|
Voipfone |
|
The User Manual |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26 October 2009 |
|
|
Voipfone is an Internet Telephone Service provided by iNet Telecoms Ltd. iNet was founded in 2004 to develop telephony services using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and is now a leading provider in the UK offering a wide range of products and services to both business and residential customers.
We run a business class network and promote open connectivity, unlocked hardware and no-contract services. Consequently, we peer with any professionally run VoIP network, sell plug-and-play (but user configurable) equipment and provide no-commitment, no risk, pay as you go services.
All Voipfone Directors, contractors and employees rely completely on the services we sell to the public to run and manage our own business so we experience what you do. And, unlike most other providers, we engineer our own products so that we can add new features and services quickly and constantly improve our existing ones.
In this guide you will find details of how to set up and use all our products and services but if you require more information, please don't hesitate to call us during normal business hours or send us an email to support@voipfone.co.uk and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.
Voipfone is a founder member of ITSPA and adheres strictly to its codes of practice and standards.
INet Telecoms Ltd (Voipfone)
Sovereign House
227 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SD
United Kingdom
Web: www.voipfone.co.uk
Email: support@voipfone.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7043 5555
+44 (0)33 0088 5555
Fax: +44 (0)20 7043 5556
Registered number: 05168033
Vat Registration Number 858850966
Best Business VoIP Award Finalist 2008
Emergency Services
This service allows calls to the emergency services numbers 999 and 112. Calls to these services may fail if there is a power cut or if your broadband connection fails.
Location information
When you complete the emergency services form on our website in ‘Your Account’, the address information you give us is passed by us to the Emergency Service data base to help them find you during a 999 call. You should therefore input the address where the service will be used. If you subsequently change your address you should update your details.
Reliability
This is a Voice over Data Network service, and as such, it is dependent on your connection to the data network and the data network itself. Your service may therefore cease to function if there is a power failure or a failure in the underlying data network.
Notification
You should inform potential users of these points and you should always have an alternative means of accessing 999/112 emergency services such as a mobile phone or landline.
Information about this manual
We’ve done our best to make this guide as accurate as possible but as our network interconnects with other operators’ systems and your own equipment and networks, which are not in our control, you must form your own conclusions and use your own judgement when using it.
VoIP technology is developing very quickly and this guide will not be always up to date with changes made to our networks and equipment or with other company’s changes to theirs. You should also check our website and user forum when problem solving.
This document is a guide only and does not constitute any legal arrangement with you, the reader, and INet Telecoms Ltd.
Now, let’s get on with it.
Table of Contents
How to use Voipfone for the very first time
What you need before you start.
How do I put credit on my account?
Services included with all Voipfone accounts
Unlimited, Free Internet Calls
Call Transfer & Music on Transfer
Using your own recorded message
Edit CLI (Calling Line Identity)
The Voipfone auto-dialler TAPI
Emergency Services (Dial 999 or 112)
Receiving a Fax - Fax to Email
Sending a Fax – Web to Fax and Fax to Email
Voipfone for your BT landline – No VoIP needed!
Voipfone Carrier Pre-select Service - CPS
SMS (text) Messaging with Voipfone
Your Account - The Online Control Panel
Emergency Services 999 and 112
Editing Calling Line Identity (CLI)
Making Calls from Your Address Book
Hardware Returns Procedure (RMA)
Voipfone Referral Scheme – Website Referrals
Using Snom Telephones with Voipfone
Interactive Voice System (IVR)
Voipfone’s standard IVR (pre-recorded departments)
Voipfone’s customised IVR departments (Using your own sound files).
Ordering Professional Voice Recordings
Frequently Asked Questions about Broadband
Voipfone for BT Landlines – No VoIP needed!
Voipfone for Mobile Phone Users
Making Low Cost Calls to Mobile Phones
Call Me Back™ - A powerful tool for your web site
How to set-up Call Me Back (free version)
How to set-up Call Me Back (Pro version)
Information about Telephone Numbers
What are my telephone numbers?
What is an 03 Non-Geographic Number?
What is a 0845 Non-Geographic Number?
What is a Non-Geographic Number?
Can I transfer (port) my existing telephone number to Voipfone?
Registration, Billing and Payments
General information and how to prevent common problems.
How can I make payments to Voipfone?
How can I check how much credit and free minutes I have available?
How can I make a payment without a credit card?
My account has been disabled, why?
My card keeps being declined why?
It says it's going to call me but it doesn't
How are call charges calculated?
Information about Voipfone and Internet Telephony
This is all very complicated isn’t it?
Where can I get more detailed information about VoIP?
Using VoIP for a simple call divert - just to get a new telephone number
What kinds of equipment do I Need for VoIP?
How can I make a Voipfone call from my VoIP phone?
Using VoIP with other networks
Why can’t I call Skype or Vonage for free?
Can I use my computer while I talk on the phone?
Can I take my SIP telephone or adapter with me when I travel?
Does my computer have to be turned on?
How do I know if I have a Voipfone phone call?
What are Voipfone's Information Service Numbers
Can I send Faxes over VoIP using my existing fax machine?
How do I make Voipfone work on a low bandwidth connection?
What countries are included in the ‘Included Minutes’ package?
What is the difference between Inclusive Minutes and Calling Credit?
How many simultaneous calls can I make/receive?
Can I use more than one telephone on one account?
Telephone and Adapter Setup Instructions
CounterPath Eyebeam Set-up instructions
Snom/Elmeg Configuration Details
How do I set-up Asterisk@Home?
Tips and Trick with Snom telephones
My Telephone says NR and does not have dial tone.
I can't log into my account. It keeps telling me 'invalid login/password.'
The addresses in my Xlite Address Book disappear when I re-boot my computer.
Softphone Problems and how to fix them
Audio Contains Pops at Loud Points in Voice
Audio Contains Bothersome Background Noise
Why can I call Voipfone users but not ordinary landlines or mobile phones?
I can call some numbers but not others
I get a message telling me how many inclusive minutes I have left.
I can’t hear the person I am calling or they can’t hear me
I get a Login Timed Out error from my X-Lite softphone
My phone shows 'discovering firewall' and other Firewall problems
I’ve forgotten my password; help!
My account has been disabled why?
My Phone has a light flashing/funny dial tone/keeps ringing.
If you are a VoIP beginner the quickest and cheapest way of getting started with Internet telephony is by using your PC - our free software turns your PC into a fully featured telephone. All you need is a PC, loudspeakers and a microphone - or a headset - and a broadband connection to the Internet.
When you register with Voipfone we give you a free software telephone - a ‘softphone’ - which you can download and use to make free calls to anyone on the Voipfone network and any of our partner networks (see Voipfone Peering Numbers in General Information later.)
We also give you 5 free minutes of calls to ordinary telephones and a free telephone number so that anybody can call you and you can test our service without risk.
Once you put credit on your account, you can also use it to call people with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world at very low prices. You can see how much calls cost to ordinary phones and mobiles by using the call cost calculator or Voipfone Calling Rates table on our web site:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/prices.php
1 A PC or Apple Mac
2 A loudspeaker and a microphone or, better, a headset with microphone. (Using loudspeakers can sometimes create an echo for the person you call but its fine to begin with.)
3 A broadband connection to the internet.
The first thing to do is sign-up for the Voipfone service – don’t worry this is simple and free – you are not making any commitment at all. Just click the button at the top of the Voipfone home page and fill in the form.
(Or click here: http://www.voipfone.co.uk/signup.php )
Please put complete and valid information into the forms and use a working email address otherwise your registration will fail. Please use an email address from your ISP or business - not a free web mail account like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail; these addresses will not work with our security systems.
After signing-up you will receive an email to the address you registered within a few seconds.
(AOL users please note: emails to AOL addresses can sometimes take several hours to arrive or not get to you at all; please don’t blame Voipfone for this, take it up with AOL! However, if you don’t receive our email, please email us from the support page of our web site and we will send you the information directly.)
It’s best to get this email before you go any further because you will need it when you install your softphone software.
Choose the softphone version you
need for your Operating System and download it, then follow the instructions for installing that you’ll find on this page.
https://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewforum.php?f=5
Once the softphone is installed, call 155 by either typing the number on your PC’s keyboard or clicking on the numbers on the phone then pressing the green telephone icon on the softphone. You should hear a message of congratulation from our service. Occasionally you may encounter a problem which will almost always be to do with the use of firewalls - if you do, please see the Troubleshooting Guide at the back of this manual or on the our website.
Your registration gives you 5 minutes of free calls to any landline in the included countries list (see General Information).
Please note, you cannot call a mobile phone or some international destinations with your free minutes - to do that you need to put some credit in your account.
If you want to make calls to ordinary telephone numbers once your free minutes have been used up, you will need to put some credit in your account. To do this, go to our Package Builder which you can find by clicking the ‘Services’ text at top of website or here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/builder.php
Then click on the type of calling credit you need. Choose from either the ‘Account Top-Up’ or ‘Inclusive Minutes’ section.
(note: the inclusive minutes package gives you very cheap - less than 1p per minute - calls to the destinations included which are most of the UK, Western Europe, North America, Australia, Poland, Russia etc and some mobiles. If you need to call countries and mobiles outside these destinations you will need credit in your top-up account. The package minutes are re-billed every month and any unused minutes are not rolled into the next. If you click on the text you can see what is included in each type of credit.)
Click the button with the amount of credit you want then click the ‘Build My Package’ button at the bottom of the page and sign in. Check your details, enter your credit card number, press the ‘Make Payment’ button and you’re done. Your account is updated immediately and you can start making call straight away.
If you chose Top Up credit, during this process you will be given the option of allowing ‘Auto Top-Up’. With this option your account will be automatically re-credited when your credit gets down to £1 and prevents you being cut off when your credit runs out.
When you enter your details please be sure to enter them accurately as incorrect entries will cause the payment to fail. Please also be sure to enter your name exactly as it is shown on the card and to enter the name of the country you are actually in when you see that question on the form.
You need to be near the phone that you gave us when you registered and it must be working!
If you have problems, please read the Billing and Payments section of this Guide. If you continue to have difficulties please contact us directly and we’ll try to help.
Using the Softphone is quite straight-forward. Just dial the number you want by typing it into your PC’s keyboard or by clicking on the numbers on the phone itself. Then click the small green telephone icon to connect the call.
Make your first call to our test service at 155 to confirm you are set up correctly.
Where can I get a manual for the softphone?
You can find a complete guide if you follow the link below. Please note, the guide is for the full ‘Pro’ version of the software, your free version doesn’t include every feature of the paid for softphone.
http://www.xten.com/docs/X-PRO_Users_Guide.pdf
If you find you need another copy of the software you can find it here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/softphone_download.php
All our accounts have the following services available to them:
When you use your Voipfone softphone or one of the new Internet telephones or adapters, and call anyone else that uses them, the call is totally free.
Additionally, Voipfone is a promoter of open networks, so if the person you want to call also has an open network policy, that call will be free too. See ‘Peering’ later.
Don’t forget, you can load the softphone onto your laptop and use a wireless link (WiFi) from anywhere your network will reach.
You can even try it from a WiFi Hotspot away from home to make FREE ‘mobile’ phone calls!
How Much Does It Cost?
It cost nothing to call other Voipfone customers or customers on our partner networks.
If you call an ordinary telephone or mobile, you will be charged at our standard, low rates.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
Any Voipfone customer can use this
service for free when calling from the Voipfone network. Your colleagues and
friends can also join from any ordinary telephone anywhere in the world, even
if they are not a Voipfone customer.
You can hold a conference with any number of people to last as long as you
like, any time you like. In fact, you can see it as a room that we built for
you when you registered - It’s always open for you and your guests to walk
into, anytime.
How Much Does It Cost?
It’s free to call the 0843 access number for all Voipfone customers.
Callers using the ordinary telephone
network will be charged BT national rates, which at the moment are between
1.5p/minute and 8p/minute depending on time of day. Calls to 0843 from outside
the UK will be charged at the provider’s international rates.
How Do I Use It?
To set up your first conference, go to ‘My
Account’ and enter your user name and password. Click on ‘Allocated Numbers’ where you will see the Voipfone
conference telephone number. Click on ‘set PIN number’ and
choose any 4 digit number. That’s it; easy.
How Do I make a Conference
Call?
To make a conference call once you’ve set it up, tell your colleagues:
The time and date of your conference (you can, in fact, enter your conference room at any time – it’s just a lonely experience if you arrive an hour or a day early :-)
The telephone number to call, 0843 176 0000. To call from outside the UK dial +44 843 176 0000. (Occasionally, this number may fail from some countries – if this happens use +44 844 774 66 00)
The conference room number, which is your Voipfone account number, (that’s the 300XXXXX number that you were given when you first registered with us).
nb: If you are calling from a Voipfone Virtual PBX extension number you must enter the extension number too eg. 300XXXXX*200 (include the asterisk).
The PIN number which you just set up. If you’ve forgotten your PIN just click on the Conference Call text in My Account – your number will be in the box.
When you or your guests dial in to the number the announcer will ask for your conference number followed by the PIN; then you’re in. Talk for as long as you like with as many people you can manage. We find 4-5 people optimal but with good chairmanship many more can be accommodated.
Voipfone can tell you the number of the last call to your Voipfone number; whether you answered it or not. This means you can call back the telephone number that called you.
How much does it cost?
It’s free
How do I use it?
Just dial 1471
You can load the free softphone onto your laptop and use a wireless link (WiFi) from anywhere your network will reach.
You can even try it from a WiFi Hotspot away from home to make free ‘mobile’ phone calls!
How Much Does It Cost?
It cost nothing to call other Voipfone customers or customers on our partner networks.
If you call an ordinary telephone or mobile, you will be charged at our standard, low rates.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
How Do I Use It?
The process is exactly the same as making calls from your PC.
Voipfone can support any number of simultaneous incoming calls; the actual number is only limited by the telephones you use to receive them. If your telephone or adapter supports it, you will be notified automatically that you have a call waiting.
The snom 320 for example has 12 incoming ‘lines’ while our free softphone has 3. The normal way of notification is a flashing light on the next available line button on your phone plus a quiet ‘beep’ in your handset.
How do I use it?
To accept the call, press the button next to the flashing light. This connects you to the caller and puts your original call on hold – they will then hear our music on hold (see below).
Once you have the call you can transfer it (see call transfer), end it, or accept another depending on the capabilities of your phone. You return to your original call by pressing the relevant line button.
You can easily transfer any call you are making to another person, anywhere, on any network, either mobile or landline.
How Much Does It Cost?
If you transfer the call to another Voipfone customer, or someone on another VoIP network that has partnered with us, the call is totally free.
If you transfer to someone with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world you will be charged at our standard low prices.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
How do I use it?
This is an ‘unattended’ transfer, ie once you have dialled the number to transfer the call, your line will go dead and drop into dial tone. Your caller will experience music on hold while you dial the number then ringing tone as the number is called. You, the caller, do not speak to the party you are transferring the call to.
Alternatively, you can use the transfer button if you have a new SIP telephone.
Sometimes when you’re dealing with a call you need to do something else, maybe talk to a colleague, take another call, look something up or just answer the door bell!
You can now put the caller on hold while you do whatever you need to do and while you’re away the caller will hear music until you’re ready to pick the call up again.
How do I use it?
On your softphone, just click on the flashing green light in the bar under the screen numbered 1, 2 and 3. The light will flash red and green and your caller is now listening to music. Click it again and he’s back on line to you.
If you’re using a new Internet Telephone you just press the hold button.
It’s often very useful to bring a third person into a phone call and now, it’s really easy to do.
How Much Does It Cost?
If everyone is using Voipfone or is on a partner network, the calls are free.
But even if one or two callers are using ordinary telephones or mobiles (from anywhere in the world) the calls will only be charged at the Voipfone standard low rates.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the website.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
How Do I Use It?
If you own a new Internet (SIP) Telephone, the first person makes a call to the second person in the normal way. The first person then presses a new line button, which gets a dial tone and puts the second on Hold while he dials the third party. When the third party answers he presses the conference button and everyone is connected.
Currently the Voipfone free softphone does not support 3 Way Calling but we’re hoping to introduce the feature shortly. The paid for Pro version does include this feature as does the free SJPhone.
(This feature is temporarily suspended)
Free and unlimited video calls are available to all Voipfone users, so if you already own a SIP video software or hardware phone you can start using the service straight away.
How Do I Use It?
The best software telephones that we have tested so far have been the Eyebeam and Sip Quest's collaboration agent. Although the collaboration agent worked fine with our services we found the application rather clunky and not very user friendly. The EyeBeam works well.
If you have access to the internet, you can use any telephone anywhere to make a call and have the call charged to your own account, not the account of the phone owner.
This means that any phone, anywhere, becomes your own and you can use it without feeling guilty!
How Much Does It Cost?
The way this works is that Voipfone calls the phone you’re making the call from, then another makes another call to the person you want to call; then connects both together. So you will be charged for two calls. But because our prices are so low, even with two calls, this is still a more economical way of making a call than, say, from your mobile.
You can see how much the call costs by using the special web call cost calculator on the web call page.
Have a look how cheap international calls are using Call Back – you’ll be surprised. (eg UK 2.2p/min; USA 2.2p/min; France 2.2p/min, India 9.4p/min)
If you are travelling abroad you can avoid roaming charges by using web calls. Just remember to include the country code of the country you are in to the local telephone number you are using.
How Do I Use It?
Go to www.voipfone.co.uk and log into ‘Your Account’. Click on the ‘Make Web Calls’ icon. Type in the number you want to call and the number you’re calling from. The phone will ring; you pick it up and wait for the called number to answer. Easy.
If you’re going out but still need to receive an important call, you can divert your Voipfone calls to any number, anywhere. This is especially useful if you want to divert your calls to your mobile phone or a colleague’s office or friends home.
How Much Does It Cost?
If you divert the call to another Voipfone number or customer, or someone on another VoIP network that has partnered with us the call is totally free.
If you transfer to someone with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world you will be charged at our standard low prices.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
How Do I Use It?
Go to www.voipfone.co.uk and log into ‘Your Account’. Click on the ‘Set Call Diverts’ icon. Type in the number you want to divert your calls to and click ‘submit’. If you want to stop the divert, just delete the number and re-submit.
If, for any reason, your telephone stops registering with our network – maybe your network or ISP is down or you have a power failure - Voipfone detects this and switches your incoming calls to whatever number you tell us. It would be normal to have this number set to your PSTN or mobile number, that way you don’t lose a call if you have a local problem.
How Much Does It Cost?
If you divert the call to another Voipfone number or customer, or someone on another VoIP network that has partnered with us the call is totally free.
If you transfer to someone with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world you will be charged at our standard low prices.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
This does just what it says on the tin!
However, it’s a bit of the legacy telephone business as most VoIP telephones now have the ability to deal with more than one call at a time so the caller may only rarely hear busy tone.
How Do I Use It?
Go to www.voipfone.co.uk and log into ‘Your Account’. Click on the ‘Set Call Diverts’ icon. Type in the number you want to divert your calls to and click ‘submit’. If you want to stop the divert, just delete the number and re-submit.
How Much Does It Cost?
If you divert the call to another Voipfone number or customer, or someone on another VoIP network that has partnered with us the call is totally free.
If you transfer to someone with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world you will be charged at our standard low prices.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
Quite often it is necessary to protect yourself, your company, your employees and your customers by recording important conversations so it’s clear who said what and when.
