Best landline, mobile, data ideas for an office of one ?

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martyyn

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#230618 5-Mar-2018 17:16

My wife is going out on her own next month and needs a solution which provides a landline for free local calls to her clients. It will preferably go to her mobile, which needs to be dual sim so she doesn't cart two mobiles around, and allow her to direct calls to answerphone after hours.

I've never looked into this and don't know where to start looking, I'm self employed as well but happy with just one number and one mobile.

The building itself has fibre but she is not going to need huge amounts of data and we are initially looking to keep costs down. She will need data in the office and I don't want it to be a hotspot because she is not all that technical.

Any suggestions on how best to do this ? In time we expect to have one or two working with her so it needs to be something which can accommodate that as well.

[e] She is on Skinny at the moment with hours of rollover calls and more data than she will ever use and I'm thinking she should keep that for work and just get a new number for personal to ensure on those who deserve it have it.

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#1968378 5-Mar-2018 18:32

>> My wife is going out on her own next month and needs a solution which provides a landline for free local calls to her clients<<

So she needs National calling bundled?

>> It will preferably go to her mobile, which needs to be dual sim so she doesn't cart two mobiles around, and allow her to direct calls to answerphone after hours.<<

So land to cell diversion? these are still clunkily expensive even in 2018.... need to shop around for one of those business deals

>> The building itself has fibre but she is not going to need huge amounts of data and we are initially looking to keep costs down. She will need data in the office and I don't want it to be a hotspot because she is not all that technical. <<

Is her working style one where she is mostly in-her-office, or at-her-clients? Can she not operate from home before going into a premises or not that type of business?

As much as people tend to diss it, Voda's oneoffice for $99/month might be a starter. I would question the need for the landline though and who her customers are... a $50 mobile plan with unlimited NZ and cell calling and 10GB is quite effective. But if you do need internet and a landline number, I'm sure spark or voda will oblige... feels like $100-$175 a month to begin with.

Also - if she's not technically savvy, strongly consider whether you want to be point man for every stupid little technical doesnt work thing that will go on. The DIY crowd on this board will tell you 2talk and all those other things, but as with everything technology-wise, when it stops you WILL be called to repair. And when it's your other half, the quality expectations go up tenfold, and the time available to fix it halves compared to a service provider :-)

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nickb800

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#1968380 5-Mar-2018 18:45

Notwithstanding above note about tech support...

Get a 2talk local number. Setup rule to divert to mobile during work hours. Divert to voicemail out of hours. Keep mobile plan or skinny direct $50 per month for unlimited calling. Only one sim required.

martyyn

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#1968381 5-Mar-2018 18:59

antoniosk:

>> My wife is going out on her own next month and needs a solution which provides a landline for free local calls to her clients<<

So she needs National calling bundled?

Sorry, what I meant to say was she needs a local number for clients to call her, not the other way around. She doesn't want clients to see a mobile number on her website or business card and worry about what the call with cost them.

antoniosk:

>> It will preferably go to her mobile, which needs to be dual sim so she doesn't cart two mobiles around, and allow her to direct calls to answerphone after hours.<<

So land to cell diversion? these are still clunkily expensive even in 2018.... need to shop around for one of those business deals

Yeah, that's what she found herself. As Skinny don't do landline to mobile forwarding she asked me what she should do.

antoniosk:

>> The building itself has fibre but she is not going to need huge amounts of data and we are initially looking to keep costs down. She will need data in the office and I don't want it to be a hotspot because she is not all that technical. <<

Is her working style one where she is mostly in-her-office, or at-her-clients? Can she not operate from home before going into a premises or not that type of business?

She will be in her office about 80% of the time but will see clients in other offices. Offices which are not hers so IMO she needs to be self-suficient because I wouldn't let her use my wifi :) I think she is just going to have to harden up and learn how to use the hotspot on her phone. Its not rocket science.

antoniosk:

As much as people tend to diss it, Voda's oneoffice for $99/month might be a starter. I would question the need for the landline though and who her customers are... a $50 mobile plan with unlimited NZ and cell calling and 10GB is quite effective. But if you do need internet and a landline number, I'm sure spark or voda will oblige... feels like $100-$175 a month to begin with.

Yeah, that's my worry. If it was me, it would be a $35 Skinny plan and I'd be sorted. As above, I think I'll just have to educate her on how to use it.

antoniosk:

Also - if she's not technically savvy, strongly consider whether you want to be point man for every stupid little technical doesnt work thing that will go on. The DIY crowd on this board will tell you 2talk and all those other things, but as with everything technology-wise, when it stops you WILL be called to repair. And when it's your other half, the quality expectations go up tenfold, and the time available to fix it halves compared to a service provider :-)

I don't mind being point man we're in this together :) I don't want it to be the full DIY which is why I was hoping someone would have a decent solution already.

itxtme

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#1968387 5-Mar-2018 19:24

Doesnt she just need 2degrees landline on your mobile then?

martyyn

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#1968450 5-Mar-2018 20:15

nickb800: Notwithstanding above note about tech support...

