Work Phone

December 6, 2004 6:26 PM

My consulting business has gotten busy enough (knock on wood) to warrant not using my personal cell phone number as the first line of communication. What I need is a service that creates a local phone number, has a customizable voicemail system that can fwd to my cell, office, whereever.

Is there such a thing, or should I just get a second cell phone?
posted by omidius to work & money (10 comments total)

Try Packet 8: http://www.packet8.net/about/services.asp
posted by lometogo at 6:32 PM on December 6, 2004

I hear RingCentral does something like this. I've used UReach myself, and while they have call forwarding I didn't need it.
posted by annathea at 6:40 PM on December 6, 2004

Could you use something like Vonage? It's really easy to turn forwarding on and off in the web interface, it's basically two clicks. They also have voicemail that will email you when you get a message. And you can choose whatever area code you want.
posted by bcwinters at 7:00 PM on December 6, 2004

I second Vonage - you can even get an 800 line somewhat cheaply. If you don't have broadband you can use the Web interface to listen to voicemail and other such things.
posted by mrg at 7:29 PM on December 6, 2004

I think you need Wildfire service--these guys and
Cingular seem to be the only people offering it in California, though.

This is a simpler one-number service.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:32 PM on December 6, 2004

My wife has used AccessLine for just the purposes you described. She's been a happy customer for about two years. They also have fax and conferencing services if those are of interest.
posted by donovan at 8:02 PM on December 6, 2004

In Canada, Bell offers a service called Primeline that does exactly what you describe. I suspect most of the major phone companies probably do.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:19 PM on December 6, 2004

Is K7 close? drawback: it's 206 area code only right now.
posted by rschroed at 6:39 AM on December 7, 2004

Or, don't some services offer a second number with a distinct ring on the same phone?
posted by rschroed at 6:40 AM on December 7, 2004

Second on Accessline. I've used them for over three years, and have always been happy, with the exception that I'd really like for them to add the capability to send faxes instead of just receive them.

It used to be that if you were a Costco Executive member, you could get a substantial discount on Accessline service - don't know if that's still true.
posted by Caviar at 11:31 AM on December 8, 2004