Glossary
A virtual landline number, also known as a geographical or local phone number, looks like a normal landline number with a local call prefix and can be called at a local rate. Even so, there is a difference between our virtual landline numbers and your traditional landline connection: our virtual numbers are very flexible; incoming calls can be forwarded to any landline, mobile phone or IP address in the world. This means you can have a local presence anywhere in the world without having a range of regional offices.
Our Voice2Mail feature converts incoming voicemails into an audio file (.wav) that is forwarded to the email address(es) you specify.
Call forwarding means forwarding calls made to one number to another specified phone number. If you have a local number in Berlin, for instance, or a freephone number in the Netherlands, you can have all incoming calls forwarded to your office in the United Kingdom. In other words: call forwarding allows you to have phone numbers in any country and answer the calls wherever you want.
DTFM stands for Dual Tone Multi Frequency.
The keys on your telephone keypad, when pressed, each make a distinct tone. Our IVR system can recognize DTMF tones and connect these to certain menu options in your voice menu. This means your callers can use their phone keypad to make choices in your automated IVR menu.
This refers to a contingency plan should there be a problem with your standard call forwarding. For instance, if your normal call forwarding via IP fails, you have the option to set up fallback routing via the PSTN, or vice versa. It’s also possible to have two PSTN forwarding options.
The Fax2Mail feature allows you to receive faxes on your freephone or local number without the need for a fax machine. Our network detects incoming faxes, converts them to a PDF file, and sends the file to the email address(es) you specify. PDF files can even be encrypted for security.
An international phone line refers to a freephone or virtual landline number in one of the 100 countries and 3000 cities we currently have in our service portfolio. All incoming calls to your international phone line can be forwarded to a specified phone number anywhere in the world.
IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response. Our system allows you to set up custom voice menus that recognize keypad inputs. This way, incoming calls are immediately forwarded to the right employee or department. An example of an IVR prompt might be, “Press 1 for accounting.”
Our Online Dashboard is a secured online platform that comes with a personal login. On this platform you can manage your freephone or local numbers, set up or change call forwarding schedules, access call records, view call statistics and much more.
Call origination refers to the origin of inbound calls meaning “where calls come from”.
PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange. It refers to an on-site telephone system that handles inbound and outbound calling, extensions, voicemails, fax and other telecom services for a particular office or company. If you don’t have your own PBX TeleForwarding can offer many of the functions a PBX delivers in its Online Dashboard.
PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network and refers to the world’s public circuit-switched telephone networks. PSTN is the traditional telephone network versus newer technologies such as VoIP.
A destination number, also referred to as termination number, is the number on which you wish to receive the incoming calls that are made to your freephone or local landline number.
The ringback tone is what the caller hears while waiting for a call to be connected. Ringback tones vary from country to country, but our system offers one single ringback tone for all countries, so your callers won’t realise their calls are being forwarded to another country.
Sequential ringing forwards a call to different phones in a pre-determined order. Once the call is answered, the sequence stops. For instance, you might set up a sequence to ring your office phone first, then your mobile phone, then your home phone. Or you might have a larger application, such as different phones within a call center.
SIP stands for Session Initiated Protocol. This term refers to VoIP termination, where calls are routed via the Internet rather than the traditional global PSTN. TeleForwarding only uses VoIP in specific situations.
Tiime/Day Routing is a feature that enables you to forward calls based on the time of day or day of the week a call comes in. For example, you might want to send calls to your call centre during business hours and straight to voicemail at all other times. Or you might have your calls forwarded to a different call centre during the weekend.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol which means call forwarding via the Internet rather than the traditional global PSTN.
UIFN stands for Universal International Freephone Number. A UIFN number is an international freephone number that can be called for free in around 45 countries around the world. UIFN are also known as +800 numbers – the plus refers to the international call prefix of this number, in most countries this is 00.
Read more about Freephone numbers
ITFN stands for International Toll-Free Number. Despite it’s name, an ITFN is actually a national toll-free (or freephone) number that can be called for free within one country only. However, ITFN’s can be set up in over 100 countries worldwide while all calls can be forwarded internationally. This makes these numbers very suitable for companies that wish to have an international presence without the need to have actual offices everywhere.
PRS stands for Premium Rate Service. In telecoms a premium rate service refers to premium rate numbers; inbound phone numbers that can be called at a certain rate per minute or per call. In certain cases, premium rate numbers can be useful for companies wishing to generate a profit with their inbound phone numbers.
Learn more about Premium Rate Services
With an undesired calls filter you can filter out undesired calls, such as calls from prank callers. After identifying the number of the undesired caller this number can be blocked for every future call.
A welcome message is a spoken message that is played for every caller. In combination with our international prefix recognition system, you can set up various messages spoken in the language of the country from which the call is made.
Overflow refers to a specific forwarding schedule; if an incoming call cannot be forwarded to the original destination number (because the call centre agent/employee is already talking or simply doesn’t answer) the call can be automatically forwarded to the next available employee or a voice message.
A regulator is a national regulating organisation that controls the telecommunications market and is in charge of the reservation and activation of phone numbers. For some phone number types (such as UIFN) the supranational organization ITU, which is part of the UN, is in charge.
We always aim to activate your new phone numbers as soon as possible and in certain cases also offer number reservation. For the most common countries we always have freephone numbers on stock and we’d be happy to send you a list with available numbers so you can reserve the number of your choice.
If you are looking for a +800 number you can check for available numbers yourself via our +800 search engine.
Currently it is not possible to reserve a virtual landline number.
If something goes wrong you have to be there for your clients to help them and answer their questions. By setting up a special freephone number at TeleForwarding you are prepared for any crisis situation.
With the Busy/No Answer feature you can set up a forwarding schedule that forwards calls to the first available employee.
With Call Traffic Management TeleForwarding puts you in charge. You can change your own forwarding schedules or destination numbers and keep an eye on your call traffic with call statistics reports.
With Postcode Routing you can forward incoming calls based on specific postal or area codes. With this feature the caller will be asked to enter his postcode, an IVR system will then locate this code in a database and forward the caller to the corresponding destination number.
Through a whisper the employee or call centre agent can be provided with certain information before answering a call, such as where the caller is calling from, which department he is looking for etc.
Prefix routing forwards calls based on their geographical origin. Prefix routing can be implemented for regional prefixes but also for international prefixes.