Source
r/nbn•
emja

Dual phone number (fax duet / faxstream) porting to NBN

In my workshop/office I have two PSTN numbers with Telstra's 'fax duet' service. I use both numbers for voice (not fax). One is public. My customers call it, and it is redirected to my virtual receptionist. The other is secret and is connected to a handset in the office. Customers see only the public number on CLI when I call them from the handset. When the receptionist routes calls to me, the receptionist uses the secret number.

When switching to NBN I'll lose the PSTN service and therefore the duet service. What can I do to retain this functionality?

I must be able to change which outsource VR company the primary number goes to in a day or less, so I can change VR provider when they dick me around. Waiting a week for Telstra to action a redirect is not acceptable.

btw, I prefer to not lose the published public number I'm currently using, but I don't care about the secondary.

edit: clarify both lines are for voice not fax.

Posted Oct 11, 2019, 4:46 AM UTC · edited

22
reddedo•

honestly, probably be best to talk to a telco that can provide hosted PBX services - everything goes to voip, your phones now become extensions that your receptionist can use to internally dial to you, plus some other handy features perhaps (out of hours stuff, email voicemails, voip client on your smartphone for working remotely, redirections would be under quick control, etc...). you could port the existing numbers so you don't lose anything

5
theredkrawler•

What you've described is handled perfectly by VOIP. You probably should have moved a long time ago - the savings of VOIP over paying two phone line rentals is substantial.

We use Siptalk (ex-Telecube) and have 6 extensions (3 workshop, 2 mobiles with VOIP clients, 1 pager mobile with VOIP client) in use. When someone rings the main line (either our local number or our 1800 number) it goes to a ring group which lights up every extension. From there the person who answers can transfer to another extension.

It also has timed based routing, so after hours the phone automatically switches over to a PVR which has a recorded message and the caller can choose to be forwarded to the pager extension or to mailbox.

We also have our fax line with with them (that receives literally nothing but spam, god knows why I keep it active). It's a DID -> email service. Someone faxes our fax line, and we get an email with a PDF attachment of the contents. ezpz.

Cut our phone costs to literally 1/10th of what they used to be, and offers far more capability.

Port number to Siptalk to maintain your existing DID (direct in dial, aka phone number), purchase a VOIP capable handset like the Yealink T23G, put in Siptalk's details and start receiving calls. It really is that easy.

3