Simple Telecom is one of the premier Australian 1800 number providers. If you are looking to set up a website or have business cards printed, getting a 1800 number is a great idea as it will give you stacks of flexibility and you will not have to advertise your mobile number.
1800 numbers are ten or more digit inbound phone numbers that customers can call for free using any Australian mobile phone or Australian fixed line telephone service.
These numbers have been well known, for multiple decades, as the free call or toll-free number for Australian Business. An 1800 number will be a central and unified primary point of inbound contact for your business, providing benefits that include a professional appearance, and the potential to serve a national clientele base.
What is the difference between 1300 numbers and 1800 numbers? Well – the answer is pretty simple!
There is no real difference.
Pricing is the same, features are the same. If we roll back a few years, when copper lines were more common, callers from fixed lines (copper) didn’t pay any fees to call 1800 numbers – they were free. But in this day and age, with cap plans on mobiles and VoIP, the potential savings by dialling a 1800 over a 1300 are no longer significant or worth considering.
With this being said, due to the popularity of 1300 numbers, there are quite often good premium numbers available as 1800’s.
Lastly, when comparing 1300 numbers and 1800 numbers, it is worth considering perception. For the customer, they may or may not be more inclined to consider the 1800 number as being a community service, or support style service rather than a primary contact number for a business. I haven’t personally really seen much evidence of this however this is the feedback we have received in limited forms.
Lets quickly unpack what 1800 numbers are and how they work.
Simple Telecom 1800 numbers are toll free numbers, and can be a phone word or a 10 digit number with the first 4 digits being 1800.
As you may have guessed, 1800 numbers are inbound numbers. This means they can only receive calls – they cannot make outbound calls at all.
1800 numbers are set up somewhat like a redirect service, so the 1800 number will point through to your answer point. This may be your local fixed line number, which means it may be a local call. Alternatively, it might be a through to a mobile number. Either way, as the owner of a 1800 number you will be paying a per minute rate to receive the call, which we will refer to as the call cost.
1800 numbers are commonly referred to as ‘Free Call’ numbers and have been a part of business in Australia since the 90’s.
1800 numbers are a great option for your business as a primary contact number, and can provide you with an easy method of tracking calls, a single point of contact, and a significant amount of flexibility that comes with using an inbound number (rather than a mobile or geographic number). To take this one step further, a premium 1800 number will also match the name of your business, website or flagship product. Create a memorable impression with your customers today with a brand new 1800 number!
1800 numbers are important for a wide range of reasons.
• No geographical restrictions
• Call recording
• Professional business image
• Powerful reporting
• Routing features
• Call overflow
• Time based routing
Let’s unpack each feature in depth:
Utilising a 1800 Number as your primary business number will release you from any geographical restrictions. As 1800’s can be routed anywhere, this means when you move your office from one location to another, you can update your 1800 routing rather than advertising a new number. This allows you to then avoid having to contact existing customers, advising them of the updated contact number.
Want to add some quality assurance to your customer experience? Turning on Call Recording (and advising everyone of the call being recorded) is a great way to get feedback through to management and operators. Or, maybe you just need it for historical or record keeping purposes? Either way – this is a free add-on available to Simple Telecom customers who have a 1800 Number.
Presenting a nice 1800 number as a contact point for your business gives the impression to your potential customers that you aren’t just a single person running from your garage. Or, maybe they know that you mostly likely are – but you care enough about presenting your business in a professional manner that you have investigated, connected and paid for a 1800 number. This is a signal to the market that you are open for business and want consumers to call you.
Simple Telecom 1800 numbers come with free access to the Simple Telecom console, which will open your eyes to the features available, and most importantly, the reporting information we can present.
As calls come through the 1800, everything is recorded: dates, times, phone numbers involved, how long the call was, and who it was routed to.
Clever marketers may use this information (and maybe multiple 1800 numbers) to determine exactly which marketing medium generated a call. Even smarter marketers might listen to call recordings, and loop back any potential learnings from a sales call.
1800 numbers can be set up with numerous routing features to support you and your business. There are a range of routing options that we can use to get callers through to you as conveniently as possible. Lets look at some of the common features:
Looking for have the 1800 number call Person 1, then Person 2? Easy – just set up the overflow.
