7 ms·

(Disclaimer: I work for Twilio) You can do this for less money than you think too. For instance, with Twilio toll-free numbers are $2/month+$.05/minute and you

by johns 16y ago

(Disclaimer: I work for Twilio) You can do this for less money than you think too. For instance, with Twilio toll-free numbers are $2/month+$.05/minute and you can easily program them to have quiet hours or just do simple forwarding with one of our pre-built Twimlets: http://labs.twilio.com/twimlets/ http://labs.twilio.com/twimlets/

geoffc 16y ago
Thanks, great pointer. I'm putting together a service and will try this.
gridspy 16y ago
How could I have a toll-free number in the states, another in New Zealand and forward those calls to Skype, a pair of mobile phones and a landline here in NZ?
- m_eiman 16y ago
  You could set up a Twilio number for the US, get a local New Zealand number that forwards to the US number, then forward the US number to a "ring on X phones until one of them picks up" twimlet. The per-minute cost for a call to the New Zealand number would probably be a bit on the high side, but not a major problem, and in the worst case you could just ask for the customer's number and call them back. I assume that the CallerID will get lost along the way. You'll have it up and running in less than a day, you just need to email support and have them enable international calling on your account.
  - dmor 16y ago
    [disclosure - i work at twilio] Thanks for explaining this, I actually wrote a blog post (with working sample code) on exactly this topic, because we had some friends in town for Christmas who wanted to call home on Christmas morning without using those really expensive calling cards they were carrying. Basically they called into a U.S. local number with their cell phone, picked from a menu of potential options, and then Twilio dialed to the international number and connected them. Check out my Christmas Eve hack here: http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-custom-international-calling-card-with-twilio.html http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-custom-internation... By the way, Twilio rates to New Zealand are 5.2 cents per minute (except for to some mobile lines, which are 47.4 cents per minute - depends on the carrier). http://www.twilio.com/international-calling-rates http://www.twilio.com/international-calling-rates
jolan 16y ago
Do you use asterisk at Twilio or something else?
- johns 16y ago
  Yeah, we use Asterisk among other things.
bradgessler 16y ago
Not to rain on johns parade but there are a few other out-of-the-box services that offer 1-800 numbers including http://grasshopper.com/ http://grasshopper.com/ and http://www.ringcentral.com/ http://www.ringcentral.com/. We use RingCentral and its horrendously complicated. Grasshopper looks a little more streamlined. Twilio is really pretty easy unless your totally technically inept.
- johns 16y ago
  Yeah I didn't mean to imply we were the only option, just maybe the most affordable for a tech-savvy startup.
  - catch23 16y ago
    Well, if you were tech-savvy, wouldn't you just go for a standard asterisk box solution? 1-800 voip minutes are usually around 1 cent per minute or less, depending how many minutes you buy in one shot.
    - mattmillr 16y ago
      I am tech-savvy, and I've set up 4 Asterisk systems in production. And if I were getting an 800 number for a startup, I'd DEFINITELY outsource it. I'd rather spend my time talking to customers than setting up and maintaining my PBX.
takrupp 16y ago
I'm signing up for this. Its time we get a 1-800 number for my online retail business. I also agree with the article: I personally receive all of our customer calls (which happen like 3-5 times per week). Its a great source of information and it helps our branding that we are a small, customer oriented online retailer.

by johns 16y ago

geoffc 16y ago

Thanks, great pointer. I'm putting together a service and will try this.

gridspy 16y ago

How could I have a toll-free number in the states, another in New Zealand and forward those calls to Skype, a pair of mobile phones and a landline here in NZ?

m_eiman 16y ago
You could set up a Twilio number for the US, get a local New Zealand number that forwards to the US number, then forward the US number to a "ring on X phones until one of them picks up" twimlet. The per-minute cost for a call to the New Zealand number would probably be a bit on the high side, but not a major problem, and in the worst case you could just ask for the customer's number and call them back. I assume that the CallerID will get lost along the way. You'll have it up and running in less than a day, you just need to email support and have them enable international calling on your account.
- dmor 16y ago
  [disclosure - i work at twilio] Thanks for explaining this, I actually wrote a blog post (with working sample code) on exactly this topic, because we had some friends in town for Christmas who wanted to call home on Christmas morning without using those really expensive calling cards they were carrying. Basically they called into a U.S. local number with their cell phone, picked from a menu of potential options, and then Twilio dialed to the international number and connected them. Check out my Christmas Eve hack here: http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-custom-international-calling-card-with-twilio.html http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-custom-internation... By the way, Twilio rates to New Zealand are 5.2 cents per minute (except for to some mobile lines, which are 47.4 cents per minute - depends on the carrier). http://www.twilio.com/international-calling-rates http://www.twilio.com/international-calling-rates

jolan 16y ago

Do you use asterisk at Twilio or something else?

johns 16y ago
Yeah, we use Asterisk among other things.

bradgessler 16y ago

Not to rain on johns parade but there are a few other out-of-the-box services that offer 1-800 numbers including http://grasshopper.com/ http://grasshopper.com/ and http://www.ringcentral.com/ http://www.ringcentral.com/. We use RingCentral and its horrendously complicated. Grasshopper looks a little more streamlined. Twilio is really pretty easy unless your totally technically inept.

johns 16y ago
Yeah I didn't mean to imply we were the only option, just maybe the most affordable for a tech-savvy startup.
- catch23 16y ago
  Well, if you were tech-savvy, wouldn't you just go for a standard asterisk box solution? 1-800 voip minutes are usually around 1 cent per minute or less, depending how many minutes you buy in one shot.
  - mattmillr 16y ago
    I am tech-savvy, and I've set up 4 Asterisk systems in production. And if I were getting an 800 number for a startup, I'd DEFINITELY outsource it. I'd rather spend my time talking to customers than setting up and maintaining my PBX.

takrupp 16y ago

I'm signing up for this. Its time we get a 1-800 number for my online retail business. I also agree with the article: I personally receive all of our customer calls (which happen like 3-5 times per week). Its a great source of information and it helps our branding that we are a small, customer oriented online retailer.