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A virtual phone number is a telephone number that is not tied to a specific phone line or device.

Instead, it can be located in any of 160 countries and will instantly forwards calls to one or more pre-set phone numbers. This allows businesses and individuals to have an international phone presence without the need for multiple phone lines or physical locations.

To create an international phone presence with a virtual phone number, you will need to:

• Select the country where you want to have a phone presence.
• Set up call forwarding to the phone numbers where you want to receive the calls.
• Send out or publish your new virtual phone number as a country specific contact phone number.

In addition to forwarding calls, your virtual phone number account offers other included features such as voicemail, call recording, and extension call routing, which allow you to customize your service to meet your specific needs. Make any changes to your virtual phone number 24/7 through your account portal.

• Video Guide
• How it Works
• Voice Mail
• Own a Number
• Uses
• SMS
• Mobile Numbers
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How Virtual Phone Numbers and International Call Forwarding Works

A customer can choose a phone number in any of 160 countries.

Let's say for example that you want to forward calls from the U.S. to a call center in India. Depending on your requirements, you would order either a local or U.S. toll free phone number and then forward the calls to your designated call destination number, in this case an India call center.

This U.S. virtual phone number would look like any other local or toll free US phone number, yet instead of ringing to an office in the U.S., you would direct it to ring to your designated call center in India. (your calls can ring to any phone in any country you desire). This could be any combination of countries that fit your purpose, such as a Hong Kong number that diverts calls to Malaysia.

If you don't have an existing phone number that you need forwarded, skip the paragraph below.

Can i use my existing phone number to forward calls to another country?

In the U.S. and most of the world, overseas phone companies do not make 'international' call forwarding available. Of course, they do provide call forwarding to domestic numbers inside their own country. Sending calls to another country requires a second step.

For instance, if a Canadian resident wanted to forward their calls to a phone number located in Mexico, that direct international call forwarding option is not permitted. Canada phone companies (as is the policy of 99.9% of the worlds phone companies) do not provide this service to its customers. Canada phone numbers can only be forwarded to other Canada phone numbers.

The second step

To accomplish Canada call forwarding to Mexico, the Canada customer would require another Canada phone number from Aitelephone. This new Canada phone number does provide the international call forwarding required.

The Canada resident that owns the phone number in Canada that needs to be forwarded to Mexico simply uses the built-in call forwarding feature they already have from Bell Canada or Telus or any of the Canadian mobile companies such as Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, Freedom Mobile and Telus Mobility.

They forward that existing Canada phone number to the new Canada virtual number they acquire from Aitelephone which does the actual call forwarding to Mexico, or anywhere else. Any calls that arrive on that new virtual number are instantly forwarded to the Mexico phone number desired. (Can be any phone number worldwide, not only Mexico)

When the call forwarding requirement has past, the owner of the Canada phone number simply removes the forwarding option from their Canada provider and usually cancels that Canada virtual number with Aitelephone because the call forwarding requirement no longer exists.

Optional Outbound Calling with Caller ID Feature

Add the Outbound Calling option to your new virtual phone number. Make international calls using VoIP with a free softphone. Use with smartphone, PC or IOS.

You can use one of the local or toll free numbers you purchased from us as your Caller ID for your outbound calls.

* The Outbound Calling Option can be used by multiple VoIP/SIP phones simultaneously.

Customers can add the Outbound Calling feature to their virtual phone number at any time.

After you receive a call from your virtual phone number, you may want to return the call with the caller ID of your virtual phone number displayed to the call recipient. This is a feature of Outbound Calling.

Here are some features of calling outbound:

Call Tracking: We give you access to detailed call records to improve business analysis. This enables you to track important sales metrics for marketing campaign analytics.

Target the Right Prospects: It is important for companies using outbound strategies to target the right prospects. They should have call lists with relevant information about who they are calling.

Warm Up With an Introduction

Depending on the type of sale, different cold calling practices can be most effective.

Record Your Calls

Monitor and improve employee performance, and adhere to international financial industry requirements with call recording.

Create a phone number in one country and receive the calls in another country.

There are several ways to create a phone number in one country and receive the calls in another country.

Virtual Phone Numbers: These are phone numbers that are not tied to a specific location or phone line, but instead route calls to a designated phone or voicemail. Some virtual phone number providers offer numbers from different countries, so you can choose a number from the country where you want to receive calls and have the calls forwarded to your phone in another country.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Services: These services allow you to make and receive phone calls over the internet using a computer or smartphone. Some VoIP providers offer local phone numbers in different countries, so you can choose a number from the country where you want to receive calls and have the calls routed to your VoIP app or device.

International Call Forwarding: This service allows you to forward incoming calls from a phone number in one country to a phone in another country.

