Ask HN: How to avoid high redirecting costs from phone provider?

[freshfey]

Hello everybody,

this is my first post, I hope it fits the subject.

I am working on a web project / startup where I'm taking care of almost everything (accounting, ads, partners, users, blog, etc) at the same time I'm studying full-time, so I am not able to be in the office all the time. I have a fixed line network phone (is this the right word for it? Not mobile, but home phone.) there, but because of the university I'm not able to be there often. Is there a technical possibility to connect the phone with a server / computer (which is connected to the internet) so that I get an email or SMS with the number of the person who called on my mobile phone? There is of course the provider possibility but that costs me 0.20$/call + the minutes talked on the voice mail, so that's not a solution in the long run. I've been looking a little around but I wasn't able to find a solution that could exactly fit my needs.

Paying someone additional to stay in the office in office hours isn't a solution either.

Thanks for your help!

[mahmud]

Twilio does that and inbound calls can be as cheap as 3 cents/minute.

If you choose to use them, try to fit your voice message into under a minute. Whenever people call your number, twilio will play your "thanks for calling, we have your number, we will call you back" message. The Twilio API can send missed calls to you in email. You can also have the option to request the person dial a different contact number + extension. Also try to do the debugging and implementation using their free trial account and make sure you don't have any script that initiates and outside call based on some computational event (this screwed me, big time.)

[freshfey → mahmud]

Thanks a lot for your help, this is exactly what I was looking for. The problem is that it supports customers from the US only. If I were in the states I'd probably use Google Voice, which would be also a great service!

[brk → freshfey]

Perhaps it would be helpful to save people from making useless suggestions to tell us what country you are in?

[freshfey → brk]

oh excuse me, Switzerland.

[brk → freshfey]

A google search for "Switzerland Voip" yields a few results, one being: http://www.voip-list.com/voip_countries/voip_providers_switz...

My suggestion, find the cheapest Voip option you can, if you start to build up a client list, and all they have is the phone in your dorm (which I assume you have no control/ownership over) you will regret later not having established your own phone # in the beginning.