What is Free International Call Forwarding?

Free international call forwarding is a call-forwarding system that provides the service, free of charge, for both the party receiving the call and the party from which the call originated. Call-forwarding services provide businesses of all sizes with a cost-effective means to have a global telephony system. Once reserved for large corporations with the reach and resources to maintain physical call centers across the world, free international call forwarding puts global enterprise within the grasp of even sole proprietors.

International Call Forwarding

International call forwarding lends global reach to call-forwarding — or call-routing — services. Through the use of virtual numbers, entrepreneurs can override the necessity of physical call centers. This is especially important when doing business internationally, for reasons other than the obvious incentive of cost savings. Foreign countries — especially developing countries in emerging markets — sometimes have dilapidated or antiquated infrastructure, or electrical grids or phone lines that are unreliable or under the authority of under-resourced or corrupt, state-run agencies. International call forwarding routes any call — whether placed to a local or toll-free number — to a center hosted on a reliable, secure network in a country with dependable hardware and services.

UIFN

When setting up a an international call-forwardings system, businesses should consider a universal international freephone number, or UIFN. This is essentially a traditional toll-free number, but with an extra digit. With this 11-digit format, businesses gain a modified number for use throughout the entire world, that is essentially the same as their original toll-free number. This is especially important when dealing with vanity numbers that are part of a business's branding. 1-800-FLOWERS, for example, would become +8000-FLOWERS.

VoIP

If the business acquires a virtual phone number associated with a call-routing system — with a UIFN if the number is toll free — it is set up with a fully integrated international call-forwarding system that can function from essentially anywhere in the world. It still, however, isn't free. Since it's arrival in the late 1990s — and its becoming mainstream through familiar services such as Skype in the mid-2000s — voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, is dominating much of the business telecommunications industry. VoIP, or Internet telephone, is the choice of many businesses for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is cost — with limited hardware and start-up fees, VoIP is often cheaper than traditional landline phone systems.