Get a 2talk local number. Setup rule to divert to mobile during work hours. Divert to voicemail out of hours. Keep mobile plan or skinny direct $50 per month for unlimited calling. Only one sim required.

Am I right in thinking this works for all incoming calls, but not outgoing from the mobile ? We need to be able to call out on the mobile with separate numbers.

martyyn

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#1968452 5-Mar-2018 20:18

itxtme:

Doesnt she just need 2degrees landline on your mobile then?

This requires a landline in the first place doesn't it ? We dont have that at the moment and I'm trying to work out if we can do without it at all.

Also 2D reception at our home was pretty poor when we moved here 5 years ago, hopefully it's improved since then but it was bad enough back then for us to port elsewhere.

nickb800

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#1968453 5-Mar-2018 20:24

martyyn:

nickb800: Notwithstanding above note about tech support...

Get a 2talk local number. Setup rule to divert to mobile during work hours. Divert to voicemail out of hours. Keep mobile plan or skinny direct $50 per month for unlimited calling. Only one sim required.

Am I right in thinking this works for all incoming calls, but not outgoing from the mobile ? We need to be able to call out on the mobile with separate numbers.

Yes quite possibly. In that case, as above but with two SIMs I guess. Perhaps a family sharing pack type arrangement between the two SIMs to share data/minutes. Vodafone/2degrees offer sharing packs I think

itxtme

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#1968582 5-Mar-2018 22:40

Martyyn Vodafone and Spark offer the same thing, its generally part of their offering at around $59+ plans. I would be suprised if they dont offer a new number for those who have none, but have not used it so cannot be sure.

I run my own buisness and do not have a landline, its a personal descion but if the plan is to have staff it makes sense to have a landline that will be moved in the future to a set location rather than mobile, but for now to mobile makes the most sense.

modcar

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#1968660 6-Mar-2018 08:25

Have you considered a voip landline and mobile app? Using the app to dial from will show the caller id of the office.

https://dynamiteit.nz/voip-phones-nz/

martyyn

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#1970437 7-Mar-2018 11:02

After a lot of thought the last couple of days I think we are just going to go with an XBB install and a normal landline and another work sim in her mobile.

Whilst I know I could manage it myself, she doesn't need the hassle of having to learn how to do all this in the next week or so, I don't need the hassle of being front line support with my own business to run and it's highly likely she will employ one (if not two) staff in the next 12 months.

Bearing all that in mind the cost of doing it the old fashioned way is probably worth it.

Thanks for everyone, it's really helped us to decide on what is important for her business :)

robcreid

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#1970493 7-Mar-2018 11:23

martyyn:

nickb800: Notwithstanding above note about tech support...

Get a 2talk local number. Setup rule to divert to mobile during work hours. Divert to voicemail out of hours. Keep mobile plan or skinny direct $50 per month for unlimited calling. Only one sim required.

Am I right in thinking this works for all incoming calls, but not outgoing from the mobile ? We need to be able to call out on the mobile with separate numbers.

2Talk offer a voip softphone smartphone app so you can make and receive calls from you mobile phone.

I have a cordless voip desk phone and the softphone on my mobile set to ring simultaneously so I can get calls when I'm my desk at home or out and about.

jonathan18

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#1970537 7-Mar-2018 12:10

Just checking that you took a good look at the 2degrees Landline on Your Mobile offerings, as mentioned above?

I looked into possible solutions for my wife to deal with exactly the same issue, and decided this was the best option.

Included in prepaid business plans (along with voice mail) from only $38 plus GST per month, see https://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/business/mobile/

Saves all the hassle of faffing about with 2Talk etc as well. Given it's part of an overall mobile package also saves the hassle and cost of a standard landline, plus of course has the advantage of being fully mobile!

martyyn

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#1970547 7-Mar-2018 12:32

jonathan18: Just checking that you took a good look at the 2degrees Landline on Your Mobile offerings, as mentioned above?

I had a quick look but there are two issues with 2D.

1. We moved from 2D to Skinny five years ago because the coverage at home was very poor. That may have changed.

2. My understanding of 'landline on your mobile' is simply forwarding the landline calls to the mobile when you are out of the office. You can't then use that landline number to call out from the mobile.

This may be useful if she ends up spending significant amounts of time out of the office, but if she ends up employing someone (which is highly likely) there will be someone in the office anyway.

vulcannz

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#1970552 7-Mar-2018 12:40

2Talk have a mobile device VOIP client. So when you're out of wifi range it uses data for calls.

stinger

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#1970571 7-Mar-2018 13:09

martyyn:

My understanding of 'landline on your mobile' is simply forwarding the landline calls to the mobile when you are out of the office. You can't then use that landline number to call out from the mobile.

The first part is incorrect. It means all calls to the landline number are received on the mobile phone. If that number was previously used as a real landline number, then that services and any services on that line will be disconnected. Effectively, it's a second number for your mobile, but callers only pay the STD rate for landline numbers.

The second part (can't use that number of outbound calls) I think is correct, but check with 2 degrees.

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