Mike Wilks' Blog

I’m not sure when they were added but Skype have a whole load of new US Online numbers. These include 212, 917, 718, 646, 378. All of the other New York numbers have been there before albeit not very often but this the first time I have seen 212 numbers. I managed to snag a 212 zone one number which will replace my existing 917.  The 212s do seem to be getting snapped up fast, all of the zone ones have gone since yesterday but there seems to be a good amount of zone twos left.

I signed up to the BT 12 month contract with a promise of free evening and weekend calls out of apathy as much as anything else. Not that I wanted a 12 month contract nor would I use the free calls. Anyway the last three months BT seem to have rather cheekily charged me my normal line rental plus the cost of this package which is meant to be free. (They have also confusingly changed my billing date to align it with the date they take payment which also creates a bill that is difficult to understand.)

Anyway a quick call later and I have ditched the 12 month contract and gone back to £11.25 line rental only.  The 3 months higher line rental charge was explained as an error in their new billing system where the free calls package for people under contract was actually charged for. They’ve agreed to refund the charges but it does leave a nasty taste. This was clearly a known problem so why did I have to call after it had been incorrectly billed for three months? The whole idea of auto-renewing 12 month contracts is also something that doesn’t feel right (although admittedly they make perfect sense for house insurance etc.)

I would ditch my BT landline in a heartbeat if I didn’t need it for my ADSL connection (from an LLU provider). I have unlimited Skype and more mobile minutes than I need so a landline really is just something that I need to get ADSL rather than a phone.

Skype has a service where you can rent phone numbers which call your Skype account, nothing new I’d just missed it in the past. Essentially these numbers are normal phone numbers but you can get them in various far flung destinations. This used to be called SkypeIn but is now called Online Number.

Personally I thought there would be loads of information on the web about these numbers, how they worked and what was available but I couldn’t find much. Both Google and Skype’s own forum came up empty so here are a few things I have learned going through this exercise.

Firstly the pricing structure is quite strange. Renting an Online Number costs €50 plus VAT (about £50 including VAT currently) but they are also included in Skype’s monthly subscription plans. In fact the cheapest monthly subscription (unlimited one country calls) at £2.50 (inc VAT) per month includes one of these numbers. The all you can eat international calling plan (£8 a month inc VAT) includes 3. So the learning point here is that you may as well sign up for a subscription if you want one regardless of whether you’ll use the outbound calls or not. This is what I did, I don’t make all that many international calls but it worked out cheaper for me to get a plan rather than just pay for the numbers. You also get Voicemail and a few other features thrown in with the plans.

The second thing I learned is in two halves i) there are various hard to get hold of area codes ii) the numbers Skype offers you changes on a very regular basis. I signed up for the expensive plan because I wanted two numbers, London and New York. The London one was relatively straight-forwards with several 0208 and 0203 numbers available. But when you look a New York things get all together more complicated. Firstly the traditional 212 numbers do not appear to be available even for traditional lines anymore so it seems there is zero chance on Skype. A quick Wiki search found me the list of other New York City Area Codes . Skype seems to offer 347 a lot and 718 sometimes, you just have to check back at different times . The long and short is that I found a 718 number after a few attempts which I was quite happy with, 718 is a NYC Metro Area code covering the boroughs of Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. As a Mets fan a number with same area code of Citi Field is nice.

That said I really wanted a Manhattan area code number and 646 seems to be the successor to 212. A bit of googling determined that Jet Numbers had 646 numbers for sale for VoIP forwarding  so I figured Skype must have some too.  After a day or so of regular checking I snagged one of these – and regretted jumping on the 718 nuber quite so quickly.I achieved my main aim of a London and Manhattan based inbound Skype number although it would have been good to have used that 3rd number for something else.

In my regular checks I also learned a little about the other types of numbers:

• The prestigious California 310 area code is available but it seems to be pretty rare.
• San Francisco (415) again are available but not very often.
• Washington DC numbers (202) are also on the rare side but I have seen a few.
• I have never seen a Nevada (and hence Las Vegas) number.
• Various countries make you give them additional information or won’t give you a number if you are not a resident. Ireland seemed to be especially restrictive but France and Switzerland also have limits. Hong Kong looked like an interesting option but I don’t know anyone there and I was very suspicious of the additional terms and conditions from the local carrier.