Free UK Inbound Numbers From CallUK
Source: asteriskblog.com
Last time, I wrote about this free service that lets you assign a free US number (with Washington area code) to your Asterisk box via SIP. This time, here’s a service you can use to assign a UK number to your box: CallUK.
CallUK (at www.calluk.com/fwd). The concept is pretty much the same, except that in this case the number is British. That means your callers from the UK can call at the standard calling British Telecoms national rates (usually higher if from mobile phones).
This website will allow you to register a British telephone number that will call you on your FWD telephone number.
The British telephone number that you will be allocated can be called from all British telephones, both landline and cell. The billing rate for the caller will be the BT national call rate. No international call charges are incurred by the caller. Call charges may be higher from British cellphones, than from landlines. This is dependant on the cellphone company and the charges that they choose to set.
This process is FREE. There are NO setup charges, NO registration fees, and the moment you finish entering your details on this website the number will be live and ready for use.
Again, some good applications for this include offshore setups. For instance, you have an office in the US, but you accept calls from clients in the UK. It will be better if you give them a UK number to call. For one, it’s cheaper on their part. And it can also be good for the image, as it gives the impression that you actually do have an office in the UK.
This works only with freeworlddialup, though, and not with other SIP proxies. So you’ll have to sign up with FWD.
Signing up is pretty straightforward. On the signup page, just key in the FWD number of your Asterisk box, your name and location (country), and then your email address for verification (and for password purposes).
You will then be assigned a telephone number with the 870 area code. This means callers from outside the UK can call you by dialling +44-870-xxxxxxx (where the x’s represent your number), while callers from within the UK can dial 0870-xxxxxxx.
Unlike IPKall, CallUK doesn’t give a warning that the service should be used in order to keep the number alive. I’ve owned a number for almost a year now, and I’ve rarely used it, but it’s still active. So that probably means you don’t have to keep receiving calls to remain active. Of course, it goes without saying that this is only for use if you’re on the practical (i.e., cheap!) side. If you’re using it for mission-critical applications, then you’d better go for more reliable (probably more expensive) services.
