Toronto jobs with a Vancouver number you may as well be calling from the Moon.

Zhanna

Thank you very much for your replies. This is very helpful! I'll look at both websites.
Rivingtonpike, as you kindly offered, we'll have to ask you for more guidance if we get stuck :-)

Scribble

Skype don;t seem to offer Canadian numbers yet.
Any others, eg Vyber?

sta123

When I spent a bit of time in Canada and was back in the UK etc.

I had the international phone no option with my O2 sim in the UK. It gives you a Canadian phone no that anyone can ring and it comes to your UK sim/mobile. Also the package gives you some free minutes to ring Canadian nos from your O2 sim.

It was only an extra £10 a month or so.

Zhanna

Oh, that's an interesting option, I'll investigate further. Thanks!

yzf.shaun

I would also take a look at Commwave. They offer an Ephone service which I have been using and found to be very good.

Free for Canada - Canada calls.

notshipman

try google voice!

Zhanna

Many thanks!