Those that have been running a business for many years know the costs and technical challenges they can face when adding a number from outside of their local exchange or area code to work on their phone system. Until recently, most could only get distant foreign exchange numbers from the “Local Phone Company”, and at a premium.

In business, making or receiving calls that are concentrated in areas outside of the local dialing area are normal events.  The usual solution for making these kinds of calls is to use long distance or subscribe to a toll-free number.  If the call is in-state verses across the country, the costs can be through the roof.   And the more time you spend talking, the more it costs.

This can become a barrier to sales growth and good customer service.  The small business is often the one that feels the pain the most.  A simple business goal of expanding into a new market or service area can be hurt or derailed with the increase in the telephone call expenses.

Using virtual telephone numbers, this barrier can be broke at a reasonable cost to make the benefits for a small business enormous.  Today most Hosted PBX Providers offer virtual telephone numbers for almost any US exchange area.  Getting the numbers you want can be easy and very affordable.

If your need is to only provide a local number for callers to contact your business (inbound only), then the destination you direct the virtual number can be just about anywhere.  Many Hosted PBX subscribers find this flexibility of number destination a very cost effective means for disaster recovery or to assign remote workers call coverage tasks.

I hope this article has been helpful to you.  Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.