With Voipfone you can record any conversation any time or all calls all the time and you can play them back instantly from our network or store them forever on your own PC or database. This used to be a very expensive and hard to configure service, now it’s simple and costs pennies.
Recording Individual calls
If you have a phone that supports it eg one in the excellent snom range, just press its ‘record’ button. Recording will stop when you press the record button again or hang up.
If you don't have a snom or a
'record' button on your phone, that's no problem, you just press #0 and
recording starts. Pressing #0 or hanging up stops it.
Auto-Record - Recording all calls automatically
This is a feature included with our Virtual PBX which can be configured for use on individual extensions and switched on and off as you need it.
You may make as many recordings as you like.
Recording will stay in ‘Your Account’ for 30 days then be automatically deleted.
How much does it cost?
It costs 2.5p (ex VAT) per minute of recording time.
How does it work?
Once you’ve made your recording (see above) it will appear in your account as
an MP3 file here:
www.voipfone.co.uk/recording.php
where you can either play it
directly or download it to your PC or database.
You may make as many recordings as you like. Recording will stay in ‘Your
Account’ for 30 days then be automatically deleted.
Is it legal?
Generally, yes, provided you follow some rules - there are various regulations
you should be aware of and the law is different for home use and business use.
In summary, you may record calls at home so long as they are for your own
personal use only and you may record calls if you are a business so long you
take "all reasonable steps" to inform all parties that you will be
recording them. “All reasonable steps” is not defined but may include written
warnings on your web site and/or a voice warning.
Most organisations use phrases like these at the beginning of each call:
"For training purposes and your own security, your call may be monitored
and recorded."
"In order to ensure excellent customer service, your call may be monitored
or recorded."
Less formally, you could just say something like “I’m recording this
conversation so that I have a proper record of it, is that ok?”
In some circumstances businesses may record without obtaining consent.
Ofcom’s guidance is here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/prvfaq3.htm
Please note: Our notes here, like Ofcom’s, are simply an attempt to point you at some of the law regarding recordings; you should obtain your own legal advice if you have any doubts.
Source material:
The interception, recording and monitoring of telephone calls is governed by a
number of different pieces of UK legislation. These are the main ones:
If you lose your connection to us, perhaps because you have a power failure or your ISP goes down or your router dies, our network detects this and will divert all your incoming calls to a telephone of your choice - anywhere. This gives you a failsafe if the worst happens.
How Do I Use It?
You just enter the number you want calls to be diverted to here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?act ion=Divert
Please note that you must have calling credit on your account for this service to function.
If you use our Virtual PBX you can set divert on each extension too. You do that here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/diverts.php
How Much Does It Cost?
If you divert the call to another Voipfone number or customer, or someone on another VoIP network that has partnered with us the call is totally free.
If you transfer to someone with an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world you will be charged at our standard low prices.
You can find out how much these calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
If you choose one of our Inclusive Minutes Packages, calls to included countries are charged at only 1p/min.
Voicemail is your digital answering machine, but unlike a normal answering machine you can hear your messages from almost anywhere and not only from a landline but also from your mobile phone, from the Internet and even by email.
When you’re busy or away or on the phone you can have your service divert to voicemail. You can record your own personal message or use the pre-programmed one that we provide.
The voicemail messages are also automatically converted into a sound file, attached to an email and mailed to you. You can then listen to it from your PC from anywhere. Because it is a digital recording you can even save it on your PC or email it to someone else.
Your voicemail box will hold up to 100 voicemails, please delete old messages regularly.
How Do I Use It?
You can access your voicemail for free using 1571 or by calling 0843 1 760 760 from any normal phone. (If you’re abroad, dial the international number +44 843 1 760 760. You will be asked for your Voipfone telephone number (the 300XXXXX one) and your 6 digit password. (The 0843 number sometimes does not work from some countries – if this happens please try +44 844 774 66 06.)
You can record your own message and select many more functions by calling 1571 and choosing the relevant option when you are prompted.
Problems?
If you leave long pauses between or
during entry of the numbers they may not be recognised so have all the info in
front of you before you dial.
Occasionally you may be using a telephone that doesn't send the right tones – try
adding # at the end of the numbers.
You may upload your
own 'welcome message' sound file for your voicemail.
This can help present a more professional image for your
company and can even match the voice used with your IVR system.
You may add and delete files as you like.
How to do it
You will find the upload tool here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/voicemail.php
Just put your mp3 file somewhere on your PC, browse for
it and upload.
When your personalised message stops, our own message
starts which says:
"please leave your message after the tone. When done,
hang up or press the hash key"
So don't include that in your own recording
If you would like a professionally recorded message
(which matches the second message) our Voice Artist can record it for you.
Details here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/sound_files.p
hp
(Pick the female voice)
Please note: This free feature is only available for
'paid for' numbers ie not free 056 or 0870
Each extension has its own voicemail, to access it just dial 1571 from the extension. Each extension can also access voicemail on the main account number just by dialling 1572 from any extension. If you need to access an extension’s voicemail from an ordinary number you dial 0843 1 760 760; enter the account number with extension eg 31234567*200 and its password.
Here’s the
navigation menu of our Voicemail
1 Old Messages
3 Advanced options
1 Send reply
2 Call back
3 Envelope
* Return to main menu
4 Play previous message
5 Repeat current message
6 Play next message
7 Delete current message
8 Forward message to another mailbox
9 Save message in a folder
* Help; during msg playback: Rewind
# Exit; during msg playback: Fastforward
2 Change folders
3 Advanced options
0 Mailbox options
1 Record your unavailable message
3 Record your name
* Return to the main menu
* Help
# Exit
Your voicemail messages are automatically converted into sound files, attached to an email and mailed to you. You can then listen to it from your PC from anywhere. Because it is a digital recording you can even save it on your PC or email it to someone else.
How Do I Use It?
It is automatic.
Message Waiting Indicator (MWI)
If you have a device that supports it, you can tell that you have a message waiting from your phone or adapter. This will either be a flashing light (telephones) or stuttered dial tone (adapters and telephones) or sometimes an annoying occasional ring (adapters) – see below.
Check your manual to see how to switch this function off and on and how to receive the message.
You may need to have the latest firmware installed – please check the manufacturer’s web site.
(Some adapters do a regular, partial ring when they have a message waiting. To turn this off you may need to consult your manual. For Lnksys/Sipura’s, you will find it under ‘User 1’, ‘Ring Settings’. Change any number in the ‘VMWI ring splash length’ box to 0.)
If you’re travelling, but need to
know when people have left messages for you on your office voicemail, you can
have Voipfone send you an SMS (text) message to your mobile phone to let you
know.
How Do I Use It?
To set this up, go to http://www.voipfone.co.uk/voicemail.php?method=setupAlerts
And click on ‘register you mobile phone number’ and enter the mobile(s) you wish to receive the messages on. You can send the message to as many mobiles as you have registered with us.
You can check your voicemail from
any telephone by dialling 0843 1 760 760 (or if you’re outside of the UK +44 843 1 760 760). Occasionally, some countries have difficulties with 0843 numbers, if this happens please use +44 844 774 66 06)
Please note that you need credit on your account or have bought an SMS package
for this service to be active.
If you’re having a busy day you’ll probably make and receive a lot of calls. Once upon a time people calling you would get a frustrating engaged tone. Now, with Voipfone, you know when someone is calling, even if you’re using the phone at the time. So you can put your first caller on hold and answer the second then toggle between them as much as you like.
Because you can view incoming caller identity, you can even see who’s calling before you decide to answer!
How Do I Use It?
If you are using the softphone, you will hear a beep and see a small green light flashing on the phone when a new call comes in. You just click on the light to put your first call on hold while you answer the second.
If you have a normal phone with a Voipfone adapter, you press the recall button to toggle between the calls.
On a new SIP Phone you press the line button whose light is flashing.
Your telephone sends a signal through our network to the telephone you are calling. If the called telephone has a display (like a mobile phone) it will show your telephone number. This is a useful feature – for instance if the person called has your name in his address list it will display the name not just the number and if you send your number he can call you back. It is also sometimes used by Voipfone to authenticate your call and is essential for some services to work (Mobile Call Back for example).
With Voipfone you can have several numbers, with the default CLI being the free 056 number that we issue to all new customers. Now Customer’s with other numbers can choose which number you want to send.
How do I use it?
Just go into ‘Your Account’ and in the ‘your account details’ table click on ‘edit CLI’ and choose the number you want. Or go directly there:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/callerid.php
Of course, you can only set the CLI with numbers that you own.
All users have Caller ID enabled as standard and any users with geographic and non geographic number allocated to their account will show these numbers when they make a call to the PSTN.
How Do I Use It?
You can set your CLI from ‘Your account’, ‘account details’ – ‘Edit CLI’
You can have as many calls coming into your telephone as you or it can handle!
How much does it cost?
They’re free.
How do I use it?
With your softphone, you can accept up to 3 calls simultaneously.
As a call arrives you will hear a beep and the green light on your phone will flash. If you click the light you put your first call on hold and answer the second. If a third call comes in, you click on its light and the other two calls are put on hold.
You toggle between calls by clicking on the lights.
With adapters for ordinary telephones and the new SIP telephones, you can have as many incoming calls as they have buttons – the Snom 190, for example, has 5.
Some items, such as geographic telephone numbers and inclusive call packages, are repeat billed monthly. These items will be charged to your credit card each month where it will appear as Voipfone on your bill. (To be exact, it will happen 30 days after your anniversary of buying this product from Voipfone).
For your security, please note that we do not keep a record of your credit card number, our billing system works by sending our own unique billing reference to your banks network for their re-authorisation each month.
If your telephone or adapter supports it, you can be notified that you have a voicemail message waiting.
This will either be a flashing light
(telephones) or stuttered dial tone (adapters and telephones) or
sometimes an occasional ring (adapters); you need to check your manual to see
how to switch this function off and on and how to receive the message.
How do I use it?
All phones bought from our website will have this feature enabled but for
others you may need to consult the manual. You may also need to have the latest
firmware installed – please check the manufacturer’s web site.
If your telephone or adapter is listed on our Hardware Help pages, you will find a wizard that will configure all your devices settings to use Voipfone properly – including MWI. Please see:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/IP_Phone_Setup.php
Some adapters do a regular, partial ring when they have a message waiting. To turn this off you may need to consult your manual. For Sipura’s, you will find it under 'User 1, ‘Ring Settings’. Change any number in the ‘VMWI ring splash length’ box to 0.
How much does it cost?
It's Free!
A TAPI is a small piece of software (a driver) that links the
Voipfone service to other software that you may have on your PC such as your
Contacts in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express.
(TAPI stands for Telephone Applications Programming
Interface.)
What does it do?
With the TAPI installed you can click on the name
of the person you want to call in your Address Book or Contacts Directory and
you will be connected to that telephone number, no more dialling!
How much does it cost?
It's Free!
What does it work with?
There are two versions of the software.
1. A TAPI specifically for Microsoft Outlook (For Outlook
Express use the General TAPI and follow the instructions below).
2. A general TAPI that should work with any software that
uses the TAPI standard. Try it with Sage, Lotus Notes (Domino), ACT! etc and
let us know how you get on.
How do I use it?
It's quite straightforward:
For Microsoft Outlook users
1. Have your 8 digit account number and 6 digit password
ready. For Virtual PBX users you should use the eight digit account number
followed by the extension number in the format 3XXXXXXX*2XX
2. Close Outlook
3. Download the software (below) and run it.
4. Open Outlook
5. In Contacts, right click on the contact you wish to
call.
6. Choose ˜Call Contact" then ˜Start Call"
7. Your own phone will ring. When you answer you will be
connected to your contact.
General Purpose TAPI for Microsoft Outlook Express
Users and Other Software
1. Have your 8 digit account number and 6 digit password
ready. For Virtual PBX users you should use the eight digit account number
followed by the extension number in the format 3XXXXXXX*2XX
2. Close Outlook Express
3. Download the software (below) and run it.
4. Go to Start, My Computer, Control Panel and double
click on Phone & Modem
5. Open the Advanced tab, Add, and choose the Voipfone
TAPI Driver, OK, Close
6. Open Outlook Express
7. In Contacts, right click on the contact you wish to
call.
8. Choose ˜Call Contact" then ˜Start Call"
9. Your own phone will ring. When you answer you will be
connected to your contact.
For other TAPI supported products
Follow the instructions for Outlook Express as far as you
can. You will then need to check your manual about how your specific Software
works with TAPI. We would be grateful for any information on how you get on
with this.
Downloads
Microsoft Outlook only TAPI
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Voipfone_Tapi_ Setup_1.0_Outlook.exe
General Purpose TAPI (for use with Outlook Express and
other applications)
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Voipfone_Tapi_
Setup_1.0.exe
NOTE - This software is for Microsoft Operating
Systems only (ie it will not work with Apple Mac OS)
However, Jerm has kindly produced one - find it here:
http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtop
ic.php?t=1060
NOTE #2 – The TAPI only works when the operating system of the PC it is used on is installed on the C: drive.
All Voipfone customers can call emergency services immediately on sign-up - we take your safety seriously
When you dial either 999 or 112, your call is sent to national emergency operators who will handle your call and send it to:
You may also register your
phone number and address with the Emergency Services data base so that when
you dial 999 or 112 they have your location details on screen in front of
them - you can update their records if you move home or office. |
See ‘Your Account’ later for more information.
With a Voipfone fax number you can both send and receive faxes without a fax machine:
Email to Fax. You can send a fax to any fax machine anywhere just by emailing to the fax number.
Web to Fax. You can upload a fax to our server and send it without needing a fax number
Fax to Email. You can receive a fax from a fax machine directly into your email.
· No software to download and install
· No need for extra telephone lines
· No equipment needed
· Immediate use
· Paperless and inkless
· Save and store your fax correspondence digitally
· Send and receive faxes from anywhere you have an internet connection
All you need to receive a fax is a fax number, so you just go to our package builder and choose one.
How do I use it?
Once you’ve bought your number, there’s nothing else necessary - it’s all done automatically for you. An incoming fax will go directly to the email address you have registered with us.
Faxes are received as .pdf files
WebFax is a simple, cheap and convenient way of sending a fax without needing a fax machine – or even a fax number!
How do I use it?
It couldn’t be easier – just create your fax in your usual word processor, spreadsheet or image programme or scan a document, log into Your Account, browse your PC for the file then press send.
Faxes are sent as normal files - the following formats are supported: pdf (Adobe Acrobat), doc (Word), jpg (Image), png, gif, rtf, odt, ods and.tiff
Formats NOT supported:
.docx (the new Word Office 2007 format - just save as .doc), Excel (xls), Powerpoint (ppt), Web (html). (But you can scan these pages and they can then be sent as images ie jpg.)
How much does it cost?
It costs 10p per page.
For more information see:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/fax_out.php
(If you want to receive a fax as well as send one, you obviously need a fax number; you can get one here: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/account.php?method=denied#incoming_fax)
Email to Fax
For outgoing email to Fax, buy a fax number from our website (the same number is used for both outgoing and incoming faxes so if you already have one of our fax numbers you don’t need another.)
To send:
1. Make sure you have some calling credit on your account.
2. Go to https://www.voipfone.co.uk/faxes.php and get your PIN number (you can generate a new one each time or keep the same one forever)
3. Open a new email in the usual way (using the email account you have registered with us).
4. You send your fax as an email attachment, add it to your email in the usual way
5. Address the email in this format To: number@outboundfax.voipfone.co.uk
Eg 02070435555@outboundfax.voipfone.co.uk
6. In the subject field enter your 4 digit PIN - enter nothing else
7. To send outside the UK use the full international code
How Much does it Cost?
Incoming faxes are still free and unlimited when you purchase a fax number.
Outbound faxes are charged at 10p per page (ex VAT). You must have calling credit on your account to send a fax.
Questions we are asked about Voipfone Fax
Can I send PowerPoint and Excel files as attachments?
At the moment, no – not as attachments anyway. PowerPoint slides and Excel pages can be sent by scanning them and sending them as an image file such as jpeg.
Can I send international faxes? If so, how much does it cost?
You can send faxes by email anywhere. It costs the same 10p per page as to the UK. Don’t forget to include the full international code as if you are sending it.
What is Voipfone CPS?
CPS allows you to use your existing telephone equipment and BT telephone line and number with Voipfone’s advanced features – or VoIP or even broadband needed! And it’s cheaper!
How does it work?
Just like changing who bills you for your gas and electricity you can also do the same with telephone calls – you simply transfer your telephone billing from BT to us.
But unlike gas and electricity - where you still get the same old product as you did before you transferred - with Voipfone CPS you get not just lower telephone bills but also access to most of our advanced features and services such as call divert, business hours, voicemail to email, call transfer, music on hold etc
Not only that, but you keep your existing telephone number and use your phone in exactly the same way as usual – no codes to enter or adapters to buy. You can still make calls using BT anytime you want to and switch back to BT permanently anytime too; so there is no risk at all.
Who is it for?
It can be used by anybody with a BT line and is especially useful if:
· you can’t use, or don’t want to use, VoIP
· you don’t have a broadband connection
· you wish to use your existing telephones
· you want to try some of the new VoIP services but are not quite ready to make the leap yet.
How much does it cost?
There is a one-off charge of £20 to set up the service and to deal with the BT side of things on your behalf – after that your calls are charged at ordinary Voipfone rates and you get our clever switchboard services thrown in for free.
(When you are comparing our prices to BT remember that we charge 1p per minute to call pretty much anywhere in the Western world, we charge by the fraction of a second and have a minimum call charge of only 1p. Remember too that the average duration of a business call is about 1minute.)
Included Features
## to transfer a call
#0 to start recording, #0 again to stop
#1 to put on hold. #1 again to take off (with Music on Hold)
Common Questions
I’ve already changed my provider – can I still use your service?
You must be paying a BT line rental to use our service. If you’ve switched your LINE (ie not just your calls) to, say, the Post Office or TalkTalk you won’t be able to use us. If you are still paying a BT line rental you will be able to.
Can I call other Voipfone customers for free?
Unfortunately not. As we have to pay BT to carry your calls over their wires until it gets to the Voipfone network we have to charge you at ordinary rates – 1p per minute.
How do I make a call using BT?
Prefix your number with 1280. Any number starting with a 1 such as 1571, 100 etc will direct to the BT network automatically - as will 999.
Do I still have to pay BT for my line rental?
I’m afraid so. BT still provide your telephone line and number; Voipfone provide your outbound calls.
What happens when people call me (inbound calls)?
Inbound calls work exactly the same as they always did – our services are only active on outbound calls.
Can I use things like call transfer, call recording etc for incoming calls?
No – our services can only work on the calls that we control, that is, calls YOU make. Incoming calls are still controlled by BT.
How many simultaneous calls can I have?
We can squeeze two calls onto your line but one of then must be on hold. The on-hold caller will hear music and you can switch between them as you like.
Will my broadband still work?
Yes, it will work as normal
Will my fax machine still work?
Yes, it will work as normal
How long does it take?
Using Voipfone you can send and receive SMS text messages to and from your PC.
You can send messages to an individual or a group of people simultaneously. Because you do it from a real keyboard, they are easy to compose and read – it’s just like email.
And because this service is web based you can do it from any PC anywhere in the world so long as it has a normal internet connection.
We directly inject the message into the mobile network so that the message is sent immediately and costs less than sending it from your mobile phone.
You can see all the messages you have made and received in your On Line Account Manager
How Much Does It Cost?
If you are using a Pay as you Go account, they cost 8p each. You can get substantial discounts by buying them in bulk from our Package Builder.
