I currently carry a dual-sim phone to have two numbers, private and work each. I am not entirely happy with this setup however:
- Dual sim phones aren’t common and cost more when I have to upgrade.
- I need call recording for business, but android phones aren’t very clear when it comes to call recording support. I had to try and return several new devices.
- I would love to have additional temporary phone numbers for privacy (e.g. retails).
And here’s my situation:
- Google Voice is not available in my country. Plus, it’s Google.
- Prepaid SIM cards are cheap and easy to acquire where I live.
- I have a bunch of old spare android phones.
I was thinking, could I leave the SIM cards for private and work at home, inserted to phones/devices that are managed by a call-forwarding server, which transparently forward the calls to a third device I am actually carrying?
Self hosted Google Voice is what I would love to have.
I looked at those a few years back but never could figure out how to have an actual phone number instead of just internal sip lines. Where would one get an actual phone # from on those?
Any number of SIP Trunks DID (Direct inward dialing) providers.
https://www.voip-info.org/did-service-providers/
One of my favorite for north america has always been https://voip.ms/ small business that’s been around for 15+ years they offer both fully hosted and self hosted options.
I want to second voip.ms. I’ve had a number with them for years and I’ve been nothing but happy with the service and cost.
Thanks! I hadn’t heard of voip.ms but just signed up. Looks perfect for my needs.
So I would have to contact one of those providers if I wanted to keep using my current phone numbers, then?
Yes, number portability extends to compatible VoIP providers.
I have a FreePBX virtual machine hosted at home. I use VoIP.ms which covers most North American numbers and many numbers abroad. I use it to provide phone service to my parents house and cottage and my house and cottage. I put in about $40 a year to cover all these places with their own DID number.