The 1800 can ring person one for 15 seconds (configurable), and if they don’t answer it will then overflow onto Person 2. This works for land lines and mobiles, and is the easiest way of scaling your business once you start getting multiple calls at the same time.
Do you want to automatically put callers through to a Voice To Email after hours? Time Based routing is the perfect feature to achieve this (in fact, Simple Telecom uses this feature as well).
Between 8:30am and 5pm on Weekdays, a 1800 number can call through to an office line – it will then hear a welcome message, before being connected through to an operator. If the operator doesn’t answer in 15 seconds, the call can Overflow (see above feature) to the Voice To Email, where a message will be captured for later follow up.
On the weekend, and after 5pm through to 8:30am the next day, the 1800 number (using time based routing) can go straight to a separate Voice To Email, advising the caller they have called after hours and inviting them to leave a message. Again, this will go through to the team for later follow up.
The pricing for 1800 numbers is somewhat complex, but as the name suggests – Simple Telecom aims to take out some of that complexity for you so that it’s easy to comprehend and predict the price you will pay.
There are 2 main pieces to the pricing:
The monthly fee
The per minute rate which will form the call cost
Some plans have included value, which may mean incoming calls through to a mobile phone or local number may be included in the monthly fee.
1800 numbers with Simple Telecom start at $10 per month, and on the top advertised plan this tops out at $99 per month. There are also secret plans (not advertised) – engage with the Simple Telecom team to find out more.
You can expect to pay a monthly fee and call costs, depending on how you route your calls. Landing to your fixed line (or VOIP line) will be cheaper, while landing calls to your mobile will be more expensive (but also more flexible and significantly more common). Roughly 90% of Simple Telecom customers route calls to their mobile phone.
1800 numbers can often be referred to as ‘toll free numbers’. This is because it is free for the caller to call the number – the carrier, and ultimately the owner of the 1800 number, will pay for the call.
As the owner of a 1800 number, you may pay a license fee for the phone word, as well as a per month fee to have the 1800 number connected. Finally, you will pay a per minute rate to receive calls through the 1800 number.
Yes. As a Simple Telecom customer, we have matching plans for both 1800 and 1300 numbers, which means as the business owner they are the same price for you to own.
It is hard for Simple Telecom to confidently answer the question; basically, it depends on what is included in your Mobile phone plan. Most mobile phone plans that are post-paid (as compared to pre-paid plans) include both 1800 and 1300 numbers.
The best method to confirm if you can call a 1800 number for free would be to check with your mobile phone carrier.
The cost of incoming calls to the 1800 number is dependent on the phone types included in the call, as well as their distance from each other.
These call types are broken into local calls, national calls and mobiles.
Simple Telecom breaks this down and groups the calls and the costs related, to be based on the answer point only. The call rates you can expect to pay can be anywhere from free calls, 4 cents per minute, through to 35 cents per minute depending on the plan and call rates.
When you consider the price of calling a business, in particular an international business, having a local presence number such as a 1800 number will allow Australian customers to contact your international business for free.
Often, we recommend including an alternate phone number for business hours to make sure your professional image is presented well, and then route calls through to your office phone to answer calls.
No. 1800 numbers are often free for the caller (most mobile plans and VOIP/copper plans). However, due to modern mobile plans, 1300’s are generally included and are free or unlimited, so this is a mute point.
es you can, and we do not even charge you port fees.
Just pick one of the 1800 Number plans [here] (link) and signup for the service. In the signup application, one of the first questions we will ask you is whether you want to port your service. Please opt for this option and supply the name of your current carrier and account number you have which relates to the 1800 number you want to port. From time to time we may need you to supply the most recent invoice which details the 1800 number.
All pricing is ex GST.
No and No. We offer a month by month agreement, with a 1 month cancellation period, meaning if you want to cancel you will just have to pay for the remainder of the calendar month (which you will have already paid for as services are paid for in advance).
Your small business or big business telco can make use of a 1800 number offering free calls through to your call centre or live answering services or your personal number just by having a functioning PSTN phone number. Basically, you don’t need anything other than a VoIP number or mobile number to connect it to.
We strongly support people to put the effort into obtaining a phone word as their 1800 number. These are available for you to research through our special search tool: Phone Word Search
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