Is there any way to have a telephone number that has a number (area code & number) that is different from the area you live in. For example, I live in West Allis, Wisconsin. How could I have it that a person dials a Denver Colorado number yet my phone in Wisconsin rings, thus allowing me to give my number to someone but hide my actual location. The only thing I can think of is to get a cell phone in Denver.
The main thing I’m looking for is something that wouldn’t be cost prohibitive.
There’s nothing sinister about what I’m asking. I have a client who wants to let her ex-mother in law call her without revealing where she lives. (kind of hokey, huh? :rolleyes: )
The first thing that springs to mind is VOIP, as you can get a number from nearly anywhere in the US (Or world, perhaps). Vonage is popular, and relatively inexpensive assuming a preexisting broadband connection.
Yeah, I appreciate the post. The problem is my client wants this other person to actually believe shes in Denver (not really. I changed the locations to protect the innocent). I’m not sure having a toll free number with extension numbers is going to do that.
My solution was to get a prepaid cell phone from out of the “Denver” area. Seeing this MiL would be the only person calling it, it shouldn’t cost that much. And I have contacts in “Denver”, so getting the phone with that local number shouldn’t be hard.
Most cell phones work all over the country now, right?
But you guys came up with some ideas real quick. If you think of any more, let me know. I don’t usually do this kind of work, but this is a special long time client and I’m willing to do this kind of piddly stuff for them.
This oughta work - here’s what you need to do though (before you obtain the phone). Find out what cell service is available in your client’s area, i.e. Verizon, Cingular, etc. Then make sure that the phone you get from “Denver” works on that service.
Peter is on to something. Don’t forget that you can port numbers nowadays. You may be able to get a prepaid or a standard cell contract that would easy to get out of. Once you “own” the number, per new FCC regulations you can get the number transfered to a new service. You would need to double and triple check about the given companies and get promises in writing before you pay for anything, but if you port a Denver number to some other place it should continue to behave as though it were in the original rate center. The rate center is was identifies the number as belonging to a certain geographical area.
You may also want to simply call the local provider and ask if they can provide a number from withing a Denver rate center.
Fair warning - dealing with phone companies and porting numbers can be extremely painful. For something complicated like this, don’t be suprised if you have several problems and it takes weeks to clear them all up. You may even find your phone not working at all for days on end, More specifically with VOIP services.
Not to promote a company that competes with my own, but if you have a high speed Internet connection Vonage could probably get you a Denver number in less than ten minutes.
We just moved an hour or so outside The City. We set up a Vonage account for our business, and they allowed us to keep our Staten Island phone number. Their info says that had we wished, we could have chosen an exchange anywhere in the country. So far (about a week) the quality has been fine. Not excellent, but fine nonetheless. YMMV.
You can also get regular land lines with an automatic forwarding option built in.
QWest calls it a ‘market expansion line’. We basically pay a monthly charge ($18) for the phone number, and any calls are automatically forwarded to another number. There is also a per-minute charge (2¢ or 5¢) depending on time of day and total minutes used. (Ours are forwarded to a different area code, but still within the same billing area. I expect you might have to pay long-distance charges for Denver to Wisconsin calls.)
We have one for an organization I work with; we wanted to keep the same phone number despite changing the secretary. It’s worked well for years.