Call forwarding that happens at the carrier

How a forwarded call works

A tracked call has two legs:

1. The inbound leg: the caller dials your tracking number and the call reaches the carrier.
2. The forwarded leg: the carrier places the call onward to the line you chose, and your phone rings.

When the call ends, the carrier reports each leg to VereTel: when it started, when it was picked up, when it ended and why. That record becomes the call in your desk, with both legs listed on the call’s detail page.

Why the carrier does the forwarding

Some call tracking products route every call through their own software, which then decides where to send it. VereTel sets forwarding on each number at the carrier instead. Our website and our desk are not in the path of the conversation: the call goes from the caller, through the phone network, to your line.

The trade-off is that forwarding rules are simple. Each tracking number forwards to one line. There are no phone menus, whisper messages or time-of-day routing today.

Choosing where each number rings

Each tracking number forwards to a line you choose. Usually that is your main office line. A business with a separate sales team, a second location or a call center can send different numbers to different lines. Once you have a number, you change where it rings in your account. For your protection, a change asks for your password again, a link we email to your account address and a code sent to the new line, and the old line keeps ringing until all three are done. A number can forward to a line you control, not to a toll-free, premium-rate (900 or 976), 500, 700 or N11 number, to another VereTel number, or to a number outside the United States and Canada. Numbers are not on sale yet. Create a free account and ask to be told when they are.

Forwarded minutes

Plans include a pool of forwarded minutes shared across all your numbers. A minute is one started minute of a forwarded call, counted on the inbound leg: a call that lasts 2 minutes and 10 seconds uses 3 minutes. Minutes are pooled across all your numbers. Minutes beyond your plan’s are $0.06 each, up to a total of 3 times the minutes your plan includes in a month. Each plan also has a daily limit on forwarded minutes. At either limit forwarding can be paused, until the next day for the daily one. The limits protect your account from a runaway bill. Sales calls can run long, especially in a busy season, so check a plan against your call volume: the ROI calculator sizes it. See pricing.