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Have you ever found yourself needing to be in touch, but not wanting to give out your personal mobile phone number to work colleagues for example? Want to give telemarketers a hard time?
If so, we might be able to help. And it need not cost you a penny. Either way, with the right number and destination choice there are no ongoing charges to pay, there are no incoming call charges or monthly number rental charges.
How does it work?
You will get another number - 087 and 084 numbers may be routed to mobile phones, landlines or VoIP free of charge, other number ranges will incur divert fees, depending on the destination. Choose the right number charge and all forwarding will be at no charge to you.
Alternatively, you can get an 01/02/03 number for a small one-off fee (and contact us, we may well be able to offer you a discount!) and our supplier will bill you for the call forwarding fee - for details take a look here.
The service charge for calling the 084 numbers is 7p/min, for the 087 numbers it's 13p/min, plus your call provider's access charge.
How do I get the number?
Just click on this link to our supplier, and choose your desired number range, and if desired, some digits for your chosen number. A selection of numbers will be shown, just choose the number you want. It's really as easy as that. We may even be able to offer you a discount on the number you want, just email us at secondnumber at matrixnetwork dot co dot uk.
How will this help me?
1) Simultaneous privacy and contactability. This gives you a Second Number that you can give out to colleagues and other work contacts that points at your mobile phone (especially if your employer won't give you a company phone) or landline allowing you to be reachable while keeping your real number private. You can log in to the website and send your calls to the voicemail to email service, or refuse all incoming calls, whilst allowing your friends and family to reach you on your real mobile number.
2) For more personal use, if you want to give a guy or girl your number you can give one of these. This makes you contactable but if that person happens to be a complete psycho you can disconnect the number without having to change your real number. (Combined with the DND feature, you can also tell it's the psycho who is calling even if s/he uses 141!)
3) One number always reaches the right person. If the number is for a role contact (e.g. out of hours support), it can be pointed to whoever is on call.
4) Dialled Number Display (DND). You can get a handful of 08xx numbers and give each business you have dealings with a different number. When used with the DND feature, the number you have allocated to them will appear on your phone's Caller ID so you know which organisation is calling you even if they choose not to present a number of their own. Also if you get cold-called on one of them you will know instantly who sold your details. (See also the Email Notification below.)
5) Similar to (4) above, if you're running several marketing campaigns, you could get a handful of 08xx numbers and use a different one in each marketing campaign. Again, when used with the Dialled Number Display feature you can track which advertisements are generating more responses without having to ask the caller how they heard of you. If you work from home you can use this to identify whether the call is a work call or personal, and answer the phone appropriately.
6) Intelligent Call Diversion (ICD) is a free service that allows you to specify a second destination should the first have no answer, be on another call or if you choose, the caller withheld their number. With an 084 or 087 number this could be set to call your home or desk number and if you're not there, re-route to your mobile. And you pay no divert charges for this.
7) Voice mail by email. You can choose this as a target for your number (this also works with ICD - see above) where you will be emailed a WAV file containing the message.
8) Faxmail. A Second Number can be set up to receive faxes, which will again be emailed to you. No need to have a second phone line fitted just to receive faxes. (You still need a traditional fax or fax-modem to send faxes.) A list of the charges for the different number types can be found here.
9) Email notification of incoming calls. When this is enabled you will receive an email any time someone tries to call your number, giving you the exact time and date of that call, their caller ID (or partial ID if withheld) even if you have Dialled Number Display enabled. If you're on the phone and the line is engaged, you will still get an email telling you someone tried to call.
10) Lower exposure to SMS spam. By only letting your Second Number out beyond your circle of friends and family, you lower your exposure to SMS spam, as Second Numbers do not support SMS forwarding.
11) Avoid telemarketers. If you want to fill in surveys which seem to offer big prizes but want to keep your real number private, give them an 08 number. As telemarketing call centres are run with fairly tight budgets they are far less likely to call a number that is rather more expensive than a landline. Yet, if they have a genuine query you are reachable.
12) UK DIDs for VoIP with no monthly fees. Some VoIP providers offer telephone numbers for their service but charge a setup fee, per-minute usage and a monthly rental. Some of these, however, offer SIP addresses that can be called from outside their network. In these cases you can point a Second Number at this SIP address to give you a UK DID without the rental fees. Note that 01, 02 and 03 numbers have a 5p/min incoming call charge for calls forwarded to VoIP. 084 and 087 numbers are free to forward to VoIP and any UK landline or mobile number.
... and no doubt many more applications too.
All you pay are the initial connection charge (if any) of your chosen Second Number, and incoming call charges depending on the service the number is connected to and the number range. Even if you chose a number that has a connection fee, there is no monthly charge to keep it.
What's in it for you?
Why are we doing this? We find this service to be extremely useful here at the Matrix Network. Also, FleXtel make some money out of the incoming call revenue, and we receive a small commission from them for referring new customers. It is from this call revenue that they make their profits and fund the cost of the above services (and pay our commission), so they can offer the numbers and services completely free of charge and thus we can do likewise, completely free of advertising.
Get your Second Number here!
Email us at: secondnumber at matrixnetwork dot co dot uk.