How Do I Use It?
You go to www.voipfone.co.uk and sign into ‘Your Account’, then click on the SMS Text Messages icon. Or just click here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/sms.php?method=send
You can then Compose and Send a Message, View the Messages you have Sent and Received and change your mobile phone registration details
How Do I Receive SMS To My Online Account?
To receive a message, your sender needs to compose his text in this format:
So it will look something like this:
30099999 Hi, You can now send really cheap text messages using Voipfone!
Your sender should then send it to the Voipfone virtual mobile number which is:
07786200161 or 00447786200161 from
outside the UK.
With Voipfone’s On Line Control Panel you can manage your account in real time, from your own PC or any other PC anywhere in the world; you just need to have an ordinary internet connection.
This is the place to go to manage
almost everything about your account and any changes you make are
instantaneous.
From the Panel you can view an itemised record of all the calls you’ve made and
received, see your account balance and top it up, upgrade to other services or
cancel one you no longer need. You can edit your details and update registered
phone numbers at any time.
This is the place to see all the
other features of the Voipfone service too, such as the Virtual PBX, set up
Conference Calling, update your address book, setup your Calendar and Alerts, check
your Voicemail messages, send and receive SMS messages, set your Call Diverts
and make Web Calls.
How Do I Use It?
It’s easy, just go to www.voipfone.co.uk
click on ‘Your Account’ then enter your user name and password, then mouse over
the icons to see what you can do.
Some of the features are described below, others such as the PBX, Call Diverts and Web Calls can be found in their own sections. See the contents page for details.
You need to keep your details up to date so that payments and call back services work correctly. You can edit your records by clicking on the ‘edit details’ text in the line marked ‘Account Details’.
Here you will see partial details of the credit card which is currently being charged for your services.
To change your card, just enter your new details into the form and press the update button. Each new card requires a new security call to your registered number; please ensure you are able to receive it.
If you need to stop payments, press
the ‘delete payment details’ button. (If you no longer wish to use our services
please cancel them on the ‘view your services’ page also.)
Voipfone is a pre-pay service; to make calls you put calling credit on your account and your balance reduces as it is used up. You can add credit in blocks of £5, £10, £20, £50, £75 and £100.
To prevent you don’t running out of calling credit half way through a phone call, we ask you to allow us to add more credit by charging your card to the value of your first purchase when your balance reaches £1.
This will happen by default unless you un-tick the auto top up box when you buy credit for the first time.
If you need to increase your auto top up amount so that you don’t get so many invoices you can do it here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/edit_auto_top_up_amount.php
Our automatic top-up feature prevents your calling credit running out mid call.
You can set the level at which your credit will be topped up automatically using the drop down menus below. We recommend that you set the trigger amount to about 10% of your top-up amount and adjust it as you get used to your calling habits.
If you find that you are topping up very frequently you should also consider increasing your top-up amount to compensate.
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/edit_auto_top_up.php
If your telephone usage has increased, you should consider also increasing your regular top-up amount. This will reduce the number of transactions on your card and invoices on your account and also reduce the risk of running out of calling credit.
To do this, just choose a new payment amount from the dropdown menu. The new amount will be taken from your card on its next auto top-up.
You can have your Voipfone telephone
number listed in the BT phone book. It’s called an OSIS listing.
Entries cost a one off fee of £10 (ex VAT) for a permanent listing.
Please provide the information and do double check its accuracy! (If you are a
residential customer just ignore the boxes that are not applicable.)
You may register your phone and address with the Emergency Services data base so that when you dial 999 or 112 they have your details on screen in front of them.
This can be vitally important if you or your visitors don’t know the exact details of where you are or can’t communicate them for some reason.
You should enter you information carefully in the form on this page.
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/emergency.php
Your details are sent immediately but it may take some time for records to be amended by the Emergency Services.
If you have several numbers with us, the one that you have set as your Calling Line Identity (CLI) will be shown. If you have no CLI set, please choose your preferred number from the dropdown menu.
PBX
Users
If you have one main location, submit your form while logged into your master
account ie the 3xxxxxxx account number.
If you have extensions in several locations you can enter the address for each SO LONG AS YOU HAVE A TELEPHONE NUMBER ATTACHED TO THEM. ie a DDI number, not just an extension number. To do this, log into your extension’s account ie 3xxxxxxx*2xx and submit from there.
Important - Please Read This Note Carefully:
Ofcom requires us to provided labels to stick on your phones or PC saying “Emergency calls may fail if you have a power cut or your broadband connection fails.” You can buy them here or you can print them out locally for free from here
You can view your order history here. To view or print an invoice, please click on the view invoice text.
You can view any items that you have added to your account. If at any time you need to cancel an item, click on the cancel link next to it. Cancelling an item will prevent the item being re-billed to you on its next billing date. Deleting a number will stop it operating immediately and it will be removed permanently from your account.
To renew cancelled or lapsed items, tick the box(es) next to the item(s) and click the 'Renew Selected Items' button.
This page shows full details of all number(s) that are currently allocated to your account. You can add new numbers to your account by clicking on the Package Builder™ icon above.
As a Voipfone customer you can refer a friend, colleague or client to the Voipfone service.
And there’s something in it for both of you - THEY get a month’s free trial of all our services and YOU earn 50% of any service1 revenue we receive from them when they continue with us after the trial.2
You can introduce as many people as you like but each introduction will only work once!
Services are everything we sell except call and SMS credit, inclusive packages and hardware.
The referral fee is calculated as 50% of the price of services purchased. It applies to the first month, post trial revenue only. The fee will be added as Calling Credit to your Voipfone account.
When Calling Line Identity (CLI) is set by you, our network sends your telephone number to the called party so that they have a record of received and missed calls and can see who’s calling them and call you back if they miss the call.
With Voipfone you can have several numbers, with the default CLI being ‘Withheld’.
If you have other Voipfone numbers (you can have as many as you like) you can choose which number you want to send by clicking on the ‘edit CLI’ text and choosing the number you want from your listed numbers.
You may also add any non-Voipfone numbers that you have, such as your mobile phone or PSTN landline.
To do this you need to fax us asking to add the new number. We also need proof that you own the number so please fax us a bill showing the number to 020 7043 5556.
There is an admin fee of £5 ex VAT.
From here you can see the calls you have received or even missed during the day with details of who called, when and how long the call lasted. So if you need to call them back but forgot to take down the number, this is where you look first!
From here you can see details of all the calls you have ever made showing; the date and time, the destination, the duration and the cost for each call and the total cost of all the calls in the period.
This is a permanent record so that you can have total budgetary control of your Voipfone usage.
You will also see that there is an option to download your call records to a CSV file. This file can then be opened in a spreadsheet package such as Excel and used to keep track of costs by phone.
You can also click on the number which is hyperlinked and it will dial the number for you!
Obviously this is where your missed calls are listed but perhaps less obviously missed calls are only those that did not go through to your Voicemail; those ‘missed calls’ were of course actually answered and can be found in the received calls list.
Missed calls can be automatically returned by clicking the number - your phone will then ring and you will be connected to the missed caller’s number. Calls are charged at the usual Voipfone rates.
You can top your account up with calling credit using your mobile phone - very handy when you are away from your PC.
How do I use it?
First you need to register your mobile with us:
Once registered you can top up your account by sending us a text in the flowing format:
account number_last 3 digits of your password_amount
eg 31234567 987 5
This would top up your account with £5 of calling credit.
You may top-up with £5, £10, £20, £50, £75, £100
Send your text to: 07786200161
Please note: You must have a valid credit card on your account.
How do I register my phone?
See: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=SmsTopUp
You can set reminders and alerts in your calendar for a specified date and time.
Click on the Calendar & Alerts icon. You can then enter the message you want to send to yourself (up to 150 words) and set the time and date for it to be sent. The alerts will then be sent directly to any mobile phone that you have registered with Voipfone. You’ll never forget anything important again!
How Much Does It Cost?
If you are using a Pay as you Go account, they cost 8p each. You can get substantial discounts by buying them in bulk from our Package Builder.
We provide you with an address book which you can use to keep track of all your friends’ and customers’ details. You can add and edit entries and email or text them to friends and colleagues directly from here.
You can call a number directly from your address book just by clicking on it.
The Voipfone system will make a free call to you and, when you answer, it will connect you. So, just click on the number, answer the call and wait to be connected.
Calls are charged at the usual Voipfone rates.
If you need to cancel a service you can do it at any time from here without penalty. Just go to ‘Service Description’ and click on cancel. Or click here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/account.php?method=properties
For the service you want to cancel, under 'actions' click on cancel.
Please note that any monthly billed services such as call packages and telephone numbers will remain active until the anniversary of their purchase is passed.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE NOTE:
For your own security, if you do not intend to use your account again; delete your credit card details too. You may do this here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/edit_credit_card.php
Remember that any equipment that you have used with Voipfone - adapters, telephones and softphones - contains your username and (encrypted) password and will register to your account automatically. You should delete this information, or do a factory reset of the device, before you dispose of them.
Go here to select new services. With our Package Builder you can add products and services whenever you need to so that you’re not tied down to contracts and complicated calling plans. You just pick the ones you want to build the service that suits you.
Click on the text to read about what the services are and what they do (just move your mouse over the text and click on the items you are interested in to get more information) then click on the buttons to make your choices and click the ‘Build My Package’ button when you’re ready.
Some services in the Package Builder are free and some are charged for. If you choose only a free service you won’t be asked for any further information.
If you select a paid for service you will be taken to the payments page.
When you have built your order go back to ‘Your Account’ to find the new item and set it up if you need to.
Keep an eye on this page - we’re adding new features and services all the time!
You can set a divert on your account so that calls are sent to whatever number you input.
Divert All Calls takes precedence
over all other diverts and can be set to any valid telephone number.
PSTN Failover diverts calls to any traditional number if your phone stops
registering with our network for any reason. So if your network goes down or
your power fails you don't need to lose incoming calls.
Divert on Busy does what it says on the tin! (If your phone can handle several
calls this feature will be rarely used).
Diverted calls are charged at our normal rates. You must have credit on your
account.
You may change the divert at any time and changes are instant.
How to return an item
There may be some occasions when you need to return hardware items to us. These are the procedures to follow if you do.
You will find the returns process here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/rma.php
Before you return anything, YOU MUST HAVE OBTAINED AN RMA NUMBER.
The RMA number is your guarantee that your goods will either be replaced or refunded. Without this number you cannot be refunded. To do this, please complete the form below.
When you have your RMA number, you should return the item to us at the address we will provide.
Please do not return goods to our registered address, for security reasons this building cannot receive packages and they will be turned away.
For Items Damaged In Transit
If the items are visibly damaged when you receive them, please refuse delivery. We ask that you report this to us as soon as possible but always within 7 working days of refusing. If the goods have been accepted by you please follow the procedures for goods found faulty on arrival.
For items Faulty on Arrival (DOA)
If your items are faulty on arrival, you must tell us within 7 working days. Please complete the form at the bottom of this page and, if we can’t resolve the problem with you directly, you will be issued with an RMA number. Once you have the authority, please return the items to the address you will be provided with. (Please do not return goods to our registered address, for security reasons this building cannot receive packages and they will be turned away.) Items should be sent in their original packaging complete with all accessories and documentation. We'll then issue a replacement or refund you via your original payment method.
For items Faulty in Warranty Period
If any of your purchases develop a fault then, provided your item is within its warranty period (usually 12 months), you are entitled to a warranty repair or we may replace the item (at our discretion). Please complete the form at the bottom of this page and, if we can’t resolve the problem with you directly, you will be issued with an RMA number. Once you have the authority please return the items to the address you will be provided with. (Please do not return goods to our registered address, for security reasons this building cannot receive packages and they will be turned away.)
If you have simply changed your mind
If you have simply changed your mind about any item ordered, and you wish to return it, you can do so provided you inform us of your decision within 7 working days of receipt. The item must not be used and must be 'as new' when returned to us. Please complete the form at the bottom of this page and, if we can’t resolve the problem with you directly, you will be issued with an RMA number. You then have 28 days to return the goods to the address you will be provided with. (Please do not return goods to our registered address, for security reasons this building cannot receive packages and they will be turned away.) Once we have received the item, we'll issue a refund for the product.
If you have received an incorrect item
Please complete the form at the bottom of this page and, if we can’t resolve the problem with you directly, you will be issued with an RMA number. Once you have the authority to return the items they should be sent in their original packaging complete with all accessories and documentation to the address you will be provided with. (Please do not return goods to our registered address, for security reasons this building cannot receive packages and they will be turned away.)
General Information
Returned products must be adequately wrapped to prevent damage during transit with the RMA number or end user details clearly marked on the outside of the package. It would help us to speedily process your return if you also enclosed a detailed note of the fault.
All good returned remain your responsibility until signed for by ourselves so we can’t accept liability for packages damaged during transit. As proof of postage is not proof of delivery, you are strongly advised to send your package by recorded delivery, registered post or courier and maintain sufficient insurance to cover the value of the goods.
Please note: With the exception of goods delivered incorrectly or that are faulty on arrival, the cost of return carriage is your responsibility.
To return an item, please fill in the form here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/rma.php
As a Voipfone customer you can refer a friend, colleague or client to the Voipfone service.
And we give you both a benefit - THEY get a month’s free, no commitment trial of all our services and YOU earn 50% of any service revenue we receive from them for the first month after the trial.
That means they can play with our telephone numbers, PBX extensions and even the Interactive Voice Response system if they like - completely without commitment.
You can introduce as many people as you like but each introduction will only work once!
To learn more, click on the link below.
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/referrer.php
Make your website work harder for
you!
If you’re a Voipfone customer - and also own a website - we’ll pay you to send
us new customers.
All you have to do is place a link on your site - the rest is automatic.
Whenever one of your visitors clicks on our link on your site and signs up for
an account with us, we’ll give HIM a month’s free trial of all our services and
YOU earn 50% of any service1 revenue we receive from them after the
trial.2
So everybody benefits, Voipfone, you and your visitor. And it couldn’t be
easier, just follow the instructions below.
Please see here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/free_link.php
For website code and further information.
Snoms are our preferred telephones. They are sophisticated, friendly, hard to break, good value and work well with our network. They also have some tricks that are quite useful; here’s our guide to using them with Voipfone.
These instructions are for the Snom 300. The 320 and 360 have the same functions but are accessed slightly differently as they have specific keys that make some tasks very simple – please consult your manual.
It is possible to set your phone to forward your calls to an alternative number. This means any calls to your internal extension will ring though to another phone. You can forward your calls to another extension on the system, voicemail, a mobile, or a landline
There are three forwarding options available, but the two which are likely to be of use are:
Forward always – this will divert calls to your phone to the required destination immediately.
To turn on forward always:
Use the silver navigation key and press; down, right, right, then the tick key. You will be requested to enter the target; this is the phone number you would like your calls to be forwarded to. Simply type this number in on your telephone keypad (if you are diverting to an extension you will have to press the tick key after entering the ext. no.) once the number has been entered you will be returned to the main forwarding menu, just press the cross key to go back to the standby screen.
To set calls to forward to voicemail, simply enter no telephone number in the target felid.
To turn off divert always:
Use the silver navigation key and press; down, then the tick key.
Forward on Timeout – this will divert calls to your phone to the required destination after a set timeout.
To turn on forward on timeout:
Use the silver navigation key and press; down, right, then the tick key. You will be requested to enter the target; this is the phone number you would like your calls to be forwarded to. Simply type this number in on your telephone keypad (if you are diverting to an extension you will have to press the tick key after entering the ext. no.) Next you will be asked to enter the timeout; this is how long you would like your phone to ring before forwarding the call on to its destination. Enter the time in seconds then press the tick key. Once the timeout has been set, you will be returned to the main forwarding menu, just press the cross key to go back to the standby screen.
To set calls to forward to voicemail, simply enter no telephone number in the target felid.
To turn off divert on timeout:
Use the silver navigation key and press; down, then the tick key.
To place a caller on hold, press the active line button which the call is on. To return to the call, just press the line button again. You can pick up the other line on your phone and make another call while someone is on hold, you can then swap between the two calls. To end a call at any time, press the cross key, you can then return to the holding caller by pressing the holding line button.
You can transfer calls to any phone, an extension, or an external number. There are two ways to transfer a call, attended and unattended.
1. Attended transfer (allows you to speak to the transfer target before transferring the call)
Firstly, place your caller on hold by pressing
L1 (the button next to the Line light).
Next, press L2 which will give you dial tone and put the calling party on hold.
Dial the person you wish to transfer the call to – press the ‘tick’ button. If
they answer, inform them of the call and hang up the phone to transfer the
call. If they don’t answer or don’t wish to take the call, press the hang-up
key (cross key) and then press L1 to return to your original held call.
2. Unattended transfer (Call is sent to the target phone directly)
To do this, press the transfer key which will give you dial tone. Dial the number of the phone to receive the call – press the ‘tick’ button. Hang up.
If you are on a call and someone calls your extension you will see line 2 on your phone flashes (you will also hear a beeping sound if this is setup on your phone), you can press the flashing line button to put your current call on hold and switch to the second call, you can then swap between the two. Placing the phone down on the cradle will disconnect all calls, so when you’ve finished with one of them press the cross key and then press the holding line to return to that call.
When your phone is ringing, if you would like to redirect the call to another phone before answering it, press the transfer button, and type the number you require. This is useful if you’re about to leave the office and get a call which it would be better was sent to your mobile or if you wish to send the call to someone else in the office to deal with. It’s just like transfer, but done before answering the call.
If your phone is ringing, and you are too busy to answer it you can
press the cross key to reject the call. The call will be sent to your busy / no
response forward. Or your voicemail if no forwarding number is stored.
Voicemail will automatically answer calls to your extension after 30 seconds if there is no response. This timeout can lowered (see call forwarding)
When a new message is left in your voicemail box, an email will be sent out to your extensions set email address. This email contains the voicemail as a sound file, and also shows the callers telephone number where available. Your phone will also flash its message light, and the dial tone will become stuttered for a moment when you pick up your phone.
To access voicemail from your extension dial 1571; Here you can listen to messages which have been left for you, and you can also record your own personalised extension voicemail greeting. It’s also possible to access the maser voicemail box by dialling 1572 from any extension.
Tip: Each voicemail box can hold a maximum of 100 messages, please ensure you don’t allow your inbox to reach this limit, if you do you will not be able to receive new messages.
Busy Lamps is for use with extensions on our PBX and means that - if you have a phone that supports it, at the moment that means all snom phones - you can see which extensions are busy, which are ringing and which are free.
This is obviously a very useful function for receptionists – they can see who’s available before transferring a call. But it is also useful for everyone, especially in a distributed business with extensions in different physical locations; at home or even in different countries; it works wherever the telephones are located. You can see whether an extension is available before you call it.
A useful side effect of this feature is that you can now simply press the key next to the extension number and it will dial the number for you directly.
So far we’ve tested this on snom phones only, but it may work on others – let us know.
Snom telephones
The snom 300 has two line lamps (though others can be configured if you don’t mind losing the function that the relevant key already provides). The 320, 360 and 370 have twelve lamps. If you need more than this an additional keypads can be added. See:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php?method=view&pid=20
You set BL on all telephones that need to know the availability of the other phones on your PBX. This does not mean that all your phones need use it or that all extensions need to see all other extensions – it’s up to you how you want it to work for you.
Set up
Enter the web page of your snom. To do this, find the IP address of your telephone:
Now, click on ‘Function Keys’ in the yellow column on the left; this shows your options.
