A customer in Leeds who looks up a local supplier tends to trust a number that starts with 0113 more than a mobile number or an unfamiliar code, because a local landline suggests a business that is established and easy to reach. Many companies no longer want the physical line that used to come with such a number, though. The team works from several places, the office may move, and calls need to reach whoever is available rather than a single handset on one desk.

A virtual landline solves that by giving your company a real UK geographic number without the copper line behind it. Customers, prospects and partners call a familiar 01 or 02 number at the normal rate, and the call rings through to the mobiles, desk phones or softphones your team already uses. You can choose a number in the town you serve among UK local numbers, for example a London 020 number, a Manchester 0161 number or a Birmingham 0121 number.

What is a virtual landline?

A virtual landline is a standard UK landline number that lives on a telecoms platform instead of on a line into a building. The caller sees an ordinary geographic number and pays the usual rate for calling it, while the platform decides where the call is answered. If you want the wider background on how numbers without a fixed line work, our article on what a virtual phone number is covers that in more depth.

For a UK business this usually means an 01 or 02 number that matches a town or city. Some companies add a national 03 number, such as a 0333 number, when their customers are spread across the country and a regional code would feel too narrow. Both types behave in the same way on the platform, so the choice depends on the image you want your number to give callers.

Why UK businesses use a virtual landline number

The most common reason is local presence. A company based in one city that wins customers in another can publish a local number for that area on its website, in directories, on quotes and in email signatures, so those customers call a number they recognise as nearby. Local numbers are available in more than 20 UK cities, which means a firm can hold a separate number for each region it serves without renting an office in any of them.

A second reason is continuity when the office changes. A number that is tied to a line has to be moved with the line, whereas a virtual landline number stays with the company when you relocate, go hybrid or give up the office altogether. Your customers keep dialling the number printed on years of invoices and vans, and nothing about the move reaches them.

Businesses also use a virtual landline to separate company calls from personal ones, because staff no longer need to hand out their own mobile numbers to customers. When someone changes role or leaves, the business number stays with the company and is simply routed to a colleague. Finally, a single number can be answered by several people, so the enquiry line of a small firm does not depend on one person being at one desk.

How calls to a virtual landline reach your team

Every inbound call first arrives on the platform, which then applies the rules you set. The simplest rule is call forwarding to one or more phones, which you can change at any time when a colleague is out at a client or covering the reception line from home. With calendar-based call routing calls follow your opening hours, so that after closing time they go to the mobile of whoever is on duty or to voicemail.

When the number serves more than one department, a phone menu lets callers choose sales, support or accounts before the call rings through. A call queue system holds callers in order during busy periods instead of giving them an engaged tone, which matters most for a line that customers ring about orders or appointments.

Many people search for a virtual landline app, but an app is an option rather than a requirement. With fixed on mobile the call rings on a mobile as a normal incoming call over the mobile network, so nothing needs to run in the background. Colleagues who prefer to answer on a laptop can use a softphone, and an office that likes a handset on the desk can connect a desk phone. You decide per person which of these suits the way they work.

Moving an existing landline number to a virtual one

A business that already has a landline number with BT or another provider does not need to start again with a new one. The existing number can be ported to CallFactory, where most porting requests are completed within a few business days, and the number itself stays exactly the same. Customers keep calling it as before, while behind the scenes the calls start to follow the routing rules you set on our platform.

The steps and the information we need are listed on the page about porting an existing number. It helps to keep the old line active until the port has completed, so that no calls are lost during the switch, and to decide in advance which phones the number should ring on from the first day.

What you need to register a virtual landline number in the UK

Ofcom lets a UK number register on the customer’s own business address in any country, so a company does not need a local office in the area of the code it chooses. A Bristol-based firm can therefore hold a Glasgow number for its Scottish customers, and a company headquartered outside the UK can publish a London number for its British clients. The location of the people who answer the calls is not relevant either, which means a team elsewhere in the country or abroad can take calls on a UK virtual landline number.

In practice you provide the company details and the business address, and we check the address before the number goes live. A new local number is usually active within one working day, after which you can publish it straight away and start receiving enquiries.

How to choose a virtual landline provider

Two questions tell you more about a provider than a feature list does. The first is how the call travels once a customer dials your number, because a line that is routed along the cheapest internet path can suffer from delay or dropped calls when traffic is heavy. CallFactory routes calls over the premium fixed network rather than the cheapest route, so an enquiry arrives with the call quality your customer expects from a landline, and you can still choose VoIP delivery for colleagues who work that way.

The second question is who runs the platform behind your number. A provider that rents its call handling from another company has to pass every routing problem up the chain before anyone can fix it. CallFactory is a licensed telecom provider in 15 countries that operates its own intelligent IVR platform, and is registered with Ofcom as a notified operator for UK services, so your routing, menus and fixes are handled by the team that runs the platform. We have been running business telephony since 2000, which is 26 years of experience with numbers, routing and porting.

Beyond that, check how easily you can change the routing yourself, whether opening hours and menus are included, and how the costs are structured. You can compare the options on our pricing page and see every UK number type, including toll-free and national numbers, on the UK phone numbers page. If you are specifically interested in a London presence, our guide on how to get a London 020 number goes into that city in more detail.