BP's Weblog

I've finally done it. I have a single phone number that rings through to me wherever I am. Using various of my previously posted tricks, but mostly just having a central VoIP system that can complete calls however I ask it to, I now have a single number that reaches me basically anywhere.

There are some caveats, which I'll get to at the end. But the biggest thing is that I've had a hard time explaining it to people. Partly, that's because I actually didn't accomplish complete unification - there is one number you can call me on, but I haven't yet found an affordable way to receive SMS messages into such a system. In fact, it seems to cost hundreds of dollars per month for such a capability, or you need custom hardware. So, instead of just giving people one number, I end up giving them two... the first being the apparently nebulous "primary" or "main" number, the other being the cell phone number.

The problem is that, basically everyone I know primarily uses their cell phone, and, at least whenever they'd be calling me, assumes its best to call me on my cell phone. So, having given out my cell phone number, the "primary" number has become lame-duck. The only way around it is to avoid telling them anything but the single number - which I'm a little nervous about, because I really don't control that VoIP system well enough to guarantee it'll work in a pinch, so it's nice to have at least one other number people can call me on in case of emergency, as well. So, thus, the quandary.

There's also the caveat. The cost/availability of the numbers. Over time, as I've been experimenting with VoIP, I've acquired several different incoming numbers (DIDs, in telephone parlance). One is free in every way, but long distance from virtually everywhere. Then I have toll-free, and local numbers. Ideally, I'd give the "free in every way" number to whoever will always be calling me from a place where they always have long distance - my cellphone toting friends, mostly. I'd give the toll-free number to others, and the local number to people who'd be calling me from a phone in my local area. Of course, finding out enough of how a random person I'm talking to is going to use a number to reach me to given them the "correct" number is an unexpected conversational hangup, so rarely goes well. I suppose the real problem is in making all of these capabilities available - if I just picked one number, and stuck to it, this would all go away... but then I'd never get to tinker with things like toll-free systems, SIP routing from free carriers, and the like. Ah, well.

Anyone else out there doing single-number dial-all tricks with their VoIP systems?

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