You now need to set the ‘P’ keys to Busy Lamp.
To do this
1. enter your own account number and extension in the box under 'content' in
the format 3XXXXXXX*2xx
2. under 'type' select the drop down 'extension'
3. under 'Number' enter the extension number to monitor in the format
"3XXXXXXX*2xx
Then click 'save'
It should now look something like this:
When you have configured your phone
correctly this is what happens:
• No lit lamp means that the
extension is free
• Continuous lit lamp means that the phone is in use
• Flashing lamp means an incoming unanswered call - ie someone is dialling the
number but it hasn’t been answered yet.
Use the name label next to the lamps to identify who’s who on your PBX.
When dialling a number, if you misdial, press up on the silver navigation key. This will delete your last dialled digit.
You can dial a number while the handset is down, and simply pick up the handset to start the call.
If your phone is producing letters instead of numbers when you are attempting to make a call, please press 0, and then the down key until you see 123 at the bottom right of the phone. Press the cross to return to standby, and make your call as usual.
If you are unable to hear your caller you may have set the phone to use a headset device, but not have one. To change this press the tick key during a call. You will see at the bottom right the symbol change from headset to handset. If you are not on a call, dial 152 and make the changes.
A PBX is a Private Branch eXchange. In the old analogue days it was a small telephone exchange 'manned' by Telephone Operators in big companies to send calls from the public network to the correct telephone attached to the private network inside the building of a big company. This was necessary because otherwise everybody in the company would need their own external telephone line and number - a very wasteful and expensive thing as most of the time those lines would not be in use. By having a PBX they could have a lot of telephone extensions but only a few external telephone lines. So when a call came into the company the operator directed the call to the correct person by physically plugging in connecting cables on a switchboard - hence the phrase 'connecting you now'.
As technology progressed the PBXs became automatic but were still large and expensive, often needed their own room with power and cooling taking up expensive floor space in your building and required specialist telephone engineers to install and run them. Despite this, they became an indispensable requirement of any medium or large business.
The Internet and Voipfone has now brought the large scale and extensive PBX functionality to the small, sometimes single, user. We have built a production scale, secure, PBX in our Network Operating Centre in London's Docklands. It's called a 'Virtual' PBX because we host it on our premises so that you don't have to know anything about it. This modern switch is connected to the Internet with high speed lines and is managed by us. All you have to do is pick the number of extensions you want and add them to your account.
This is a ‘Self Service’ PBX which you set up and manage yourself from our web site. It gives you the features and functionality of telephone systems that were previously only affordable by large corporations. It’s a sophisticated call management system too and it’s suitable for an ordinary office, a virtual office or several offices in several locations and even your own home.
The Virtual PBX will save you a lot of money on your telecom bill because it’s all based on Voice over IP technologies so you no longer need several expensive incoming PSTN/ISDN lines and all calls within the service are free, no matter where they are made to. This means that if you have home workers or a home office, a real office in the UK and another in say, France, all calls between them are free – it’s as though you are all in the same building.
All extensions have a full PBX suite of features including - Call Transfer, Music on Hold, Call Waiting, Call ID, Voice Mail, Call Conferencing, 3 Way Calling, Free Calls between Offices/Homes etc. Additionally, with all PBX accounts you get Business Hours and Line Presentation - see below.
You can also optionally add Call Queuing, Call Groups and Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) – see below.
Like all our services we let you choose exactly what you need and no more:
Each extension costs £0.99 per month, Call Queuing £1.99pm, Call groups £0.99pm and IVR £1.99pm. See the sections below for further details.
It allows you to have as many telephones in your business and home as you want. So, for example, if you have a small office with say 4 people in it, you take 4 extensions from us and one incoming telephone number (let's say you take a London number 020 7043 5555). When someone calls that number (anybody, anywhere on any telephone network can call your number) either all the extensions can ring at once and the first person to pick up gets the call, or just one phone rings and your receptionist picks it up then forwards the call to the correct extension.
You can take individual extensions out of the ring Group or put them back in again at will from your own ‘control panel.’
You can create Call Groups which are groups of extensions which you want to ring all at once – this is useful if your company is organised into departments like Sales or Account etc
All the telephones can call out simultaneously (so it's like having 4 BT exchange lines). All the phones have individual voicemail so if all the phones are engaged your incoming calls go straight to voicemail. You can have as many incoming calls as you can handle, so it's like having an infinite number of exchange lines. You do not pay for extra 'exchange lines’.
All the extensions can also have their own incoming number too so that they can receive calls directly (DDI).
You can call between extensions, so x200 can call x 204. Amazingly, it doesn't matter where these extensions are located - they can be plugged into the internet in Australia and they would work in the same way as in the UK. So you could have 5 people in your Basingstoke Main Office, 2 people at home and a small office in Barcelona and it will be as though they are in the same room. Even more amazingly all calls between them are FREE.
You can add in a Call Queue so that incoming calls are automatically answered; callers are played music on hold and told their position in the queue until their call can be taken.
And to get the really big company feel by adding Interactive Voice Response (IVR) so that callers can direct themselves to the correct department – ‘Press 1 for Sales, 2 for accounts’ etc.
All these features are optional additions to your self-service PBX, so you just choose what you need and no more.
What equipment do I need?
You need a telephone for each extension. This can be a new SIP phone, an adapter for an ordinary telephone (ATA) or our free softphone. (But for heavy business use we recommend a real SIP telephone).
You also need a Local Area Network (LAN) and a broadband connection to the internet. The speed of this connection will directly affect the quality of your phone calls, so the faster the better.
We supply everything else automatically.
As well as all the features available to standard accounts, each extension on the PBX also has these addition features:
Click this link to see the all
features available to each extension
http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtop
ic.php?t=1630
Up to 800 Telephone
extensions
You can have up to 800 extensions on one account and each have the
features and functions of a normal account such as call forward, voicemail,
voicemail to email, music on hold, conferencing etc.
Free calls between extensions – wherever they are
Extensions can be in the same office, a remote office, a home office
or even another country – wherever they are calls between them are free of
charge.
Unlimited Lines and calls
We do not restrict the number of simultaneous calls you can make on
our PBX; you are limited only by your own network and bandwidth.
Automatic Call Recording
Each extension can be configured
with a simple tick box on your website control panel to record all calls made
or received on it.
External Direct Dial In (DDI) numbers for all extensions
You can attach as many numbers as you like to as many extensions as
you like within the PBX. This means that each extension can have its own
incoming calls from the outside world and they can be added and subtracted as
you like.
Internal Direct Dialling to extensions
All extensions can be dialled directly from inside the PBX using short
number dialling.
Set your Business Hours
You can set the hours that your office is open so that when you are
closed, calls go to voicemail.
Ring One or Ring All (simultaneous ring)
An incoming call to the master account can either ring all extensions
at once so that the first person to pick up gets the call, or just one phone so
that your receptionist can then forward the call to the correct extension.
Group in/out toggle
You can take individual extensions out of the ring group or put them
back in again at will from your own control panel.
Call Groups
The group feature allows you to combine some of your extensions so
that they ring together when called. This is useful if your business is
organised into departments with more than one person in each department or if
some of your people wish to work from home as well as the office (no need to
set diverts or call different numbers.)
Busy Lamps
If you have phones that support it, you can see which extensions are busy or ringing. At the moment this means snoms, but others may well work.
Call Pickup
Calls can be picked up from other phones in the same call group.
Line & Number Presentation
This free feature enables you to see which of your telephone numbers
is being called instead of the number of the person calling you. ie it displays
Called Line ID instead of Calling Line ID (CLI) on your phone. This can be a
very useful feature because with Voipfone you can have as many numbers on your
account as you want but sometimes you need to know which one of them your
caller dialled. For example, if you run more than one business but only have
one telephone, you will want to answer the phone with the correct business name.
Call Queuing
Call queuing allows you to accept more calls into your telephone
system than you have extensions or employees to answer them. With call queuing,
your customers are answered automatically, held in a queue and while they are
waiting for a representative they hear music and receive personal messages
about where they are in the queue and when they will be answered. You never
lose a customer because you couldn't answer the phone.
We’ve made it extremely easy to set up and use. It's all managed by you on our web site through one account.
Choosing extensions
Firstly decide how many extensions you need; don’t worry about getting it wrong - if you take too few you just add more, if you find you have too many you remove them. We don’t lock you into a contract - the most a mistake can cost you is 99p! You can have any number of extensions you need, up to 800 on one account.
Once you’ve decided, go to the Package Builder in ‘Services’
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/builder.php
Fill in the Virtual PBX box with the number of extensions you want and press the ‘build my package button’. This takes you to the payments page. Once you’ve completed the details and pressed the ‘Make Payment’ button you’re ready to set-up the extensions.
Go to the virtual PBX page in ‘Your account’
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php
Your virtual extension numbers start at 200 and each needs to be assigned a name, an email address (nb this address is where the extension holder’s Voice to Email Voicemail will be directed) and a password. The password needs to be a 6 digit number so that it can be dialled from a telephone (you need to do this when picking up your voicemail from a non Voipfone telephone for example).
Deciding which telephones ring when your main number is called
Once you have done this, you decide how each extension will work with incoming calls. You’ll see that an incoming call can either ring all extensions or just one. So if you want a single individual to answer the phone say, your receptionist, choose that option; otherwise choose ‘ring all’. (The Call Group feature, Call Queue and IVR - described later - allows groups of extensions to ring too.)
The Group function
You can remove an individual extension from the ring group by un-ticking the ‘group’ box next to the extension you do not wish to ring when the others do. If you purchase more groups, you can organise individual extensions to ring together when a single number is called. See later.
Adding a direct dial in (DDI) number to an extension
If you want individual extensions to receive external calls directly to their extension, you just add another incoming telephone number to your account from the Package Builder by pressing the ‘add more phone numbers’ button and mapping it to the extension.
The new telephone number will appear in the ‘inbound number set up’ list on the PBX page; assign it to an extension by choosing it from the drop down menu alongside it.
How do I set up my telephones with the correct extension number and password?
Each of your telephone extensions has its own sub-account with our service and now needs to be set up so that Voipfone can identify it as a valid user on our network.
Extensions have the same account number (or user name) as the main account which will be in the 300xxxxx range. (This number was sent to you by email when you first registered.) Each extension then uses that number, plus its own extension number, separated by an asterisk.
So extension number 200's username will look something like this. 31234567*200. You need to put this new account number into the configuration of the telephone or adapter.
You also need to give it a password and enter that too into the telephone.
To set a password, go to the Virtual PBX page of the website: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php and, if you haven’t already done so, enter a 6 digit, numerical password next to the extension number. Save the change. Now enter that password into your telephone.
How to enter user name and passwords into your telephone or adapter
For our Softphone, either run the wizard and input the username in the above format, or open the softphone, press F8 and put the new account numbers in the username and authorization user boxes.
If you're using SIP phones or adapters (ATAs) please see the specific set up instructions here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/IP_Phone_Setup.php
Remember to use the new username with extension number, not just the main account number.
Each extension has its own Voicemail and can be accessed by dialling 1571 in the normal way. (Or get it from the website).
The master account is an exception. Often each extension needs to pick up voicemail from the main office number; this can be done by dialling 1572.
If you need to access an extension’s voicemail from an ordinary telephone you can do it by dialling 0843 1 760 760 then entering the Voipfone number and password for the correct account or extension.
For example, to access voicemail for extension 205 on account 31234567, enter 31234567*205 then its own 6 digit password.
You can set the hours that your office is open so that when you are closed, calls go to voicemail.
You can have as many open and closed periods as you like per day. To do this, click the 'Add' button and enter your opening hours into the new drop downs.
How much does it cost?
It comes free with the Virtual PBX.
How Do I use it?
Go to the Virtual PBX page http://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php and you will see that you can set the time you are open each day using the drop down menus. Use the tick box for when you are closed all day. The default setting is to be open all day.
Quite often it is necessary to protect yourself, your company, your employees and your customers by recording important conversations so it’s clear who said what and when.
With Voipfone you can record any conversation any time or all calls all the time and you can play them back instantly from our network or store them forever on your own PC or database. This used to be a very expensive and hard to configure service, now it’s simple and costs pennies.
Recording Individual calls
If you have a phone that supports it eg one in the excellent snom range, just press its ‘record’ button. Recording will stop when you press the record button again or hang up.
If you don't have a snom or a
'record' button on your phone, that's no problem, you just press #0 and
recording starts. Pressing #0 or hanging up stops it.
Auto-Record - Recording all calls automatically
This is a feature included with our Virtual PBX which can be configured for use on individual extensions and switched on and off as you need it.
You may make as many recordings as you like.
Recording will stay in ‘Your Account’ for 30 days then be automatically deleted.
How much does it cost?
It costs 2.5p (ex VAT) per minute of recording time.
How does it work?
Once you’ve made your recording (see above) it will appear in your account as
an MP3 file here:
www.voipfone.co.uk/recording.php
where you can either play it
directly or download it to your PC or database.
You may make as many recordings as you like. Recording will stay in ‘Your
Account’ for 30 days then be automatically deleted.
Is it legal?
Generally, yes, provided you follow some rules - there are various regulations
you should be aware of and the law is different for home use and business use.
In summary, you may record calls at home so long as they are for your own
personal use only and you may record calls if you are a business so long you
take "all reasonable steps" to inform all parties that you will be
recording them. “All reasonable steps” is not defined but may include written
warnings on your web site and/or a voice warning.
Most organisations use phrases like these at the beginning of each call:
"For training purposes and your own security, your call may be monitored
and recorded."
"In order to ensure excellent customer service, your call may be monitored
or recorded."
Less formally, you could just say something like “I’m recording this
conversation so that I have a proper record of it, is that ok?”
In some circumstances businesses may record without obtaining consent.
Ofcom’s guidance is here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/prvfaq3.htm
Please note: Our notes here, like Ofcom’s, are simply an attempt to point you at some of the law regarding recordings; you should obtain your own legal advice if you have any doubts.
Source material:
The interception, recording and monitoring of telephone calls is governed by a
number of different pieces of UK legislation. These are the main ones:
Busy Lamps is for use with extensions on our PBX and means that - if you have a phone that supports it, at the moment that means all snom phones - you can see which extensions are busy, which are ringing and which are free.
This is obviously a very useful function for receptionists – they can see who’s available before transferring a call. But it is also useful for everyone, especially in a distributed business with extensions in different physical locations; at home or even in different countries; it works wherever the telephones are located. You can see whether an extension is available before you call it.
A useful side effect of this feature is that you can now simply press the key next to the extension number and it will dial the number for you directly.
So far we’ve tested this on snom phones only, but it may work on others – let us know.
Snom telephones
The snom 300 has two line lamps (though others can be configured if you don’t mind losing the function that the relevant key already provides). The 320, 360 and 370 have twelve lamps. If you need more than this an additional keypads can be added. See:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php?method=view&pid=20
You set BL on all telephones that need to know the availability of the other phones on your PBX. This does not mean that all your phones need use it or that all extensions need to see all other extensions – it’s up to you how you want it to work for you.
Set up
Enter the web page of your snom. To do this, find the IP address of your telephone:
Now, click on ‘Function Keys’ in the yellow column on the left; this shows your options.
You now need to set the ‘P’ keys to Busy Lamp.
To do this
1. enter your own account number and extension in the box under 'content' in
the format 3XXXXXXX*2xx
2. under 'type' select the drop down 'extension'
3. under 'Number' enter the extension number to monitor in the format
"3XXXXXXX*2xx
Then click 'save'
It should now look something like this:
When you have configured your phone
correctly this is what happens:
• No lit lamp means that the
extension is free
• Continuous lit lamp means that the phone is in use
• Flashing lamp means an incoming unanswered call - ie someone is dialling the
number but it hasn’t been answered yet.
Use the name label next to the lamps to identify who’s who on your PBX.
The group feature allows you to combine some of your extensions so that they ring together when called. This is useful if your business is organised into departments with more than one person in each department or if some of your people wish to work from home as well as the office (no need to set diverts or call different numbers.)
How much does it cost?
Each group costs £0.99p per month.
How Do I use them?
Calculate how many groups you need then go to the package builder (under ‘Services’ on the web site) and buy them. Once purchased go to the PBX page and click on the ‘groups’ button which you will find at the bottom of the section called ‘extension number set up’; this takes you to the group set-up page.
(Or go directly to it from here: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php?method=default2)
On this page you will see a list of all your extensions and the groups you have just purchased. To make a ring group, just tick the boxes next to the extensions you wish to be in it. Then save the changes. You may change this any time.
Now go back to the PBX and in the ‘Inbound number set up’ section choose the new ‘ring extension group’ option from the drop down menu next to your choice of inbound number. Save you changes.
Now, when that number is called only those telephone extensions you have put in that call group will ring when dialled.
Call queuing allows you to accept more calls into your telephone system than you have extensions or employees to answer them. With Voipfone, each extension can accept as many calls as the telephone can handle - for example the Snom 190 can handle 12 calls simultaneously and the free softphone 3 - but if the called party doesn't answer because he's on another call, the customer just hears ring tone and eventually diverts to voicemail.
With call queuing, your customers are answered automatically, held in a queue and while they are waiting for a representative they hear music and receive personal messages about where they are in the queue and when they will be answered.
You never lose a customer because you couldn't answer the phone.
They can be also transferred to voicemail if required.
How much does it cost?
Call Queuing costs just £1.99 per month.
How Do I use Call Queuing?
Choose call queuing from the Package Builder and make your payment. If you have only one number queuing configures itself automatically.
If you have extensions from our PBX, click on the PBX icon in ‘Your Account’ and look under ‘Inbound phone number set-up’. For the incoming numbers you want queuing to apply to, choose ‘queue calls’ from the drop down menu. Click ‘save’ and you’re done.
You can have as many Call Queues as you like on your PBX.
Multiple Call Queues are useful if you have your business set up into several departments and use our IVR system (‘press 1 for Sales, 2 for Accounts’ etc).
Suppose you have three groups in your IVR, Sales, Support and Accounts, you can now plonk a Queue on each so that a caller pressing for Sales would arrive at just the Queue to talk to a Sales person.
How much does it cost?
You get Multiple Queues when you buy a single queue (£1.99) – so if you’ve already got one Queue you’ve got as many as you need included in the price.
How do I use it?
You need to have already purchased at least one IVR department and our basic Call Queue.
If you haven’t already, go to the Package Builder and buy them.
If you now go to ‘Virtual Switchboard IVR’ in Your Account - under the PBX icon, you’ll now see that there is an option in the dropdown menu under the ‘send calls to’ heading for your new Call Queue. Select it and save.
Ticking the Line Presentation box on the PBX control panel will display which of your telephone numbers is being called instead of the number of the person calling you. ie display Called Line ID instead of the normal Calling Line ID (CLI) on your phone.
This can be a very useful feature
because with Voipfone you can have as many numbers on your account as you want
but sometimes you need to know which one of them your caller dialled.
For example, if you run more than one business but only have one telephone, you
will want to answer the phone with the correct business name. You may want to
offer different telephone numbers for different marketing campaigns you are
running or you may just want to give every member of your family their own
number so you know who needs to answer it.
How to set up Line Presentation
You will see the feature enabled
already in your account under ‘Inbound Number Set-Up’. There you will see each
of your telephone numbers and a ‘Line Presentation’ tick box.
If you tick the box next to the number you wish to see when it is called, that
number will be displayed on your phone instead of the normal CLI. Your other
numbers will not be affected.
