Frequently asked questions

£149/month flat. Unlimited UK numbers (01/02/03/0800/0808) across any area code, every smart feature included (voicemail, IVR, call recording, routing, queues, hunt groups), SIP trunks with no per-channel fee, softphone apps, free number transfer-in (we absorb BT's £2.49–£116 per-number fee), and Grandstream IP handsets at distributor invoice price. Calls are charged at BT Wholesale rates passed straight through — 0.3138p/min for UK landline, 0.6353p/min for UK mobile. No markup. Membership scales to 25 concurrent calls; above that we'd rather talk through your requirements first.

No contract, no notice period, no auto-renewal. £149 is the only price and you can cancel any time. The first month is paid through Stripe at signup; from month two onwards we set up Direct Debit. We give existing Members twelve months' written notice if we ever need to change the price.

Numbers you brought in with you transfer out free to any UK provider. NumberGroup-allocated numbers either revert to inventory (no charge if you don't need to keep them) or transfer out for a £125 admin fee per number. We have a 30-day no-questions refund policy on Membership; beyond 30 days we'd rather close your account and waive your next bill than make leaving difficult.

No. SIP trunks have no per-channel fee. Voicemail, IVR, call recording, routing, queues, hunt groups and softphone apps are all included in the £149. We never sell a 'feature licence' because there's nothing left for us to upsell — your fee covers everything we have.

We're a licensed UK telecoms carrier with our own Ofcom number ranges and BT IPEX wholesale connection. Most VoIP resellers buy the same wholesale capacity, mark it up 50–200%, and price per seat. We sell access to the wholesale market itself — calls and hardware pass through at cost, features are included because we already built them. The £149 covers the relationship and operating cost.

Membership covers up to 25 simultaneous calls — inbound and outbound combined. For most UK SMEs that's well past their peak: a 25-person team typically peaks at 6–10 concurrent calls, and even sales-heavy 40-person teams sit comfortably under 25. If you're a busy contact centre, a heavy outbound dialler, or a multi-site SIP setup that needs more, we'd rather discuss your requirements before signup than fit the wrong shape into the £149 envelope. Get in touch and we'll size it properly.

No minimum. The maximum is 25 concurrent calls (see above). The £149 fee covers every line, seat and number on your account — desk phones, softphones, reception handsets, meeting-room SIP — regardless of count, as long as your peak concurrent stays under 25.

We may ask for a security deposit depending on company status, accounts and expected call volume — most commonly for newly formed companies or high-volume outbound use cases. The team confirms during onboarding if a deposit applies and what it would be. It's refundable when you close the account in good standing.

Yes by default. Premium-rate numbers and certain high-cost international destinations are blocked at the carrier level to protect Members from bill shock. If you genuinely need to call those destinations, we'll unblock specific ranges after a quick verification — it's a safety default, not a service limit.

Every Member gets the full smart-feature set free, forever, as part of the £149 — no separate 'AI tiers' or add-on licences. That includes: multi-level IVR menus ('press 1 for sales'), call recording with searchable transcripts, voicemail-to-email transcription, ring groups and hunt groups, time-of-day and out-of-hours routing, call forwarding and divert-on-busy, simultaneous ring to mobile, and a billing portal with full call-detail records. We add new features regularly and existing Members get them at no extra cost. We're honest about one thing: we don't currently offer an AI 'virtual receptionist' that answers and converses with callers — if you've seen that advertised elsewhere, we don't have an equivalent yet. What we do, we do properly and include in the price.

You sign a one-page authorisation (we email it as a one-click DocuSign, or use the auto-form at /porting/start which pre-fills your details from your website domain), we submit the transfer request to your losing provider via BT Wholesale, they confirm a transfer date, and on that date the number moves in a 30-minute window you choose. Most UK transfers complete in 5–10 working days. We coordinate the cutover so you experience seconds of overlap rather than downtime. Full step-by-step walkthrough at /porting — covers timelines, what your old provider can and can't do, big-estate moves, and edge cases.

Members pay nothing — we absorb BT's £2.49 to £116 per-number fee on every number you bring with you. There's no cap on how many you can transfer per Member. For memorable-number purchases, transfers follow the same gaining-provider-led process and we don't charge an admin fee.

It can't, legally — Ofcom General Conditions require all UK providers to release numbers on request. If you hit friction, send us the rejection reason and we escalate via BT Wholesale. We've moved numbers off every major UK carrier and most awkward resellers.

Simple single-line transfers usually complete in 5 working days. Multi-line or PBX transfers take 7–10 working days because each number needs individual carrier approval. Complex cases (moving away from a defunct reseller, disputed ownership) can take 3–4 weeks but we keep you informed throughout. The transfer itself is a regulated process and we can't speed it past what BT and the losing carrier do.