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Australia virtual number example

Automatically save voice mail messages from your callers
Once you set up your voice mail greeting, our voice mail system will automatically save your messages from incoming callers in an easily accessible location. You can listen to your messages anytime two ways:

Listen to voice mail using your online portal
To manage your voice mail messages, log in to your online Account Portal and click ‘Check Voice Mail’ to access the voice mail inbox window. On this window, you can listen, download, delete or mark messages as read or unread. Also, on this window, you can click download to save the message file on your computer.

Listen to voice mail via email
Voice mail to email forwarding provides an easy way to listen to your messages without ever needing to pick up your phone. Select the email with the voice mail and click on the attachment. The voice mail inbox window will open. Click the ‘Play’ button to listen to the desired message.

Manage Voice mail By Sending to Your Email
Voice mail to Email is a feature included in every virtual phone number plan. With this feature, you can forward incoming voice mail to your email inbox. Manage your voice mail to email settings through our online Portal, access it globally from any device.

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Buy a Global Call Forwarding Phone Number

Own and Control a Phone Number In Another Country

View Rate Plans and Availability

Let's assume that it's important to you to provide a New York City phone number to your callers. Just as an example, you can order a local number in many different area codes in the State of New York as with many other U.S. cities.

To continue with the New York example, if you chose a New York City number with a (646) area code, many New Yorkers, not all, could dial your 646 number and not have to pay any additional long distance fees to their local phone company to reach your virtual number.

A local virtual number will permit a caller within the same city or area code of your chosen local number to connect to your local number without any cost to the caller within that same area code, and many times depending on the rate plan your caller has with their local phone company, the call to your purchased virtual number may be totally free to them.

Are you in Los Angeles, California but need a telepresence in Florida? Buy a Florida virtual number and direct the calls to Los Angeles.

You are located in The U.K. and need a phone number in the U.S? Choose from many states and cities in the U.S. and direct the calls to your phone in the U.K.

Additional Built-in Features

• Time of day routing - with time zone settings
• Voice Mail
• Caller ID - Know what phone number is calling. Learn about Caller ID here
• Selective Call Recording
• Virtual SMS Numbers
• Create a Hotline Announcement
• Use virtual phone numbers for short or long term requirements

The features below can be enabled and disable by the customer through the Customer Management Control Panel. In other words, after your account is activated and you are provided with the login link, you can login to your account and easily set up these features based on your usage preferences.

• Maximum wait time on answer

This feature defines how long the system will wait for leg B to answer before considering it failed and moving on to a second 'ring to' number, etc. Ring time adjustments range from 15 to 40 seconds. The times are approximate, but are within +/- 5 seconds. This means that if you set the ring time to your 'ring to' number to be 20 seconds, this may in actuality turn out to be 15 seconds or as much as 25 seconds. By default the ring time before a call is deemed failed, is four rings.

Therefore, if your circumstances dictate that you need a longer ring time, you can use this maximum "wait time" adjustment. Many customers experiment with this setting until it works to their benefit or they leave the default setting in place.

• Local Ringtone Feature

The system can play a localized ring tone (the tone you hear when you call someone and it's ringing). You will have a selection of 40 countries or the choice to use the remote-end ringback tone, which means the audio is passed through from the destination (this is the default).

Once you activate this free feature, you will increase local appeal when callers dial your Toll Free or Local number. The caller will hear the normal dial ring tone of their country which will make the caller feel more comfortable.

We currently have 40 distinct country local ring tones that customers can choose from. The rest of the countries around the world use one of these ring tones.

Both of these settings are available on the advanced forwarding settings page (accessible from the Customer Management Control Panel).

All customers receive the link to the Customer Management Control Panel upon receipt of account activation.  Set up your virtual number to redirect your calls to any phone number worldwide.

Create a phone presence in the country of your choice. Choose from 1000s of local city phone numbers and countries including Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, London, Rome, Paris, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro to name a few. Use your virtual phone number for temporary or long term requirements. The numbers are month-to-month.

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Global Call Forwarding Example  |  Many of your Important Callers are Located in Dubai but your Office is in Egypt

Solution

Buy a Dubai, UAE Phone Number to create a local phone presence in Dubai. Your UAE callers are instantly diverted to your Egypt landline, mobile phone or VoIP.  Use this same strategy to route calls to your phone from any of 160+ countries.

Other applications

1  You may be a cruise line operator in Greece. You want to make it easy for U.S. clientele to reach your reservation desk in Greece. You can buy a U.S. Toll Free number and remove the obstacle for your U.S. callers by giving them your U.S. toll free number to reach you at no cost to them.