Your call records will still show the normal CLI, so if you really need to know
who called as well as the number that was called, you can find it there.
Useful Tip
If your telephone has an integrated address book, enter each number
you wish to be displayed into it along with an appropriate name eg, 'Liverpool Widgets
ltd’, ‘call for Jim’ or ‘sales’ etc. When the number is called, the name, not
the number, will appear on the phone.
So far we've tested this trick on the Snom phones and it works fine - if you
find others please let us know.
The Voipfone IVR is a sophisticated Interactive Voice Response system. By adding it to your PBX, callers to your business will hear a personalised voice guiding them to the correct extension.
For example “Welcome, please press 1 for Sales, 2 for Accounts, 3 for Support etc” or “hi, please press 1 for Paul, 2 for Sue or 3 if you’re not sure who you need to talk to.”
It is completely customisable to your needs - you can record your own greetings and department names or use our pre-recorded ones - and you can change them any time you like, as often as you like.
To use this service you must have purchased at least one extension and one department.
How much does it cost?
As with all things Voipfone, you just buy what you need. Departments (ie Sales, Accounts etc) cost £1.99 per month each (ex VAT).
This is a web based automated process and is simple to use. We have recorded the messages professionally and put them on your service.
How to set up
Go to the Package Builder and select the number of departments that you require. You’ll find them here, under the PBX: http://www.voipfone.co.uk/builder.php
When you’ve finished, return to the Virtual PBX page in ‘Your Account’ where you will now find the new service.
From the drop down menus select the departments you have, then the numbers you wish your callers to press to find them and then finally the extension, or group of extensions or call queue that the caller will be sent to.
Save the changes.
(If there are any departments you would like us to add please email us and, if they are generic enough to be used by others, we will include them in our next recording schedule).
You may record your own messages and upload them to the IVR system. (You can use our own professional Voice Artists to do this – see below).
Choose the ‘Customise’ button. This is where you customise your switchboard by adding your own voice response recordings. All the messages in the system need to be recorded by you in order to sound professionally consistent and need to be populated with your own sound files.
The sound files that you need to record are listed under the ‘Department’ heading. They must be in MP3 format and files must be no larger than x mb. Once you have them stored on your PC enter them in the relevant upload box using the browse button then upload to our server.
You can change your sound files any time you like.
How to attach your IVR system to your inbound telephone number
You now need to tell the IVR which of your incoming telephone numbers you want it to answer.
Go to your PBX inbound number set up here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php
and, next to the number(s) you wish to use, select ‘IVR’ from the drop down menu.
Press ‘save’.
Now when the number(s) you have selected are called the caller will be answered by your IVR system.
Experienced voice artists record your message and return them to you as sound files so that you can upload them to your customised IVR in the usual way.
This service costs £30 (ex VAT) for up to 200 words – remember, the shorter the messages are the more likely your caller is to listen to them.
You can choose the type of voice you like by selecting from the drop down menus below. To hear a test message, make your selection then press the ‘Play Sample’ button.)
Once you have the voice you like, type your messages into the box labelled
‘type the exact message you wish your caller to hear here’. Remember to
include the ‘press 1, press 2 etc in your request.
If any of the words you wish the artist to say have particular pronunciations please spell them the way you wish them to be pronounced. Do this in brackets next to the correct spelling eg Voipfone (Voyp- fone)
We aim to return the recording to you the next working day but this may vary according to demand.
When you are sure you have the message exactly how you need it, press the ‘Order Recording’ button to be sent to the payments page. Please note you can’t return to this page once you have pressed the Order button.
Busy Lamps (BL) is for use with extensions on our PBX and means that - if you have a phone that supports it, at the moment that means all snom phones - you can see which extensions are busy, which are ringing and which are free.
This is obviously a very useful function for receptionists – they can see who’s available before transferring a call. But it is also useful for everyone, especially in a distributed business with extensions in different physical locations; at home or even in different countries; it works wherever the telephones are located. You can see whether an extension is available before you call it.
So far we’ve tested this on snom phones only, but it may work on others – let us know.
Snom telephones
The snom 300 has two line lamps (though others can be configured if you don’t mind losing the function that the relevant key already provides). The 320, 360 and 370 have twelve lamps. If you need more than this an additional keypads can be added. See:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php?method=view&pid=20
You set BL on all telephones that need to know the availability of the other phones on your PBX. This does not mean that all your phones need use it or that all extensions need to see all other extensions – it’s up to you how you want it to work for you.
Set up
Enter the web page of your snom. To do this, find the IP address of your telephone:
· If you're using a Snom 300 phone, on the large silver button, press; down, up, tick - you will see an IP address – type it into the web browser of a PC that is connected to the same network as your telephone.
· If you're using a Snom 320, 360 or 370 just press the ? key - you will see an IP address - type it into the web browser of a PC that is connected to the same network as your telephone.
Now, click on ‘Function Keys’ in the yellow column on the left; this shows your options.
You now need to set the ‘P’ keys to Busy Lamp.
To do this:
1. enter your own account number and extension in the box under 'content' in
the format 3XXXXXXX*2xx
2. under 'type' select the drop down 'extension'
3. under 'Number' enter the extension number to monitor in the format
"3XXXXXXX*2xx
Then click 'save'
It should now look something like this:
When you have configured your phone correctly this is what happens:
• No lit lamp means that the extension is free
• Continuous lit lamp means that the phone is in use
• Flashing
lamp means an incoming unanswered call - ie someone is dialling the number but
it hasn’t been answered yet.
Use the name label next to the lamps to identify who’s who on your PBX.
A useful side effect of this feature is that you can now simply press the key next to the extension number and it will dial the number for you directly.
Lets us know how you get on.
Here’s a guide to the various abbreviation and technical terms used in the PBX:
Menu
This is the number a customer will be asked to press on their phone to connect to a particular department eg “press 1 for Sales”
BH (Business Hours)
Tick this box if you wish the Business Hours you have set in your PBX to apply to this department. (Calls will go to voicemail when your office is closed). Click the link to find out more about Business Hours. http://www.voipfone.co.uk/extensions.php
Send calls to
This drop down menu allows you to choose where the caller will be sent when he presses the menu number you are now setting up. You choose from the extensions and groups that you can see in the box. If you need more extensions or call groups just go to the package builder (under ‘Services’ on the main menu in the website header above). Once you have bought them they will appear in the drop down menu.
Department
The drop down menu allows you to select the name of the department which each menu number will play when pressed. You can select from our pre-recorded departments or upload your own – to do this, use the ‘customise’ choice.
VM (Voicemail)
Tick and un-tick this box to turn the extension’s voicemail on or off
Group
Tick and un-tick this box to add or remove the extension from the telephones that will ring when the general number is called.
Ticking the Line Presentation box on the PBX control panel will display which of your telephone numbers is being called instead of the number of the person calling you. ie display Called Line ID instead of the normal Calling Line ID (CLI) on your phone.
Voipfone’s managed broadband is designed to provide a logical fit with Voipfone voice services and are quite different from other providers.
Because we control the connection from your phone to our telephony network, end-to-end, we are able to specify the fastest routes and prioritise your voice traffic above your other internet use so that you get the best possible call quality and line reliability – all the time.
Also, unlike all other providers, this is a no contract service. We don’t lock you into long term deals; we’re confident that you will stay with us - not because you have to - but because we are better than the rest
There are no confusing packages full of things you don’t want and will never use - we only sell raw access; just bring your own preferred router.
· Our Managed Broadband Is Unique
· Fully privately peered, business only, uncongested network
· Voice Prioritised from you to us
· Unlimited usage
· No Contract Service
· Highly reliable
· Free Technical Support
· Fast provisioning
· Free Static IP address
· Static IP Address Blocks (Up To 8 Static IP Addresses)
You can check whether you an get broadband and its likely speed here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/broadband_line_check.php
Why don’t you provide email or web hosting?
This is a specialised access product designed specifically for voice - although it will work for all other internet purposes too of course. By not providing the usual ‘total’ internet package including ‘free’ routers and short term deals, we can keep the price of the service that you are really using it for as low as possible. Voipfone Broadband for Voice is often used on a second line with normal internet usage on a separate connection to prevent interference.
We may provide additional services as separate products at some point if we find customers asking us for them.
How many simultaneous calls can I have over this service?
The number of simultaneous calls you can achieve is a function of the bandwidth available to you and the quality of the voice codec in your telephone.
Bandwidth:
First check the bandwidth that you are likely to achieve using our line test. In practice your upstream bandwidth is the limiting factor but luckily this will almost always be close to 800kbs.
Voice Codec:
For high quality calls (much better than normal telephony) we recommend the use of the g711a codec. This codec uses about 100kbs which will allow 8 simultaneous calls on a 800kbs connection.
For call quality equivalent to a good mobile phone call (normally indistinguishable from a normal landline) we recommend using the GSM codec which uses about 35kbs giving around 23 or more simultaneous conversations.
Codecs are readily switched in most telephones so you can easily test which works best for you.
For more information see: http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1744
How do I transfer (migrate) from my existing broadband provider
You need to ask your provider for a MAC code and just add it into the box on our order page; once accepted the provision goes ahead in the usual way. The number to call for BT is 0800 800030. Their ‘loyalty’ team will try to persuade you to stay but if you hold off they will give you the code over the phone.
Will there be any downtime if I move service from my existing provider to Voipfone Broadband?
If you are migrating from a BT wholesale service ie you still pay a monthly line rental to BT for your ordinary telephone line, then there will be no downtime - your existing service will stop on the day that we advise and you can then immediately re-register to Voipfone.
(Most UK broadband is provided by BT Wholesale and re-sold as another company’s re-branded service so you don’t have to be using BT Internet to have no disruption of service)
If you have switched your BT telephone landline (ie not just your broadband but also your telephone service) to say TalkTalk or one of the other landline (LLU) providers there will be some downtime as your telephone line - not just your broadband connection - needs re-providing by BT.
Which broadband services can I migrate from without having to pay a set-up fee?
There is no migration charge if you change from a service that is currently using your BT provided telephone line. If your broadband is supplied by a cable operator such as Virgin/NTL or if you have swapped your BT line for a LLU (Local Loop Unbundled) service provider such as TalkTalk your line needs to be re-provided by BT.
What does privately peered and voice prioritised network mean?
With our broadband service you are connected directly to our telephone equipment over a privately owned and managed network – a little like your own office LAN – no general purpose internet transit routers in the way to slow things down. Voice prioritised means that we look at the traffic being sent across our network to make sure that voice services get to where they want to go without restriction – if other internet traffic suddenly spikes – we prevent it interfering with you telephone call.
Voipfone's landline service allows you to use your existing telephone equipment and BT telephone line and number with Voipfone’s advanced features – no VoIP or even broadband needed! And it’s cheaper!
Just like changing who bills you for your gas and electricity you can also do the same with telephone calls – you simply transfer your telephone billing from BT to us.
But unlike gas and electricity - where you still get the same old product as you did before you transferred - with Voipfone's landline service you get not just lower telephone bills but also access to features and services such as call transfer, call hold, music on hold and call recording.
Not only that, but you keep your existing telephone number and use your phone in exactly the same way as usual – no codes to enter or adapters to buy. You can still make calls using BT anytime you want to and switch back to BT permanently anytime too; so there is no risk at all.
It can be used by anybody with a BT line and is especially useful if:
· you can’t use, or don’t want to use, VoIP
· you don’t have a broadband connection
· you wish to use your existing telephones
· you want to try some of the new VoIP services but are not quite ready to make the leap yet.
How much does it cost?
There is a one-off charge of £20 to set up the service and to deal with the BT side of things on your behalf - after that your calls are charged at ordinary Voipfone rates and you get some of our clever services thrown in for free!
(When you are comparing our prices to BT remember that we charge 1p per minute to call landlines in the UK and 1.5p to call pretty much anywhere in the Western world, we charge by the fraction of a second and have a minimum call charge of only 1p. Remember too that the average duration of a business call is about 1minute.)
I've already changed my provider - can I still use your service?
You must be paying a BT line rental to use our service. If you've switched your LINE (ie not just your calls) to, say, the Post Office or TalkTalk you won't be able to use us. If you are still paying a BT line rental you will be able to.
Can I call other Voipfone customers for free?
Unfortunately not. As we have to pay BT to carry your calls over their wires until it gets to the Voipfone network we have to charge you at ordinary rates - 1p per minute.
How do I make a call using BT?
Prefix your number with 1280. Any number starting with a 1 such as 1571, 100 etc will direct to the BT network automatically - as will 999.
Do I still have to pay BT for my line rental?
I'm afraid so. BT still provide your telephone line and number; Voipfone provide your outbound calls.
What happens when people call me (inbound calls)?
Inbound calls work exactly the same as they always did - our services are only active on outbound calls.
Can I use things like call transfer, call recording etc for incoming calls?
No - our services can only work on the calls that we control, that is, calls YOU make. Incoming calls are still controlled by BT.
How many simultaneous calls can I have?
We can squeeze two calls onto your line but one of then must be on hold. The on-hold caller will hear music and you can switch between them as you like.
Will my broadband still work?
Yes, it will work as normal
Will my fax machine still work?
Yes, it will work as normal
We think that mobile telephone calls are not only far too expensive but also priced and sold in deliberately confusing ways. In particular, calls to and from mobiles and all international calls are wickedly expensive. Do you know how much they cost? You might be surprised. If you’d like to be in control of you mobile and save yourself a lot of money we have a few tricks that may help.
Depending on your package, most service providers charge around 40p per minute for calls from your Pay As You Go mobile to other mobiles and around 20p to their own network and landlines. Ofcom and consumer groups are rightly concerned about these charges because you, the caller, can’t choose which network to call, you have to call the network your fiend is on – but you don’t know how much it will cost!
And if you call internationally or travel abroad with your mobile it gets worse. Did you know, for example, that even when you receive a call from home when you are on holiday you are charged just for answering it? And, of course, calls from mobile to international destinations are ridiculously expensive.
But we can help.
We have several products that can help you cut down your mobile telephone bill; usually dramatically. They all use clever tricks that enable Voipfone to set up your call for you so you use the smallest piece of their over-priced network as possible.
The most obvious way to cut the costs of calls to mobile phones is to dial them using Voipfone. You can call any mobile phone in the world at our standard low prices. You can find out how much these calls cost by clicking on either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the web site. Please remember that to call a mobile phone you need credit in your top-up account.
Of course you can make low cost calls from your mobile to other mobiles as well – just read on.
We have 4 products to suit the type of contract you have with your mobile phone company and the situation you are in.
1. Mobile Call Link (for contract mobiles with included minutes)
2. Free Access Call Back (for Pay-Go mobiles and for international calls)
3. SMS Call Back
4. Free 0800 calls from your mobile
They are all very clever little products that will save you a lot of money.
How does it work?
First you must register your mobile phone(s) with us. This is free. (Not required for the 0800 service). To do this enter your mobile number(s) here https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=RegisterMobile
Once registered, you can call or SMS (text) our special access numbers to connect to any telephone, fixed or mobile, anywhere in the world and you will only be charged at our standard low prices. Because the call to our access numbers are either free (Call Me Back) or included in the price you already pay for your mobile rental (Call Link) they cost much less than normal.
(This service is best if you have a contract mobile with included minutes)
Once you’ve registered your mobile phone(s) – see above - and, so long as your account is in credit, you can start making calls.
To make your call:
Dial Voipfone’s Access number, 020 7099 0707.
You will hear another dial tone
Now dial the number you want to call and you’ll be connected as usual. Do not press the send button (green telephone symbol)!
For numbers you call frequently, you can add the access number plus the number you wish to call to your address book so that you can speed dial it. Use this format:
Eg.This is how you would save the number if you wanted to call Voipfone’s support number 02070435555
02070990707p02070435555
(Some phones use + instead of p; you may need to experiment a little.)
When would I use it?
This service is used when you want to call a destination not covered by the included minutes of your contract like an international call or to another mobile phone.
How much does it cost?
Your mobile provider generally likes to charge rather a lot of money for these calls but we don’t!
For example a call to the USA from your mobile using Call Link would cost only 1.5p per minute!
To find out how much other calls from your mobile cost, just look up the country in the Calling Rate box on our website or type in the number into the call cost calculator.
(for customers with Pay as You Go accounts)
Once you’ve registered your mobile phone(s) – see above - and, so long as your account is in credit, you can start making calls.
Dial Voipfone’s Free Access number, 020 7099 0808 (or 0044 20 7099 0808 if you are outside the UK).
You will hear an engaged tone but if you hold for a second or two or just hang up, your mobile will ring – this is Voipfone calling you back.
Just answer this call as you normally would and you will hear a dial tone.
Now dial the number you want to call and you’ll be connected as usual. Do not press the send button (green telephone symbol)!
When would I use it?
Almost anytime you want to use your mobile phone as it is always much cheaper but especially if you are calling internationally or to other mobile phones. Additionally, it is very useful whilst abroad.
How much does it cost?
Because Voipfone is connecting your call for you, the call is much cheaper than calling direct yourself. Apart from saving you a lot of money you no longer need to top-up your mobile phone; you just keep credit in your Voipfone account.
So to find out how much a call from your mobile to a landline in the UK would cost, look up calls to UK mobile (this is the cost of Voipfone calling your mobile back); eg 12 p/min (ex VAT) for O2 then calls to UK (this is the number you want to call in the UK; 1 p/min. So that’s just 13 p/min in total.
Have a look how cheap international calls are using Call Back – you’ll be surprised. (eg USA p/min; France 13.5 p/min, India 25.7p/min)
You can also use the call cost calculator here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/callback.php
Enter the number you wish to call and then your own mobile number in the box marked ‘Enter the number you want to call from’.
NOTE: If you are abroad you can avoid roaming charges by buying a cheap local SIM card from the country you are visiting. Just remember to enable international calling and make sure your calling ID is switched on.
This is another clever way of reducing your mobile call bills and is particularly useful if you have a chosen one of Voipfone’s SMS message packages.
With this Call Back service you send an SMS message to the Voipfone Call Centre which contains the number you want to call. Voipfone then connects you to that number at a much lower cost than a normal PayGo mobile call. You can call any telephone, fixed or mobile, anywhere in the world and you will only be charged at our standard low prices.
When would I use it?
The advantage of SMS Call Back over ordinary Call Back, is that you can pre-programme the whole call (SMS number and calling number) into your mobile phone. You then only have to call the pre-programmed name to make the call. Perfect for when you call a few people a lot or for when you’re in the car and can’t struggle to make a call.
(It will also work if you are visiting a country that does not forward CLI which will prevent ordinary Call Back from working.)
How much does it cost?
Because Voipfone is calling you back, the call is much cheaper than a standard mobile call. Apart from saving you a lot of money you no longer need to top-up your mobile phone; you just keep credit in your Voipfone account.
The way this works is that Voipfone makes a call to you, then one to the person you’re calling; then connects both together. So you will be charged for two calls. But because our prices are so much lower than your mobile provider even with two calls we are much cheaper. You will also have a one-off charge for the SMS call at 8p. If you use our inclusive SMS service, this charge can be reduced to 4.5p.
So to find out how much a call from your mobile to a landline in the UK would cost, look up calls to UK mobile (this is Voipfone calling you back); eg 12 p/min (ex VAT) for O2 then calls to UK (this is the number you want to call in the UK; 1p /min. So that’s just 13 p/min in total.
