[asterisk-users] uk tole-free dids?

[Gordon Henderson]

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008, Babcock, Michael Alex wrote:

> hi;
> i do not know how it works in the uk, but is there an equalivent to
> our 866-877-888-800 numbers for london for say? I have some friends in
> london and want them to be able to call me in the states.
> Please help with where i can get the numbers, what they start with,
> how much they are, and what not.

As far as call charges are concerned, there is no such thing as local or 
long-distance in the UK now, and hadn't been for many years. We now have 
"geographic" and "non geographic" numbers. (Non geographics are sometimes 
called NGNs)

The Geographics start 01 or 02 and are what they imply - mapped to a 
particular geographic area. (or are supposed to as some are ported into 
VoIP and moved) These numbers are relatively low cost to call and often 
can be called for free out of "inclusive minutes" or other deals with your 
phone company.

NGNs include freephone numbers (aka toll-free in the US) - starting 0800, 
0808 or 0500.

NGNs can also be revenue generating - they are usually free to assign and 
maintain, but cost the caller more than calling a Geographic number and 
the terminating operator generates revenue from the call. These numbers 
typically start 084 or 087. The 087's generating more revenue than 084, 
and cost more to the caller. (There are other ranges of premium numbers - 
09 and 070, but we'll not go there)

So - If you want your friends to call you for free, then why not just 
allocate then a SIP account on your own system, then get them to run a 
softphone, or buy a hard-phone and then they can connect up?

Failing that, they can get a SIP account with a multitude of UK (and 
European) based operators and make calls - sometimes for free, sometimes 
for a small per minute charge.

And failing all that - because they don't have/want technology, you can 
get an account with one of these operators and terminate it in your own 
SIP/IAX hardware, then they can call you for the price of a standard UK 
geographic number - which may be free for them, depending on the package 
they have with their phone company.

A final thing to note, there is a new range of non-geographic numbers in 
the UK which start 03. These cost the same to call as 01 and 02 numbers 
(or should), so you could allocate one of these and have it terminated on 
your own SIP/IAX account.

People to do it via (other than me - I can't take US currency, but drop an 
email if interested anyway) in no particular order: www.gradwell.com, 
www.voiptalk.co.uk, www.voipon.co.uk, www.voip.co.uk, www.aql.co.uk and a 
few others.

Hope this helps!

Gordon