Personal Numbers

Personal numbers are supposed to be phone numbers that relate to people, not buildings or particular mobile phones. The advantage of a personal number is that you can use it to direct calls to you more or less wherever you are. The drawback is that it costs more to ring a personal number. It needn't cost any more than ringing a mobile phone, though.

Why bother?

If you have a personal number and a mobile phone, you are free to change phone contracts without the difficulties inherent in changing your phone number.

A personal number can stay with you through moves of house or workplace.

It can be used to divert calls to you when your mobile phone is out of coverage, but there is a fixed line available.

Some people find personal numbers useful as "impersonal numbers". For example, someone on an on-call rota can be contacted by one personal number rather than the caller having to find which number is the one to call this week.

What does it cost?

There are several companies offering these numbers that you can divert to other numbers. Some charge to set the number up, others charge per-month.

The ones I use charge nothing at all! Instead of calling my mobile number, callers ring the personal number. The call ends up at the number of my choice. If I change mobile numbers, I redirect my personal number!

There are different sorts of personal numbers. Ones with:

07020 dialling codes can only be diverted to fixed lines, but are cheapest to call -- 16.71p/min peak and 9.85p/min off-peak from BT lines
07050 dialling codes can be diverted to any fixed or mobile number, but currently cost 37.5p/min peak 25p/min evenings and 12.5p/min weekends -- slightly more than calling a Vodafone or Cellnet mobile, although that cost will fall to the mobile rate soon.
07010 dialling codes can be diverted to fixed phones mobiles, and cost about the same as calling mobiles direct -- 32p/min peak, 22p/min evenings and 10p/min weekends. For a per-minute incoming fee these numbers can be diverted overseas, but I have no details about this.

Personal Numbers

There are several companies offering numbers that you can divert to other numbers. Some charge to set the number up, others charge per-month. The ones I use charge nothing at all! Instead of calling my mobile number, callers ring the 07010 personal number instead. The call ends up at the number of my choice, and the caller pays more or less the same rate to call from BT as they would to call direct to my Cellnet number (except at weekends). If I change mobile numbers, I redirect my personal number!

First Telecom charges a very low rate for calls to Flextel 07010 numbers - the cheapest way to ring a mobile, (unless you're calling Cellnet from BT at weekends, that is) One oddity of the 07010 number range is that you can also use the dialling codes 0956 or 07956 (which appear to be one2one number) so One2one users can ring at one2one rates.

To get a free personal number, and even choose the number you want (from a rather restricted selection), visit the DigitalMail web site. For an even better deal, free 07010 numbers, which are cheaper to call, have an equivalent One2one number built in and also can be diverted to mobiles, see Flextel's web site. You can choose the number you want, again from a limited range of numbers, and your number can be active very quickly. These are the ones I prefer to use.

There are other suppliers offering free flexible numbers, for instance FreeNumber Co at http://freenumber.4all.cc, FreeMobiles at http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/FreeMobiles/divert.html, And Smart One at http://gonow.to/smartonevarious and a few others, though I haven't personally used one from anyone other than Digitalmail and Flextel.

Alternatively, many high street shops sell these numbers at around 20 pounds each. Save money -- do it via the web!

Comments, suggestions and amendments welcomed!

cellular. v1.53 7 Oct 99

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