Have a look how cheap international calls are using Call Back – you’ll be surprised. (eg USA p/min; France 13.5 p/min, India 21.8p/min)
Don’t forget to add whatever you pay for an SMS message add what you pay for an SMS message onto the final total).
NOTE: If you are abroad you can avoid roaming charges by buying a cheap local SIM card from the country you are visiting. Remember to enable international calling and make sure your calling ID is switched on.
How Do I Use It?
First you must register your mobile phone with us. (This is free.) To do this enter your mobile number here https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=RegisterMobile
Once you’ve registered and, so long as your account is in credit, you can start making calls.
To do this, send an SMS message in the following format:
Call [the number you want to call] – include the space before the number
Your Voipfone Account Number [300xxxxx]
Your Voipfone password [xxxxxx]
So when it’s done your text message looks something like this
Call 02070435555 30099999 999999
(nb ‘call’ must be all in lower case).
You then send the message to Voipfone at: 07786 200161
(If you are abroad the number becomes 0044 7786 200161)
Once you’ve sent the message you’re phone will ring and, when you answer it, it will connect you to the number you wanted to call.
This is a bit fiddly the first time you do it, but once you’ve set it up you can save it all as a template then all you have to do is select it and send each time you use it.
You can send and receive SMS text messages to and from your PC and you can send messages to an individual or a group of people simultaneously. Because you do it from a real keyboard, they are easy to compose and read – it’s just like email.
Because this service is web based you can do it from any PC anywhere in the world so long as it has a normal internet connection.
We directly inject the message into the mobile network so that the message is sent immediately and costs less than sending it from your mobile phone.
You can see all the messages you have made and received in your On Line Account Manager.
How Much Does It Cost?
If you are using a Pay as you Go account, they cost 8p each. You can get substantial discounts by buying them in bulk from our Package Builder.
How Do I Use It?
To send a message, go to www.voipfone.co.uk and sign into ‘Your Account’, then click on the SMS Text Messages icon. You can then Compose and Send a Message, View the Messages you have Sent and Received and change your mobile phone registration details.
How do I receive an SMS Text Message?
To receive a message, your sender needs to compose his text in this format:
So it will look something like this:
30099999 Hi, You can now send really cheap SMS messages using Voipfone!
Your sender should then send it to the Voipfone virtual mobile number which is:
07786200161 (or 00447786200161 from outside the UK.
You can set reminders and alerts in your calendar for a specified date and time.
The alerts will then be sent directly to any mobile phone that you have registered with Voipfone. You’ll never forget anything important again!
How Much Does It Cost?
If you are using a Pay as you Go account, they cost 8p each. You can get substantial discounts by buying them in bulk from our Package Builder.
How Do I Use It?
You go to www.voipfone.co.uk and sign into ‘Your Account’, then click on the Calendar & Alerts icon. You can then enter the message you want to send yourself (up to 150 words) and set the time and date for it to be sent.
If you’re travelling, but need to
know when people have left messages for you on your office voicemail, you can
have Voipfone send you an SMS (text) message to your mobile phone to let you
know.
How Do I use it?
Firstly you need to have registered your mobile phone with us if you haven’t
already done this. You can register your mobile here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=RegisterMobile
Once you have registered your mobile with us, to set up your Alert service just tick the box next to the mobile(s) you wish to receive the message - which you will find here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/voicemail.php?method=setupAlerts
You can send the message to as many mobiles as you have registered with us.
You can check your voicemail from any telephone by dialling 0843 1 760 760 (or
if you’re outside of the UK 0044 843 1 760 760). Don’t forget that you will
need your 6 digit password to access your voicemail from an unregistered phone.
Please note that you need credit on your account or have bought an SMS package
for this service to be active.
How Much Does It Cost?
It will cost about 8p for each Alert or less if you have an SMS inclusive package.
I’m sure you are aware that you can’t call an 0800 ‘freephone’ number for free using your mobile.
We think that’s wrong, so we thought about it for a while and have come up with a crafty way of making these calls for free – as they were originally designed to be.
Is it really totally free?
Yes - if you have a contract mobile package with included minutes to UK geographic numbers like 01 and 02.
(Even if you use a Pay-as-you-go mobile it’s normally cheaper than calling the 0800 directly; but you need to check with your provider.)
How does it work?
1. Dial our access number 029 2000 0800 (add it to your address book)
2. When we answer, just enter the 0800 number you want to call and wait to be connected.
That’s it.
How can you do it for free?
We get a tiny fraction of a penny for the call from the network operator, not enough to matter but enough to cover our costs.
But we mostly do it simply because we can, because it's quite cool and because we think mobile phone pricing is a rip-off.
ps You don’t need to be a Voipfone customer to use this trick – tell your friends; send them this email!
Call Me Back™ is a clever way of getting your customers to call you from your web site, perhaps as a way of driving sales or as part of a your customer support service.
How Does It Work?
It's small button that you put on your web site. Your customers click on the button which loads a small pop-up window. They then type their telephone number in to the box provided and Voipfone instantly calls both your Voipfone number and connects you to your customer, seamlessly.
You can choose between
1. a Pro version, which carries your own logo and branding and which includes a destination selector (so that you can decide the origin of the customers who may call you) and a business hours selector (so you can choose when they can call you), or
2. a FREE version which carries a small ‘powered by Voipfone’ strap-line.
How Much Does It Cost?
The unbranded button is free of charge - just help yourself to the code. You only pay for the calls that are made when the button is used.
The Pro version is £1.99 per month.
Your customers can be contacted on an ordinary telephone or a mobile phone anywhere in the world and you will only be charged at our standard low prices.
The calls made from the button are free to your customers and very low cost to you - about 1p per minute for the UK, Europe, North America, Australia (and several other countries) if you choose an included minutes call package. This is a fraction of the cost of an 0800 number, has no prepayment and no contracts to sign. You can find out how much ordinary calls cost by using either the Call Cost Calculator or the Voipfone Calling rates boxes on the left.
Of course, if the call is from
another Voipfone customer the call is totally free so if you are using this
feature to, say, provide regular customer service it makes sense to get your
customer to sign up for Voipfone too.
Please remember that you will need to have calling credit on your account and you will need to have somebody available to answer the calls!
Go to the Package Builder
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/builder.php
and choose the Call Me Back FREE option – you will not be charged or asked for your credit card details. Then, to add the Call Me Back service to your web site, follow the instructions shown on our website here:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/callmebackcode.php
This version of Call Me Back™ gives you control over who can call you, when they can call you and allows you to brand the button and pages in your own style. We’ve set it up so that you can do it yourself if you are reasonably technically proficient and have the images to hand, or you can have you web designer do it for you. It is a simple process that should take no more than a few minutes to complete. Please go this page and follow the instructions:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/callmebackpro.php
Uploading your Image
You need an image in either jpg or gif format that is 350 pixels wide and 45 pixels high. Save it somewhere on your PC then use the browse button to find and select it. (If you’re happy with the existing image and only want to be able to select your calling destinations just……..).
Once you’ve found your image click the ‘upload image’ button.
Setting your Destinations
You may not want the whole world to call you or maybe you do!
Call Me Back Pro™ allows you to decide who can call you for free.
Just tick the boxes for the destinations you want, then press the ‘save selected destinations’ button.
To select every destination, tick the ‘Select All Destinations On Pages:’ box at the bottom of the first page (be sure that pages 1 to 17 are shown)
NB: THE DEFAULT SETTING IS ‘ALLOW NO CALLS’ – IF YOU TICK NO BOXES YOU WILL GET NO CALLS!
Setting Your Opening Times
With Call Me Back Pro you can set the times your customers can call you so that you only receive calls when you want to. When you have made your choices click the ‘Save Settings’ button.
Note changes happen in real time so if you want to close your Call Me Back Pro service at any time outside your normal routine you can do so by changing the settings below. Don’t forget to re-set them after!
Select Your Business Days
Click the days you are open
Change ‘on’ and ‘off’ to ‘open’ and ‘closed’
This version of Call Me Back™ gives you control over who can call you and allows you to brand the button and pages in your own style. We’ve set it up so that you can do it yourself if you are reasonably technically proficient and have the images to hand, or you can have you web designer do it for you. It is a simple process that should take no more than a few minutes to complete.
When you sign up with Voipfone you automatically receive two free telephone numbers.
1 A Voipfone only number which has the format 3xxxxxxx. This is also your Voipfone account number. Other Voipfone users can dial this number and find you directly. Callers from other VoIP Service Providers that we have partnered with (see below) can also call this number by entering a prefix. All calls made to this number are free, no matter where they originate.
This number cannot be dialled from an ordinary (non VoIP, Public Switched Telephone Network; PSTN) landline or mobile phone.
2 A New Voice Service Number or e164 number. This has the format 056xx xxxxxx. This is a new number range specifically for Internet Telephone companies. Like the Voipfone numbers, calls between 056 numbers are free but unlike them, they can be dialled from any telephone anywhere. When someone calls a 056 number from the UK using an ordinary telephone, the caller will be charged at the NVS call rate which in July 2005 was: Daytime 4.89p/min, Evening 2p/min, Weekend 1.18p/min.
When they are called from outside the UK they are charged standard international rates.
These numbers are very new and you may occasionally find that calls from some telephone operators in the UK or abroad may not connect.
Geographic numbers are the normal way of numbering landlines and denote your location. So that in the old telecommunication world, a 0207 number is fixed to Central London and a 01273 number is fixed to Brighton.
For £1.99 per month you can choose to have a UK Geographic number. This allows people to call you from UK landlines and mobiles at the standard rates for their telephone service.
Calls to your Geographic number from other Voipfone customers are free.
However, with Internet Telephony you can choose ANY geographical number, no matter where you are actually located. You could even take a Birmingham number and be actually in Calcutta. It’s worth repeating, calls to this number from any landline in the UK will only be charged at normal UK rates – even if the call does finally finish up in Calcutta! And, of course, if the number is called by another Voipfone customer, the call is totally free.
There are many uses for these numbers; the obvious one being that a business can have a prestigious telephone address whilst being somewhere else entirely. You can also now move your office to anywhere in the world and keep this telephone number.
For the personal user, it means that if you have moved abroad but still have family in the UK you could take a number for the town your relative lives in, they can then make ordinary calls to you, no matter where in the world you are, for the cost of a local call.
Ofcom has recently introduced 03 numbers as an alternative to the much hated 0870 and 0871 number ranges.
The new 03 numbers, like all 08 numbers, are ’UK-wide’ as they are not limited to a particular local area like 01 and 02 numbers.
Calls to these numbers cost the same as calls to ordinary geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02) and are included in contract mobile phone calling plans.
There are several 03 number ranges available but we’ve simplified it to just two
033 – These numbers can be used by anyone
030 - These numbers are for use by charities, public bodies and not for profit organisations only.
Ofcom have provided a guidance note on who may use 030 numbers – if you are in any doubt please see:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/030_guidance/030guidance/guidance.pdf
03 numbers cost £1.99 per month. If you’d like one you can find them here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/builder.php#uk_incoming
Our own 03 number is: 0330 088 5555
For £1.99 per month you can choose to have a local rate 0845 number. This allows people to call you from landlines at local call rates no matter where they are in the UK.
Calls to your 0845 number from other Voipfone customers are free.
0845 numbers are normally used to provide a friendly, low cost access number for your customers and can be used regularly for your company’s main number or one-off for sales promotions etc.
(note: calls to 0845 numbers from mobiles are charged at differing rates by Cellular Service Providers)
0800 numbers are powerful marketing tools as more than 90% of consumers know that they can call them for free. (Source: Henley Centre research).
They have two main uses:
You can provide free access to your business for you customers – you could use them as sales lines for example.
In advertising campaigns you can offer your potential new customers a ‘freephone’ number to call in response to an advert or promotion.
They are especially valuable when marketing to new customers because customers can phone your business free of charge from anywhere in the UK. They are also a proven way of increasing business and developing customer loyalty.
Some benefits of 0800 numbers:
· They remove the price barrier for a customer calling you
· They ‘nationalise’ your company
· They give you an advantage over your competitors (if you have one and they don’t, you have an edge)
· They increase your advertising response and attract new customers
· They convey a professional image
· They are portable and are yours for life - they don’t change if BT changes its number scheme
They also provide useful information about your ad campaigns and promotions. By using separate 0800 numbers on each of your advertisements or by having a different number in each of the media you advertise in, you can monitor their effectiveness simply by looking at your free call statistics on-line, in real time, at any time. So, you can save money by choosing the adverts and media that produce the most effective results.
With Voipfone, 0800 numbers works instantly, there is no ordering or waiting. There are no contracts and no set-up charges. You can cancel them at any time – just use them when you need them.
How does it work?
You go to our package builder and choose the 0800 number, buy your number and you’re ready to use it straight away.
Please note that you must have credit on your account to receive calls. (We highly recommend that you accept the option to automatically top-up your account when asked so that you don’t run out of credit during a call.)
The 0800 number can be used on its own just like an ordinary number, as your main number or divert it to any other number anywhere.
Diverting 0800 numbers
Your 0800 number can be directed to any other number. This means that you do not even need a broadband VoIP installation at all – you can simply divert the incoming calls to your existing BT telephone number. You do this on line in Your Account. It’s instant and can be changed at any time.
The diverted leg of the call will be charged at our normal rates which can be found by using the call cost calculator on the left. Typically this will be about 1p per minute to landlines in most of the Western World.
Monitoring and reporting
Calls to the 0800 number are recorder in Your Account with information on time, duration and incoming number. They can be downloaded to CSV file and analysed in any way you like using your spreadsheet software such as Excel. There is no charge for this service.
Features and Functionality
The numbers have the same features as ordinary number which means they can be diverted to Voicemail, put on hold with music, transferred to any number, used with the Virtual PBX and Call queuing services etc. The full list of services (most free) can be found under ‘Services’.
How much do they cost?
The numbers cost £4.99 per month (ex VAT). Calls to the number will be charged to your account at 3p per minute (ex VAT).
You can choose to have a free Non-Geographic 0870 Telephone Number from our Package Builder. There is no charge to you for owning a 0870 Number and a caller will pay the normal national rates which vary between. People calling your 0870 number from outside the UK will normally be charged at their standard international calling rate.
Calls to your 0870 number from other Voipfone customers are free.
(note: calls to 0870 numbers from mobiles may be charged at differing rates by Cellular Service Providers)
What is a Voipfone fax number?
This is a digital fax service not just a telephone number. When someone sends a fax to this number it is converted by Voipfone’s network into an email and sent to the email address you specify. This means you always have a digital copy which can be stored, forwarded easily to someone else or simply printed in the normal way. You can choose between geographical, 0870 and 0845 numbers for this service. See our Package Builder for details.
How do I dial a Voipfone number from outside the UK?
If you are dialling a Voipfone number (ie a UK number) from outside the UK, you must dial in international format by adding 0044 and dropping the leading zero.
So, if you are dialling Voipfone from outside the UK you would change our number from this:
020 7043 5555
to this:
0044 20 7043 5555
Note: If you are a Voipfone customer using the Voipfone service outside the UK our network doesn’t care; it treats you as though you were still in the UK so you do not need to add 0044. However, if you do so, the call will still connect at the correct rate.
How do I dial an International number from Voipfone?
You use the standard International dialling codes:
00
Eg 0033 20 7043 5555
The format is the same for each country you need to dial but, obviously the code changes by country.
Generally, yes and always if it is a BT number.
We can port
most BT, Energis, Gradwell, Vonage, Skype and Sipgate numbers onto our network.
[And sometimes others too - you need to email support with the number to see if
we can]
We can port any BT non geographic number (0800, 0845,
0870, 0871) and almost all geographic numbers.
Please note; when you port your
BT number to us your line will cease on the day of the transfer. If this is
your ONLY line and you use it for internet access too, it will also cease (and,
to rub salt into the wound, you may be still liable for the remainder of the
contract). At the moment BT does not allow you to have purely broadband
internet without renting at least one telephone line too.
It is not necessary to cease your BT line; the porting
process will do this for you. (If you cancel your BT service before the porting
date you may lose the number).
If you wish to port a number; this is the process:
To do it we need:
1. A completed number porting request form:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Voipfone_Porting_Form-10.xls
Once complete please return it by email to
porting@voipfone.co.uk
2. A faxed signed letter from you asking us to port it.
3. A faxed copy of your telephone bill showing your name
address and telephone number (so we have proof it belongs to you)
It can take up to 30 days to do it (but it is usually
quicker, particularly for non-BT numbers). The process costs £20 ex VAT.
Once on our system, you will be billed by us at the rate
we normally charge for the type of number you ported. For example a geographic
number costs £1.99 per month (ex VAT).
Our fax number is 020 7043 5556
Other number information:
The wiki for UK Dialling Codes is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Uni
ted_Kingdom_dialling_codes
Number locator here:
http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/tci/l
ocator.shtml
BT Area Codes we can port can be found here:
http://www.voipfoneuserforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=318
Our registration, billing and payment systems employ a number of sophisticated techniques in order to protect the integrity of your account and our own security. Normally, this will not be visible to the user but occasionally it will cause problems; particularly for customers outside the UK. Here are some tips to help you register and pay without problem.
1. We are a business class telephone company, not a free to all internet application so please be specific, accurate and complete when you enter your name and address as we are required to check them before providing service. Always include your post Code or ZIP. Some people register for a trial initially with incomplete or inaccurate information but then have problems when trying to add credit to their account. You can check and change your account details here: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=UserProperties
2. When asked for your telephone number, try to provide a landline. We may accept mobile phone numbers but they can cause a problem, particularly if the phone is outside the UK. If you are outside the UK please include the full country code as dialled from the UK.
3. If you have an email address from your ISP please use that. Free web addresses (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc) will not be accepted at registration.
4. Please note: If you are registering from outside the UK, using a 'disposable' web based email address and a pay as you go mobile number you are very likely to be denied as these methods are commonly used fraudulently. In these circumstances please email us for instructions on how to proceed.
5. When entering your credit card details make sure that they are EXACTLY as stated on your card and do not leave spaces between numbers.
6. It is important that you state correctly the country you are actually in at the time that you are trying to make a payment even if it is not where you would normally be or initially registered from.
7. The system will telephone you with and authorisation code immediately so please make sure your phone is able to receive the call. If you are not in the UK when you registered your phone with us you will need to enter the full country code of your telephone number as though dialled from the UK.
If you do not receive our security call please check your phone number is correct and that it includes the country code of where you actually are. You can do this here: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=UserProperties
Consolidated billing means that all your monthly service charges are added together to give you just one bill and one invoice per month regardless of when you actually purchased them.
You will be aware that with Voipfone you can add and remove individual services whenever you like which means that you don’t have to buy packages containing things you don’t need and also allows you to add only those services that you really do want. This feature is unique to Voipfone and provides a very flexible and extensible service, but it does mean that if you’ve grown with us and added various services at different times you will be getting several bills during the month, sometimes for small amounts like 99p.
When you join Voipfone your billing date is set and all future monthly purchases will be calculated to that date. This means that when you buy a new monthly service it will almost always cost less than the full monthly rate as you only need to pay for the number of days left before your billing date.
Billing is every 30 days.
By credit card, debit card or bank transfer.
We accept:
Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Delta, Solo, Switch/Maestro.
We do not currently accept American Express
You can check your calling credit by dialling 154 from your phone or by logging in to 'Your Account' on our website at www.voipfone.co.uk
You can pay by bank transfer to:
COMPANY - INet Telecoms Ltd
BANK - National Westminster Bank IBAN/SWIFT GB52NWBK60101587554194
IBAN BIC - NWBKGB2L
The Payment reference is your Voipfone Account Number (the one that looks like this: 300xxxxx. (The number can be found in ‘Your Account’ at
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/account.php
You should allow 3-5 days for your payment to clear.
