1800 Number?

[ballin]

Does anyone have a 1800 number set up with the magic jack or know if they will soon support it? If you do, how much are you paying?

[SpamBox]

800 numbers (toll free 800/866/888) are a whole different animal - it would really surprise me if they ever offered it.

[Stewart]

AFAIK, MJ does not plan to offer toll free service. Most toll free providers can forward calls to your MJ number. Or, you can sign up with one that you can use directly with an ATA, IP phone, or softphone. For low usage, take look at Vitelity, $0.50/month + $0.019/minute. I'm not associated with them, just a happy customer.

[SpamBox]

For low usage, take look at Vitelity, $0.50/month + $0.019/minute. I'm not associated with them, just a happy customer.

WOW never seen rates that low but it's been a few years since I've checked into getting one

[ChuckIL]

I have 2 toll-free DID's from Vitelity. It is now $0.50 per month and $0.019 per minute incoming (if you want a custom 800 number like 888CARPETS, there is a $10 setup fee). I don't know how they do it for that price either, but I'm not going to complain. I believe the rates are going up based on what they have posted on their website ($1.49 per month / $0.024 per minute). I did have one outage for a couple hours on toll-free incoming (they lost a connection to a Verizon SS7 line). If you want to forward to MagicJack you would have to pay both incoming and outgoing rates for the connection (currently $0.033 per minute), still below what most providers charge. I've had them for about 6 months and have been a pretty happy customer.

[kumar]

My question is why would you want to have a 1800 number and pay for other people's calls? If a common person needs to call you my them a jack...or set up some free VOIP solution on their computer.
Kumar

[Stewart]

My question is why would you want to have a 1800 number and pay for other people's calls? If a common person needs to call you my them a jack...or set up some free VOIP solution on their computer.
Kumar

For one, you always get the caller ID. I give this number to folks who have per-line blocking enabled, so I know who's calling (or whose call I missed).

I have a couple of friends with cellular plans, e.g. Cricket, that offer "unlimited" minutes but not free long distance.

Many hotels in the US charge e.g. $1 per call + high long distance rates, though there is no cost for toll-free. In some of those, cell phones work poorly or not at all, because the steel building shields the signal.

If you live in the US (or Canada, HK, Singapore and a few others), you are already used to paying for incoming calls on your cell phone. In most countries, the caller pays airtime on calls to cell phones, but I'm not sure that's better, because the charges are always the same (high), even if the callee has a plan with lots of minutes. When combined with local number portability, as a few countries have done, it's IMO a really bad idea -- you call a local number from your landline and don't know whether the meter is running or not (well, they have a website where you can look up a number and see the carrier, but what a hassle).

[ChuckIL]

My reasons for having toll free are:

At $0.50 / month, I can configure a cheap callback service on my asterisk server (calls aren't charged because they terminate with a busy signal), and I therefore can use anyone's phones (even a pay phone) and only pay for my asterisk trunk minutes. (or in the case of my brother in-law, he can call his family in Canada for $0.022 per minute from his cell phone)

I have family across the country that can contact me on my dime.

I run a VOIP service for selected family members, so they can once again, contact me on my dime if there is a problem.

[jackovalltrades]

I've been using Quantumvoice for their unlimited in/out service for $40 mth toll-free service. I've used them for a couple years now and they have been by far the best and most reliable VOIP.

[omega10x]

i know this is an old thread but still reliavent espically for us canadians
im using tollfreeforwarding.com
they are 10/month for 127 mins,
they ring up to 3 lines at once you you can have your magic jack, cell phone and landline ring(or another line)
whatever line is picked up first is the one that gets the call
also you can change the settings online and there effective right away

[jwryahoo]

Hi ChuckIL,

I'm inerested in the last line in your post that says you run a voip service for your family. I would like to do this for my family who also live in Canada - I'm in the US.

Can you give me some details as to how you are doing this?

Blessings

jwr

[Darkman90808]

My question is why would you want to have a 1800 number and pay for other people's calls? If a common person needs to call you my them a jack...or set up some free VOIP solution on their computer.
Kumar

For one, you always get the caller ID. I give this number to folks who have per-line blocking enabled, so I know who's calling (or whose call I missed).

I have an 800# exactly for this purpose. FWIW, when I have my MJ phone number forwarded to the 800# I still get the caller ID.

[omega10x]

my caller ID works as well, but the site(tollfreeforwording) does give you the option to pass the toll free number to call id(so you know they are calling the toll free number.)

also they just implemented a menu system(that you can set up) with extensions
so extension 100 - could go to you
extension 101 could to work
and so on
or you can still have it just ring 3 numbers at a time - ie incoming call, magic jack, cell, and home phone(if applicable) rings