Ask YC: Virtual Phone System for my Startup

[mishmax]

I'm launching my company and need a virtual phone system. At the start, I just need a local # that people can call and leave voicemail on. I'd like the voicemail messages to forward to my email address.

Eventually I'll need more PBX type features like call forwarding, extensions, fax, toll-free, etc...

What do people here use?

There's a lot of options out there. GotVMail seems most professional, but there's also Innoport, Ringcentral, etc...so what does Hacker News recommend?

P.S. Bonus points for companies with local Canadian numbers.

[lpgauth]

You could just setup your own Asterix server and have all the features you can ever need...

[noonespecial → lpgauth]

This is definitely the best way. Set up an asterisk box either at your location, or better yet, in a datacenter and then get a sip provider like http://www.broadvoice.com/.

They can give you local numbers all over the world and you can then grow your asterisk install with your business to as many inbound numbers and extensions as you need.

It takes about a week for the average geek to install and grok asterisk but it is well worth the effort.

[markessien]

Get Skype. There is voicemail, it's cheap and you can setup numbers in multiple countries.