You can also pay cash into any Nat West bank and it will immediately be credited to your account (once you’ve notified us that it has been done).
Your account was probably automatically disabled by our security system. Our system performs a 25-point security check each time a user signs up for an account and makes a purchase. The security checks are performed to protect against fraudulent transactions and to safeguard users' accounts. If you are a bona fide customer we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you but it can happen from time to time.
To be sure that your payments to Voipfone succeed please keep your account details up to date. You can edit them in ‘Your Account’ at https://www.voipfone.co.uk/account.php
Please enter your credit card details into our form exactly as they are shown on your card omitting any spaces in the number.
When filling in details about which country you are in, please enter the country you are making the payment from NOW, NOT the country that your credit card originates from or where you originally registered from.
If you know you are using a valid credit card and your account details are correct but are still unable to make a payment, please email support at support@voipfone.co.uk and we will be pleased to help you sort out the problem.
This could be for several reasons. The most common reason is that our security checking systems have detected that the information you have provided does not match other information that you have previously given us.
Please go to ‘Your Account’ and in the ‘edit details’ section check that your information is up to date and correct; particularly your telephone number.
There are also some unusual technical reasons why this may be happening and in order for us to process your payment we may need to further confirm your identity. Please email us and we will help you through the process.
Please check that your browser can receive cookies (use the default setting) and that the telephone number that it tells you it will ring is correct. (If you are not in the UK you will need to add your country code).
Obviously your phone needs to be switched on and not engaged when you press the 'yes' button.
There are two ways we calculate bills.
If you’ve bought an inclusive minute package, we charge by the minute with part minutes counting as whole minutes.
So if you start with a 500 minute package and make a call lasting 9.2 minutes this would be counted as 10 minutes. Ten minutes would then be deducted from your total minutes leaving 490 minutes.
Please note that inclusive minutes packages are billed monthly and unused minutes are not rolled over.
If you use ordinary calling credit things are different.
We bill by the second and record the call cost to several decimal places of a penny. Your calling credit is then reduced by that very accurate number. However, to make it readable on customer’s payment records we show the calculation round to the nearest penny. There is a minimum charge of 1p per call.
Voipfone is a modern telephone service that allows you to make free, or very low cost, telephone calls over the Internet to any telephone in the world regardless of what equipment or network the person you are calling uses.
Also, because it uses computer and internet based, digital, technologies we have been able to build in many new features and services that were previously impossible or very expensive.
This means that whether you are a residential customer wishing to make cheap calls to your family overseas or a business needing sophisticated facilities that were previously only available from a very expensive PBX, you’ll find that we offer a service that works for you at a very competitive price
Your voice is converted into digital information which can be sent like any other data over the internet. The technology used is called Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP. Sometimes it is referred to as Voice over Networks or (VoN) and sometimes Internet Telephony.
Well yes, it can seem that way at first, but it needn't be.
One of the great strengths of Internet Telephone networks is that they can do so much more than ordinary telephone networks. In practise Voipfone’s services can be as simple as making an ordinary telephone call or as complicated as using a large business switchboard in several countries. We find that most customers start with the simple services and progress to the more sophisticated as they learn more.
The wiki for VoIP is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voip
There is a technical, but still readable, description of how VoIP works here:
http://www.voip-voice-over-ip.com/
And a guide, written for the 'For Dummies' series, here:
http://www.psu.uk.com/downloads/VoIP_for_Dummies.pdf
You can call anyone with a normal landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world. If the person you are calling is a Voipfone customer or a customer of one of our partner networks (see below), the call is free – no matter where you both are in the world.
If they have an ordinary telephone or mobile you can still call them and the call will always cost a lot less than using your ordinary landline.
This is the easiest way to get a new number and technically doesn’t even use VoIP - this means you can have a new, proper, telephone number but don’t need any new phones, equipment or contracts.
VoIP telephone numbers are the same as any other number; they are issued by Ofcom from standard number ranges and work in exactly the same way. The only difference is what is possible with the call once VoIP gets hold of it.
You can set the divert to go anywhere you like and change it as often as you like. There is a standard charge for diverting your calls – 1p per minute for a landline and 12p for a UK mobile. Specifically what you do is this:
Go to our website at www.voipfone.co.uk and 'sign up', then go
to 'services’, choose the type of number you want and buy it. Geographic and
0845 numbers costs £1.69 per month (ex VAT). There is no contract or set-up
costs, cancel any time - the number is active immediately. We also automatically
give you a free 056 number so you could just use that if you want to – calls to
056 numbers are at normal national call rates.
Now go to 'your account' then click on the 'call divert' icon and In the box
that says 'divert all calls to' enter whatever number you'd like your calls to
divert to; then save it.
In order for the divert to work, you now need to put some credit on your call
account because we charge you for the call we make to your mobile or landline.
(Normally calls to your number are free of course but the divert is actually a
new call from us to the PSTN or mobile network). It costs 12p per minute to
your mobile or 1p per minute to a landline (ex VAT).
You add credit to your account in £5, £10, £20, £50, £75 or £100 chunks by
going the 'purchase credit' icon and selecting the amount you wish. There's an
automatic top up feature, which if you allow it, will automatically debit your
card when your balance drops below £1 so you don't get cut off in mid
conversation!
Now all callers dialing your new number will call your mobile phone (or
whatever). You can change the divert anytime you like as often as you like. You
can even switch it off then your calls will go directly to your free Voicemail.
You will also be emailed a WAV file of every Voicemail you receive. If you have
an answering service you can divert your calls to them so that they get a real
person when you're not available.
Later, if you wish, you can add a telephone to your service so you can make outbound calls too and really start to use VoIP.
There are lots of ways to use Internet Telephony but the three most common ways of using Voipfone’s Services are:
1 By using your PC with Voipfone’s free software which turns it into a fully featured telephone. This method requires a broadband internet connection and a reasonably modern PC or laptop with either a microphone and loud speakers or a headset. Here are the minimum requirements:
Processor: Pentium II 300 (or equivalent)
Memory: 128 MB RAM
Operating System: Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, or XP or Apple Mac
2 With your ordinary telephone. You use an adapter (an Analogue Telephone Adapter – ATA) which plugs into your router. (A router is device used to make a Local Area Network (LAN) in your home or office so that more than one PC can connect to the internet or so that several PCs can talk to each other). One end of the adapter plugs into your Local Area Network connection and the other into your existing telephone.
You can find the adapters we recommend here http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php
3 With an internet telephone. A number of new VoIP (or SIP) phones are now available which plug into your Local Area Network and give you the advantage of many new built in features.
You can find the ones we recommend here http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php
One thing to note about SIP phones and adapters is that, unlike ordinary telephones, they are mobile. You can pack your phone or adapter in your suitcase wherever you go and, so long as you can plug them into a broadband connection, they will work anywhere in the world. Not only will they work but your telephone number goes with you too so you don’t need to tell everyone you’ve gone away and they don’t need to know a new number or pay an international call charge to reach you.
There are no additional charges for this.
If you have Voipfone’s softphone installed on your laptop you can use that anywhere you have an internet connection too – even in a WiFi HotSpot!
What does it sound like? Is it as good as an ordinary phone call?
If you were called by someone using Voipfone it’s unlikely they would notice any difference from an ordinary telephone call; but much depends on what you use to make the call. To achieve the very best quality:
Use a reputable service provider with a good network and the best call routing. Not surprisingly, we think that means Voipfone!
Use a good quality broadband service provider.
If you use a router and share the connection with other users, configure Quality of Service (QoS) so that Voice gets priority over other data. (See your router’s manual for instructions).
You will find that that a purpose built SIP telephone provides the very best sound quality (normally much better than an ordinary telephone – calls between SIP phones over a good network provide CD quality sound).
Softphones work well but we don’t really recommend them for heavy business use – they are however free, so you can try them without commitment.
To get the most out of internet telephony, particularly if you are using it for business, it's best to use the new generation of VoIP (SIP) telephones and adapters. They don't need your PC to be switched on or use PC resources and they deliver higher voice quality with more functionality than softphones.
We are a Service Provider - not just a retailer - so we only sell equipment that we know works well with our network and our range of Plug & Go Hardware Products is guaranteed to work with the Voipfone network 'straight out of the box'.
All our telephones and adapters are pre-configured with UK ring and dial tones, our own optimum network settings and your user account details – so you should be able to just plug them into your home or office network and start making calls straight away.
Once installed, all our equipment is auto-provisioned; this means that we can remotely adjust its setting to keep it up to date or perform remote diagnosis and maintenance if required; this ensures that your hardware is running at its best all the time.
Unlike some service providers who lock their telephones and adapters, you can change our configuration if you wish and it will work with other providers.
Please Note: All items are dispatched Express, for delivery on the next working day (ie Monday to Friday) if ordered before 3pm.
The delivery charge of £8.50 (ex VAT) also includes pre-configuration.
We can only dispatch to UK residents.
If you have purchased a new SIP phone or an adapter for your ordinary telephone, just pick up your phone and dial the number in the same way as you always have.
If you’re using Voipfone’s free Softphone on your PC, you type in the number you wish to dial from your keyboard, or use the onscreen virtual dial, then press the green telephone button.
If you live in the UK and are dialling a UK number you need to use the full national number even if you are making a local call (just as you do with your mobile phone).
Of course, if you are using one of the new VoIP (or SIP) telephones you can programme in short dial codes to your favourite numbers.
Voipfone gives you a free incoming telephone number so anyone can call you - either another VoIP user or any ordinary or mobile telephone anywhere. They simply dial your number and your Voipfone will ring just like any other phone.
(Of course, if you use Voipfone’s softphone on your PC, it will need to be switched on to ring!)
Can I call other VoIP Networks?
Voipfone supports open networks and will partner (it’s called peering) with any VoIP provider who wishes to. (The main exceptions are Vonage and Skype who currently run closed networks – see below).
Just like calls between Voipfone customers, call between partner networks are totally free.
Voipfone supports open networks and will partner (it’s called peering) with any VoIP provider who wishes to. (The main exceptions are Vonage and Skype who currently run closed networks – see below).
Just like calls between Voipfone customers, call between partner networks are totally free.
There are two main methods of calling other VoIP networks:
1. Using the telephone’s internet address (ie a SIP URI)
The format for someone calling you is:
sip:telephonenumber@sip.voipfone.co.uk
like this:
sip:02070435555@sip.voipfone.co.uk
Any and all Voipfone numbers can be used like this.
To do this with the free X-lite softphone, enter the address into your address book – in this case you do not need the sip: part of the number – experiment by using 155@sip.voipfone.co.uk.
If you have a SIP telephone, you need to enter the number into the dialler found in its web pages – you’ll find whether your telephone supports this from your manual.
If you wish to include your number on your business cards or stationary this is the one to use as it is universal.
2. Using a prefix
If you wish to use a normal keypad you could use the prefix method.
Each VoIP company can allow peering by using a dialling prefix eg
*4783xxxxxxx
(where *478 is the prefix the calling network has given Voipfone and 3xxxxxxx is your Voipfone account number – if you use an extension it would be: *478201*3xxxxxxx).
Unfortunately, each VoIP company may use a different prefix to call us so this number cannot be used universally – the caller needs to contact his own company to establish what they use.
You can call users on any of the networks shown below for free by dialling the prefix followed by the persons VoIP number
*878 Voiptalk
*488 Intervivo
*393 FWD
*747 SipPhone
*333 Deltathree
*467 Gossiptel
*472 Gradwell
*687 Musimi
*856 Telio
If you want to call someone on a VoIP network that is not in the list, please email us and we will contact the network and request a peering arrangement. (But see Skype and Vonage below).
I’m afraid both Skype and Vonage run closed networks. People on those networks can only call people on their own network without cost.
Both networks can call Voipfone numbers of course, but callers will be charged by Skype or Vonage for the call at whatever rates they charge their customers and the Skype customer will have to have taken a Skype-Out account from Skype.
Voipfone customers can call a Vonage or Skype inbound full telephone number but we have to treat the call like any call to a standard telephone so you will be charged according to its geographical number.
We think that all VoIP customers should be able to send and receive free calls to all other VoIP providers as this gives all users the very best value from their services. If you think so too, please contact the providers directly.
Yes.
If you have bought a Voipfone telephone adapter or telephone, you will be able to use it wherever you travel, as long as you have a high speed Internet connection.
Your number will follow you wherever you go so you don’t need to tell everyone you’ve gone away and they don’t need to know a new number or pay an international call charge to reach you.
There are no additional charges for this.
If you have Voipfone’s softphone installed on your laptop you can use that anywhere you have an internet connection too – even in a WiFi HotSpot!
If you are making calls from your PC, yes, of course. However, if you are making calls with a phone and adaptor or a special VoIP phone only your internet connection needs to be active; usually through your router.
It will ring like any other call.
You can dial these numbers for various information services - calls to these numbers are free
(all calls are free unless otherwise stated)
112 Emergency Services
118 Connects to BT’s Directory Enquiry services (Calls cost 50p pm)
123 Gives date and time
150 Customer Services
152 Voipfone Echo test; shows how good your connection to Voipfone is.
154 Returns your account balance
155 Confirms that you have set up your phone correctly
166 Our famous Anti-Sales call tool – try it!
192 Connects to BT’s Directory Enquiry services (Calls cost 50p pm)
999 Emergency Services
1471 Returns the last number that called you
1571 Voicemail for the telephone or extension you are using.
1572 Voicemail for the master account when using the Virtual PBX
## Used to transfer a call if your telephone doesn’t have a transfer button
#0 Starts and stops Call recording (Charged at 2.5p pm)
You can but it's a bit hit and miss. A fax machine plugged into an ATA (Analogue Terminal Adapter) should work but, depending on the equipment and its age, it is sometimes unreliable - the only way to know is to try it. Obviously, you can receive faxes with our Fax to Email service.
Below is a guide for Linksys ATA users adapted from Provu. (It may also work for Sipura and the Voipfone branded ATAs as they are all essentially the same unit.)
Sending a Fax Using a Voice Codec
One way of sending faxes using VoIP with Linksys adaptors is to use the common g.711a codec (A-LAW) which is normally used to transmit voice. This codec (including IP overheads) requires roughly 100kbps in either direction to work. In order to have a better chance of success the fax machine should be set to 14,400bps as any higher is unlikely to work over any VoIP connection.
The entire range of Linksys adaptors support fax pass-through using the g.711a codec. It is necessary to alter a few settings in the line tab of the web interface of the Linksys adaptor. You only need to alter the line the fax will be plugged into. The following settings will give the best results:
• Network jitter buffer: very high
• Jitter buffer adjustment: disable
• Call Waiting: no
• 3 Way Calling: no
• Echo Canceller: no
• Silence suppression: no
• Preferred Codec: G711a
• Use pref. codec only: yes
There is no real way to guarantee this method of faxing is going to work all the time. A lot will depend on the quality of your Internet service from your ISP. As always with Voice-over-IP you will see more reliable results when using a router with Quality-of-Service functionality to prioritise voice traffic over data traffic on your Internet link.
If you are using a dial up connection, ISDN or some of the slower broadband connections that are still available, you can change the default codec that your phone will uses to get a clearer connection. We recommend that you use either iLBC or GSM codecs on slower connections. Don't expect too much from VoIP over slow networks - it will work but the quality of the call will be limited.
1. Click on the menu button on your phone
2. Click on advanced system settings
3. Click on codec settings
4. Click on the codec that you wish to use
5. Set codec to enabled yes
6. Set all other codecs to enabled no
|
Argentina (Buenos Aires) |
Argentina ( Cordoba) |
Argentina ( Mar Del Plata) |
|
Argentina ( Mendoza) |
Argentina ( Rosario) |
Australia |
|
Austria |
Brazil ( São Paulo) |
Canada |
|
Canada ( Mobile) |
Canary Islands |
Canary Islands |
|
Chile |
China ( Mobile) |
Czech Republic |
|
Denmark |
France |
Germany |
|
Gibraltar |
Greece ( Athens) |
Hong Kong |
|
Hong Kong ( Mobile) |
Ireland |
Italy |
|
Netherlands |
Norway |
Peru ( Lima) |
|
Poland |
Portugal |
Puerto Rico |
|
Russia ( Moscow) Singapore ( Mobile) |
Russia ( St Petersburg) Spain |
Singapore Sweden |
|
Switzerland |
Taiwan |
United Kingdom |
|
USA |
USA ( Mobile) |
Venezuela ( Caracas) |
These destinations will change from time to time.
Calling credit can be used to call any number anywhere and is charged by the second with a minimum charge of 1p. It is held on your account until it is used up. You can allow an auto-top up so that when your credit falls to £1 it will re-credit your account with the same amount again.
Inclusive minutes are fixed price packages of 500, 1000 or 2000 minutes of calls to a defined set of countries both landlines and mobile phones. You can see what is included here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Selected_Destinations.php
These packages are designed for high users who expect to use all the minutes in the month or just need the convenience of a fixed recurring charge. They offer around 10% discount on ordinary rates.
Unused minutes are not carried into the next billing month. They are re-billed every 30 days on the anniversary of your first purchase.
The packages can be cancelled at any time during the month. If you cancel them you keep the unused minutes until the end of the period and you will not be re-billed
They exclude calls to some non-western countries, UK mobile phones and some non-geographic numbers such as 0845 - if you want to call these you will need to add ordinary calling credit to your account.
If you call included countries when you have calling credit on your account your included minutes will be reduced, not your calling credit.
We run a network particularly for small business users and you have told us that reliability of service is your number one requirement - we are aware how much you rely on us.
Consequently we have built a very robust network:
Connectivity & Network
We use dual sourced internet connectivity from blue chip providers using Cisco networks and a managed service backed by SLA in our London Data Centre. This network checks your connection and uses the best route to connect you. Also, if we lose one provider the other kicks in without loss of connection.
Call Termination
We connect to Tier 1 Call Termination Providers and can switch between them so that calls can still be routed if one has problems.
Hardware Redundancy
Each hardware component in our network has a redundant and mirrored, hot back-up. This means that a failure of an individual server should not cause any loss of service; the back-up will automatically take up the load on failover.
Customer Failover Diverts
In the real world, service interruption is more likely to occur at your end of the network than ours. So we have introduced PSTN Failover Divert. You can now enter a PSTN or mobile telephone number for your calls to be diverted to if your telephones stop registering with us for any reason. You can find them here: https://www.voipfone.co.uk/index.php?action=Divert
Operations, Notifications & Processes
As our network grows and our technology develops, we will still need to do continuous upgrades and routine maintenance. With the new network in place servers can be removed and worked on without service downtime and as much as we can, any service affecting work will be done out of office hours. We will always warn you of this via the web site or our new forum. This forum is on a completely different network in another location entirely so that it will remain active should the worst happen. You can find it here: http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com
We believe that all this will give us a fully stable, reliable and scalable platform that we can build confidently on and provide you with the best possible service.
Unfortunately, it does not mean that we will never have problems. VoIP is a new technology, we are pushing development hard and do take some risks to get new services out to you - glitches are therefore still inevitable, particularly in new software but, barring Acts of God and terrorists, those problems that do occur should be rare and quickly resolved.
Our system sets no limit to the number of simultaneous calls you can make or receive.
