Line2

[Meg O'Ryan 266444]

Just discovered this tonight so I really know nothing about it. Does anyone use it? Is it more affordable and convenient than having two cell phones? Will my second line carry the "business" name without being traced to my real name?

[BigCountry1980 141]

Never heard of do u have a link. Have you ever heard of magicjack?

 

http://www.themagicjack.ca/

 

there is a version to use with your computer for full feature call forwarding etc or a version u can just plug into the wall and plug your phone into. They supply a us number but u can register it under any name you want.

[backrubman 64800]

Just discovered this tonight so I really know nothing about it. Does anyone use it? Is it more affordable and convenient than having two cell phones? Will my second line carry the "business" name without being traced to my real name?

 

Seems to be met with mixed reviews:

http://robulack.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/the-drawbacks-to-toktumiline2-in-canada/

 

Oddly the original cell phone standard allowed 2 numbers on the same cell phone by default, built in (NAM1 and NAM2) but at some point this was outlawed by the FCC and discontinued by the carriers in North America. More recently your phone number is tied to your SIM card and there are a few models of phones that allow 2 SIM cards to be installed but not both active at the same time and this seems to only be available in Europe now.

 

I have my own phone system at home based on Asterisk with allows me to do all sorts of fancy things. When you call my house you get an auto attendant, "Press 1 for me, 2 for the wife" type of thing. I have it programmed to behave differently depending on the time of day and who is calling. If the number is recognized as being for me it starts off with no auto attendant and rings my office phone only. Important friends and associates are offered the opportunity to be transferred to my cell phone if I don't answer. All callers are intercepted after 10 PM to a special greeting, "We don't accept calls after 10 PM unless it is an emergency, if this is truly an urgent call press 1 now or 2 to leave a voice mail" :) Known telemarkerkers are redirected to a SIT tone recording, "Dah, Dahhh, Daaaaah - The number you have called is not in service." :) It sends me a text message (and who it is from) when I get a voice mail and also an email with the same info and the audio of the message. Basically if you can imagine it, you can do it with this kind if system and they are not that expensive. I would think it would be a good business opportunity to be setting this kind of thing up in major centers. I suppose an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system could even be set up for your regular clients that knows your schedule and takes bookings and then sends an Ical message to your phone (or uses the Google Calendar API) to enter the appointment in your calendar but we are getting a little too impersonal going to that extreme. One big advantage for me is DISA, so when I call in from my cell phone I can ask for dial tone and make a call to anywhere. Of course this number is on my FAV 5, so FAV 5 becomes FAV 5 billion.