I’ve only just realised that I’ve that I now have two international non geographic phone numbers or iNum (International codes +882/+883)connected to a couple of voip accounts that I use.Introduced in November of last year these are non geographic phone numbers that are intended to either be free or local rated to call from anywhere in the world.
It also means that you would only need the one contact number that would be classified as a local number no matter which country your caller was living in.
Obviously it’s early days and not all the telcos have integrated iNum routing into their exchanges at present so many people have to dial them via an access number.
Skype is recognising iNum but is currently applying a local PSTN number charge for calling them but Skype’s a walled garden compared to many other voip services so we should be thankful they accommodate it at all.
Fingers crossed we’ll see the use of non geographic international phone numbers increase as it could compliment or even negate the current voip setups many of us have such as having specific country DID (Direct Inward Dialing) numbers (eg: we have US, European and Australian phone numbers for people in those countries to call at their local rate rather than at international rates).
Photo by bitzcelt under this creative commons license