The number is purely a function of your own network, your telephone equipment and, critically, the bandwidth available on your internet connection to us. We have many users that find they can have 3-5 simultaneous calls on a normal ADSL link.
Of course, if your users are not using the same internet connection, the number of users sharing your account is virtually unlimited. [The technical limitation is about 800 extensions on one Virtual PBX account].
If you have several users in the same location using the internet heavily as well as the telephones we find it best to have 2 ADSL connections one dedicated to VoIP the other to Internet services such as email, data transfer and browsing.
The crucial constriction is the ADSL uplink speed which is normally 256kbs – a phone call generally requires about 80kbit but can be much less if you use low bandwidth codecs. (This will degrade the quality of the call somewhat but will squeeze more down the same pipe and will still be better quality than the average mobile call.]
The new standard for DSL line is now 448kbs which will allow more as it is rolled out – probably 5-8 simultaneously. If you need much more then you will need SDSL.
Call quality can be helped by Quality of Service (QoS) technology now becoming available in SOHO routers. This software prioritises voice traffic over other data on your network.
The simple answer to this is no, only one phone can be physically registered on one account.
There are two important exceptions:
1. If you need to have more than one telephone on your account you should use the Voipfone Virtual PBX. With this service you can have up to 800 telephones on the same account. Details here:
2. If you experiment, you will find that it is possible to have more than one telephone using the same account details BUT ONLY ONE PHONE WILL BE REGISTERED AT ANY ONE TIME. This will mean that your phones will register and un-register randomly and we recommend you do not normally attempt this.
However, we allow this condition to occur because it can be a useful tool - it means that you can have a telephone at home and also, say, on your laptop. So long as your phone at home is switched off when you travel, your laptop (or other) phone will be registered
Since voice and sound is analogue, it needs to be converted (or encoded) to a digital format suitable for transmission over the Internet. A codec is an algorithm used to do this job; it encodes and decodes a voice conversation.
There are a variety of different ways this encoding and decoding can be done - many of which utilise compression in order to reduce the required bandwidth of the conversation. Reducing the bandwidth will reduce the quality of the call somewhat but will enable you to squeeze more simultaneous conversations down the same connection. Getting this trade off right is up to you!
A key thing to remember is that encoding, particularly when high compression is used, takes time, which adds a delay to the conversation. The best codec is one that has good quality with compression, but is able to do the encoding and decoding in a minimal amount of time.
All VoIP telephones, both softphones and VoIP telephones and adapters, use codecs and unless you specify which one it will use the default codec. When you call someone their phone detects which codec is in use and applies its own codec automatically.
Voipfone supports the following codecs.
1. G.711µ & G.711a (both European [µ] and American [a] versions)
This is a high quality codec
providing CD quality (64kb) if used end to end. It uses a nominal 87.2 kbs of
bandwidth (64kbs plus overhead) but requires at least 128kbs in both directions
making it a relatively high bandwidth user.
2. G.726-32 (not recommended)
In theory this is a good, relatively low bandwidth codec but in real life use
it often produces low quality sound. Try it and see if it works for you.
3. iLBC (low bandwidth codec)
This is a low bandwidth codec requiring on 15ks (plus overhead) and is very
good at handling packet loss – quite useful on poor connections
4. GSM (low bandwidth codec)
Same encoding as used in GSM mobile phones (though improved version are often
used nowadays). So expect the same sort of voice quality. Very low bandwidth
use 13kbs (plus overhead)
5. Speex (low bandwidth)
Another low bandwidth codec – this one uses variable bit rates to get the best out of a low bandwidth connection.
Feel free to try each codec to find how they work for you – generally speaking we recommend G.711
There are three prime considerations
which dictate both the quality and number of simultaneous calls you can make or
receive over your Voipfone service.
1. Your internet connection
Broadband ADSL has a lower bandwidth back up to your ISP than down
from them ie it is asymmetrical. Typically, ADSL bandwidth is described as 2 or
8mbs which is the down speed. But because VoIP is symmetrical - a telephone
call is, of course, two-way, most people listen as well as talk - the major
bottleneck is your upstream bandwidth which is normally only 256 or 398kbs. The
more bandwidth you have the more simultaneous calls you can achieve and the
less interference you will have from your use of other internet applications
such as internet browsing, file downloading, FTP or email (see below).
So, as a general principle, always get the fastest ADSL service you can find
and afford.
2. Your use of your internet connection
It’s worth pointing out that if you are heavy users of the internet
and you wish to make telephone calls over it, something has to give. Unlike
downloading a file or sending an email, a telephone call is instant and happens
in real time – it cannot be delayed, slowed down or paused. So if you wish to
use both voice and data heavily you need to design your network correctly. If
you are finding that your calls suffer from jitter – calls stuttering and
breaking up – it is almost certainly being caused by lack of bandwidth as you
voice traffic competes with other data traffic for scarce bandwidth.
If you have several people all sharing the same internet connection for voice
and data and are using it heavily for both you should consider separating your
voice connection (VoIP) from your data connection (internet, email etc). This
means using two ADSL circuits. This also has the benefit of giving you a
back-up if one circuit fails.
Another option is to change to a codec that uses less bandwidth.
3. Your choice of codec
Since voice and sound are analogue, they need to be converted (or
encoded) to a digital format suitable for transmission over the Internet. A
codec is an algorithm used to do this job; it codes and decodes a voice
conversation.
All VoIP telephones, both softphones and telephones and adapters, use codecs
and unless you specify which one, it will use the default codec which for
Voipfone is a very high quality one.
There are a variety of different ways this encoding and decoding can be done -
many of which utilise compression in order to reduce the required bandwidth of
the conversation. Reducing the bandwidth will reduce the quality of the call
somewhat but will enable you to squeeze more simultaneous conversations over
your connection. Getting this trade-off right is up to you!
Your choice of codec will radically affect the number of simultaneous
conversations over your network so it is worth experimenting with them. We
recommend using two in particular:
1. G711a This is a very high quality codec which delivers CD quality sound –
much better than an ordinary telephone call. But to do this it uses quite a lot
of bandwidth – about 90kbs which reduces the number of simultaneous calls to
around 3 for a standard 256kbs connection.
2. GSM This is the codec used by mobile phones and delivers the same sort of
quality. It is however, highly efficient which means that you can squeeze 10 or
more calls simultaneously up a 256kbs pipe. In use, the GSM codec delivers
indistinguishable call quality from an ordinary telephone call.
For guidance, the chart below shows the maximum simultaneous calls
theoretically possible over a perfect connection. Bear in mind, that in the old
telecoms world, each call requires one line so using a GSM codec can give you
the equivalent of up to 13 lines on a standard ADSL connection!
|
Upstream Bandwidth (kbs) 256 398 512 750 1024
|
Davidgu, a forum member who runs many Voipfone extensions has measured the
actual real world use of bandwidth by the GSM codec on his fairly extensive
network. While the documentation shows GSM using 13kbs plus an overhead, his
measurements show that it actually uses about 33kbs and another 10kbs for
intermittent activity such as registrations. This would reduce the simultaneous
calls possible by around 50%.
Of course, the number of possible simultaneous conversations does not define
the maximum number of extensions you can have because not all extensions will
be in use simultaneously. The relationship of extensions to calls is called the
contention ratio and it will vary for every business.
A sophisticated call centre using call management software may require a
contention ratio of almost 1:1 while a normal office may be more like 5:1 (ie
only 20% of your extensions are expected to be making a call at any one time.
The only real way to work out how many extensions your network can support is
to trial it - luckily both Voipfone and bandwidth is flexible and you can tune
your own network to suit.
(When calculating your bandwidth requirements you also need to bear in mind
that an internal call, extension to extension, counts as two simultaneous
calls.)
We'd be interested to hear any user’s real life experience of these issues and
there is a thread in the PBX forum for your views.
Other considerations
• We always recommend a physical cable connection (Ethernet, cat5e)
from your router to your phone or PC rather than a wireless connection. WiFi
works well enough, but it adds complexity and lag, so if you can, it is best
avoided for routine business use.
• Your router. Almost any modern router now available from PC World/Staples etc
will work well enough. But for a busy small business office with several users
we recommend a commercial rather than domestic grade router such as the
Intertex range which is SIP aware.
• We recommend using a dedicated, good quality, SIP telephone (we prefer snom).
Adapters (ATAs) work very well, but they are in the end, adapters, not
telephones and they offer reduced functionality over a good phone. (However,
ATAs attached to DECT phones make an excellent wireless VoIP solution.)
• We don’t recommend using a softphone on your PC for serious business use as
their quality is never the best and your PC must be switched on all the time.
Many people do though - and seem happy with the result. If you do use a
softphone find a good quality mono headset for it.
• Configuring your equipment correctly is vital to the quality of service you
receive. Poorly configured and out of date firmware in both phones and routers
is often the cause of poor call quality and the frequent un-registering of
phones. Make sure that whatever equipment you are using is kept up to date
because improvements in VoIP technologies are happening daily.
You will find specific configuration settings for the most common phones on our support pages.
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/IP_Phone_Setup.php
Our customers are constantly bringing new equipment to our service, they often post their configurations on the user forum for others to follow – it’s worth looking here if you don’t find what you need here or on our website.
http://www.voipfoneuserforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=4
As we are constantly introducing new features and functions that often rely on your equipment being up to date, we recommend that you check the manufacturer's web site for firmware upgrades for your telephone or adapter.
You should use the most recent, full release on their site. (Try not to use beta software as it may not work with Voipfone). (eg. If you have a problem with Message Waiting Indication (MWI) this is often caused by not having firmware installed that supports it properly.)
These are the general settings for any SIP phone. The names of the individual settings are often different so we’ve included the more common ones:
Username/Account name/SIP ID/Authenticate ID/Authorised User = your Voipfone number the 8 digit number starting with 3; 3xxxxxxx
Password/PIN = your 6 digit Voipfone number
SIP Server/Proxy/Registrar = sip.voipfone.co.uk
Registration expiry/Proposed expiry = 1 minute or 60 seconds
SIP Port = 5060
Outbound proxy = nat.voipfone.co.uk:5065
IP address 195.189.173.10 (not usually required)
Other settings should be left at default.
Test numbers
155 - confirm
152 - Sound
Test
You may have to fiddle around a bit if you’ve got a particularly esoteric device but any standards based, SIP hardware will work on our network. If you’re really stuck please email us with as much information as you can and we’ll try to sort it out for you.
We’ve decided that we like the free SJPhone softphone. It does everything our free X-Lite phone does and some more; like 3 way calling, Message Waiting Indication, Do Not Disturb and a phone book that works properly and can be linked to Outlook.
If you’d like to try it get it from here:
http://www.sjlabs.com/sjp.html
User Manual here:
http://www.sjlabs.com/doc/SJphone%20Guide.pdf
Set-up Instructions
1. Download the softphone and install it
2. Click on the tool symbol or right click on the phone to open the Options window
3. Click NEW
4. Enter your name (this can be anything)
5. Ignore the file field and choose ‘Calls through SIP proxy’ from the profile type drop down menu
6. Click OK
7. In the new window that opens called ‘Profile Options’ open the tab called SIP Proxy enter sip.voipfone.co.uk in the Domain box and voipfone.co.uk in the User Domain box. Press OK.
8. In the new pop up window that opens called ‘service’ enter your 8 digit Voipfone number (3xxxxxxx) in the account box and your 6 digit password in the password box. Click OK.
Your phone should now register
9. Make a test call to 155.
Connect your headset or microphone
Download the software, install and enter the enormous licence key when asked.
Run the sound tests.
On the configuration page [if it doesn’t pop up you can get this by clicking on the phone and entering F8]
Display name = any name you wish to show the people you call
User Name = your 8 digit Voipfone number 3xxxxxxx (add *2xx if you uses extensions)
Password = your 6 digit password
as User Name
Domain = sip.voipfone.co.uk
Tick the box at the top that says ‘enable this SIP account’
Click on voipfone.co.uk in the SIP Accounts tree on the left.
Double Click on ‘Advanced’ and under ‘Register Settings’ in the ‘Reregister every’ box, enter 60.
Click ‘Apply’
Your phone should then negotiate your firewall and register.
Make a test call to 155
Login into you Snom’s web page by typing its IP address into a browser on your PC.
(You can find its address by clicking the ? button on the 360 or 320 or the left and right arrows on the 190 or 290.)
If you need to login as administrator to see all the menus, the default password is 0000.
Some of the Snom menus will be different from those shown below depending on your phone and software version; just find the correct heading or setting.
1 Click on Line 1 in the yellow side bar
Under the Login Tab
Display name: 
Account: 
your
8 digit Voipfone number
Password: 
your
6 digit Voipfone password
Registrar: 
(sip.voipfone.co.uk)
Outbound Proxy: 
see
below
Authentication Username: your
8 digit Voipfone number
Mailbox: 
Save
Under the SIP tab
Proposed Expiry: 1min
Support broken Registrar on
Save
2 Click on Advanced in the yellow side bar
Under Phone Behaviour
Challenge Response on Phone: off
Save
Reboot your phone, check that it registers with us (if it doesn’t it will show NR on the screen and will not have dial tone) and that you can make and receive calls.
Below you will find the configuration details for Asterisk@Home which is an open source PBX that you can build yourself:
You can find descriptions, handbooks
and guides here:
http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/index.html
http://geekgazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=26
Log onto the Asterisk@home Management Portal (AMP)
Select Setup.
Select Trunks
Select the add SIP Trunk.
In the General Settings section.
Enter your Outbound Caller ID
In the Outgoing Settings section
Trunk Name VOIPFONE-SIP
PEER DETAILS
authuser=USERID
context=from-pstn
dtmfmode=info
fromdomain=sip.voipfone.co.uk
fromuser=USERID
host=voipfone.co.uk
insecure=very
qualify=yes
secret=PASSWORD
type=peer
username=USERID
In the Incoming Settings section.
All entries should be blank
In the Registration Section
enter your userid and password and select Submit Changes
USERID:PASSWORD@sip.voipfone.co.uk/USERID
Setting up a DID route
Log onto the Asterisk@home Management Portal (AMP)
Select Setup.
Select inbound routing.
Select the add incoming route
Add the DID number (USERID)
Set the destination for incoming calls.
Depending on your configuration you can send the calls to a Digital Receptionist (IVR menu), a single extension, voicemail, a ring group, a queue, a custom application or as per your Incoming Calls settings.
The quickest
way to set-up your PAP2T is to use the wizard found here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/IP_Phone_Setu
p.php
If that doesn't work for you or you wish to do it
manually, please follow the following steps:
1. Find the IP of your device:
Pickup an attached telephone and dial **** 110#, make a
note of the numbers which are read out.
2. Visit your PAP2T’s configurations page:
Now that you know the IP of your device, type it into a
browser on a PC attached to the network. For example: Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox.
You may need to type in http:// before the IP.
3. Login as an administrator, and view configuration in
advanced view
Click the Admin Login button at top right of page, then
click switch to advanced view in the centre of page.
4. Setup the line you wish to use
Click Line 1 or Line 2 depending on which line you wish to
configure for the Voipfone service. Once you have the page up that you need to
configure you need to enter the following information
A: Proxy and Registration;
Proxy sip.voipfone.co.uk
Use outbound proxy :Yes
Outbound proxy nat.voipfone.co.uk:5065
Use OB Proxy in Dialog: Yes
Register: Yes
Make Call without Reg: No
Register Expires:60
Everything else can be left on its defaults in the Proxy
and Registration section
B: Subscriber Information
Display Name: Name you wish to have displayed when making
calls to other VoIP users
User ID: Your user ID starting 30 and consisting of 8 digits.
E.g. 30100000 [for PBX users enter user ID with *200 at the end, where your
extension is 200. E.g. 30100000*200]
Password: Your 6 digit Voipfone password. This can be
found in your sign up confirmation email.
Use Auth ID: Yes
Auth ID: Same as User ID (see above)
Everything else can be left on its defaults in the
Subscriber Information section.
Once this information is entered submit changes by
clicking save settings or submit changes at the bottom of the page. Your device
should now be working, if not disable the outbound proxy. See 4.A above for
information on how to do this.
5. Other Settings
To get the best performance out of your device you can
edit some of the default settings.
A. Registration Retry Interval
This setting determines how long your device should wait
before trying to register again if you lose registration for any reason. To
change this value:
Choose SIP tab, under SIP Timer Values (sec) change Reg
Retry Long Intvl to 120
B. Regional Settings
The Linksys PAP2T can be set to give regional sounds; by
default it has American sounds. The settings can be changed in the Regional
Tab. UK settings are as follows:
Call Progress Tones
Dial Tone: 350@-19,440@-19;30(*/0/1+2)
Second Dial Tone 420@-19,520@-19;30(*/0/1+2)
Outside Dial Tone: 420@-16;10(*/0/1)
Prompt Tone: 520@-19,620@-19;10(*/0/1+2)
Busy Tone: 400@-20;10(.375/.375/1)
Reorder Tone: 400@-19;20(*/0/1)
Ring Back Tone: 400@-20,450@-20;*(.4/.2/1+2,.4/2/1 +2)
Confirm Tone: 600@-16;1(.25/.25/1)
MWI Dial Tone: 350@-19,440@-19;8(.1/.1/1+2);10(*/ 0/1+2)
Cfwd Dial Tone: 350@-19,440@-22;10(.75/.75/1+2)
DND Dial Tone: 350@-19,440@-22;10(.80/.75/1+2)
Holding Tone: 600@-19;*(.1/.1/1,.1/.1/1,.1/2.2/1 )
Conference Tone: 350@-19;20(.1/.1/1,.1/9.7/1)
Secure Call Indication Tone:
397@-19,507@-19;15(0/2/0,.2/.1/1,. 1/2.1/2)
Feature Invocation Tone: 350@-16;*(.1/.1/1)
SIT1 Tone: 985@-16,1428@-16,1777@-16;20
(.380/0/1,.380/0/2,.380/0/3,0/4/0)
SIT2 Tone: 914@-16,1371@-16,1777@-16;20
(.274/0/1,.274/0/2,.380/0/3,0/4/0)
SIT3 Tone: 914@-16,1371@-16,1777@-16;20
(.380/0/1,.380/0/2,.380/0/3,0/4/0)
SIT4 Tone: 985@-16,1371@-16,1777@-16;20
(.380/0/1,.274/0/2,.380/0/3,0/4/0)
Off Hook Warning Tone: 480@-10,620@-16,1400@0,2060@0,2450
@0,2600@0;60
(.2/0/1,.2/0/2);240(.1/.1/3+4+5+6)
Distinctive Ring Patterns
Ring Cadence: 1 60(.4/.2,.4/2)
Miscellaneous
Caller ID Method: ETSI FSK With PR (UK)
|
One of the main benefits of using VoIP is that the clever things it can do are under your control – not buried deep inside a distant exchange which you can’t reach.
Telephones are at the heart of this revolution. The new generation of VoIP telephones are sophisticated computers in their own right, capable of doing much more than the average ‘dumb’ telephone plugged into your normal BT socket.
Snoms are our preferred telephones. They are sophisticated, friendly, hard to break, good value and work well with our (or any) network. They also have some tricks that are quite useful; here’s just some of them………
These instructions are for the Snom 300. The 190, 320, 360 and 370 have the same functions but are accessed slightly differently, often with dedicated buttons to make the features easy to use – please consult your manual.
Call Forwarding
It is possible to set your phone to forward your calls to an alternative number. This means any calls to your internal extension will ring though to another phone. You can forward your calls to another extension on the system, voicemail, a mobile, or a landline