2  Assume you own a winery with headquarters in France and have distributors in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and the U.S. You can buy country specific Toll Free numbers for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and the U.S. that will redirect all callers in those countries to your France main office phone number.

Simultaneous Calls

Accepting and forwarding multiple calls simultaneously is a free feature. The simultaneous call feature is available for the majority of countries where local numbers are offered.  No need to be concerned about having too many inbound calls.  If you have an abundance of calls all arriving at the same time, we can adjust your account at no additional cost to fit your inbound call traffic requirements.

Quality of call forwarding

Calls are clear and crisp.  This service delivers audio quality based on public switched network infrastructure (PSTN) line quality.

Calls transported over (VoIP) the Internet are subject to uncontrollable transport, bandwidth and other issues.

These call quality issues are especially apparent if the call is being forwarded internationally using VoIP. Consequently the potential for negative call quality issues typically associated with calls over the Internet are virtually non-existent with Global Call Forwarding service.

What are the costs?

Costs are determined by your choice of the Virtual Number country or city and the call destination number, where you wish the calls to divert to.

View rate plans and virtual number availability

Provide your associates, customers or family a local phone number and have all your calls routed to any phone number you desire, located anywhere in the world.

If your customers are located in different countries than you or if you travel often or if you have family or friends overseas, now you can give them a local phone number and receive their calls where you are.

Use this service for call forwarding to your cell phone or landline. Or, have your cell phone calls forwarded to another country using an international virtual number.

Changing your 'ring to' number

Once your virtual line is activated, you can login online and easily modify your call forwarding number. The change is effective in real-time and takes just seconds to do.

Using the 'Time of Day Routing' feature

As an example you could have your calls forwarded to a number in Japan in the morning and change the call forwarding to a number in the UK in the evening. Or change it from your landline to your mobile phone, at any time.

What will callers hear when they dial my Virtual Phone Number?

Calls are connected very quickly. The caller will hear normal call processing as with any other call they may make.

What is a 'private' Virtual Number?

The virtual number assigned to your account is unique and does not require your callers to enter an extension number. It is your dedicated, private phone number for your use and distribution.

Is voicemail included?

Yes voicemail and voice to email are included free features.

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SMS messages are forwarded automatically to an email address chosen by the subscriber.

Incoming SMS content is forwarded in email format, with the sender’s caller ID and text message.  SMS forwarding subscribers can get an SMS enabled virtual number to receive incoming texts from selected countries. Incoming SMS content is swiftly and conveniently forwarded in email format, with the sender’s caller ID and text message.

For customers who are unsure if this service is what they need, we offer SMS forwarding numbers with a free trial, for customers to test the service risk-free. Subscribers can also get an SMS enabled virtual number as an add-on to their existing service. SMS allows us to provide a more complete virtual phone service, so if you’ve been searching for a viable solution that enables SMS forwarding with your virtual phone numbers, this may be the best one for your needs.

Which Mobile Workers Can Benefit from a Mobile Virtual Phone Number?

While most anyone who works on the go can benefit from a virtual phone number, those who may benefit the most are those who frequently work from different locations such as their homes, main offices, branch offices, client job sites, and temporary office spaces.

A virtual phone number is also a good choice for mobile workers who travel overseas frequently. For example, when visiting another country, there's no guarantee that your mobile phone will work. Even if it does work, international roaming fees will make using the phone cost prohibitive. With a virtual phone number, you could purchase a cheap disposable phone inside the destination country and then use the international call forwarding feature of your virtual phone number to that temporary mobile phone.

Virtual phone number forwarding and your BYOD policy. Instead of giving customers their personal mobile phone numbers and worrying about boundaries, they can give out their virtual phone numbers and configure international call forwarding so that those calls are only forwarded to their mobile phones during business hours.

Why Use a Virtual Phone Number when Mobile Workers Have Mobile Phones?

Whether your mobile workers bring their own devices or use company-issued mobile phone numbers, it is not always desirable to give out a mobile phone number to clients, prospects, and others who may call at all hours of the day or night. With a virtual phone number, workers can configure when calls will be routed to their mobile phones and when they should be routed to voicemail or an alternate phone number.

In addition, many workers take mobile phone calls when they're seated inside an office with a perfectly workable landline or VoIP line. This uses up valuable mobile phone minutes, results in higher costs, and is not as comfortable for the user. The ability to switch the virtual phone number's ring to destination at will allows the user greater control over which physical phone to use.

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Upon number activation you will receive

1 Your Chosen Country Call Forwarding Virtual Phone Number

2 Customer number and Portal access enabling you to:

• Change your 'ring to' number instantly, 24/7

• Create a custom voicemail greeting

• View call details in real time: date, time, duration, Caller ID, etc.

• Manage your personal preferences using your account portal

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