Memorable number purchases are paid in full at checkout via Stripe — credit card, debit card or Apple Pay. Membership is £149 by Stripe for month one, then Direct Debit from month two onwards. Call charges and any extras are billed monthly in arrears alongside the £149 by Direct Debit.

The most common cause is the Stripe pay-link on your invoice. Your monthly invoice includes a Stripe link so you can pay by card if you want to — but if you click that link and your Direct Debit then collects for the same invoice, you'll be charged twice. It's an easy mistake to make. If it happens you're not out of pocket: email help@numbergroup.com with the invoice number, dates and amounts and we'll refund or credit the duplicate — your choice. A credit comes off your next bill; a refund goes back to the card or account you paid from.

If you're on Direct Debit you don't actually need to use the Stripe link — the DD collects automatically, so the link is only there for one-off or manual payments. And if your bank has cancelled the Direct Debit (a frequent cause of a sudden 'outstanding balance' notice), just reply to that notice or call us on 0800 310 1010 and we'll send a fresh mandate so you don't fall into arrears. We'd always rather sort a billing query quickly than let it escalate.

Yes. Plenty of customers run more than one account — separate trading names, sites or cost centres. Each account is a separate £149 Membership with its own billing and portal login. If you want to move numbers from one of your accounts to another, we handle that internally as an account transfer — no porting process and no per-number fee between your own accounts. Just tell us which numbers and which account they should land on and we'll arrange it. If you're running several accounts for one business and want them billed or managed together, talk to the team and we'll set it up the way that suits you.

Prices on the site are shown ex-VAT because most of our customers are VAT-registered businesses. The bigger point is that under HMRC reverse-charge rules for UK telecoms wholesale, monthly Membership and call charges are zero-rated when you give us a valid UK VAT number — you self-account for the VAT on your own return and we don't add 20% to the invoice. If you're not VAT-registered, or you're a charity/non-UK customer, we add UK VAT at the standard rate where applicable.

Members get a monthly itemised bill with full call-detail records — destination, duration, cost per call — and you can ask the team for a CSV export any time for accounting. Want a mid-month running total before the Direct Debit clears? Just email or call us and we'll pull it for you. There's a read-only customer portal where you can view your numbers, subscription and transfers, but you don't have to hunt through software to get your figures — you ask, a human answers.

Yes — every legal document is published openly on the site, no email-gate. Read the General Conditions, Membership Services schedule, Memorable Number Purchase schedule, Acceptable Use Policy, Customer Complaints Code and Privacy Policy at /terms before you commit. Each is a plain-English version of the full contract, kept current with Ofcom General Conditions, the Communications Act, UK GDPR and our 30-day no-questions refund commitment.

The most common cause is two-factor authentication (2FA), an extra layer of security we've added to protect accounts. 2FA means that after your username and password you also enter a 6-digit code from an authenticator app on your phone, so a stolen password alone can't get into your account. If you haven't logged in for a while, this update is usually why access suddenly stops working. Start here: clear your browser cache (the last hour is enough) or open a new Incognito/Private window — we recommend Google Chrome for the portal. If you still can't get in, reply to any NumberGroup email or call us on 0800 310 1010 (Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm) and we'll send a password-reset link to the email on your account.

Setting up 2FA for the first time (after a password reset): 1) install an authenticator app on your phone — Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator and Authy all work; 2) go to the NumberGroup portal and log in with your username and new password; 3) when prompted, tap 'Set Up 2FA'; 4) scan the QR code on screen with the app (or type in the setup key it shows if the camera won't scan); 5) the app generates a fresh 6-digit code every 30 seconds — enter the current one to finish. From then on you'll enter your password plus the current 6-digit code each time you log in.

Common snags: If the code is rejected, it's almost always timing — authenticator codes rotate every 30 seconds, so type the newest one quickly, and make sure your phone's clock is set to automatic/network time (a phone clock that's a minute out will generate codes the server won't accept). If you've changed phones, lost the device, deleted the authenticator app, or a staff member who set it up has left, we can reset 2FA from our side: contact the team to verify your identity and we'll re-issue setup so you can scan a new QR code. Each login is tied to one account — if several people in your business need portal access, let us know and we'll set that up properly rather than sharing one code. Still stuck after all that? Email help@numbergroup.com and a real person on the team will get you back in — no tiered helpdesk.

UK business hours phone support on 0800 310 1010 — you reach the team that set up your account, not a tiered helpdesk. Emergency out-of-hours cover for critical issues: phones not ringing, routing broken, emergency call diversions. Out-of-hours doesn't cover non-urgent items like config questions or transfer status (a number transfer is a multi-week regulated process anyway). Email help@numbergroup.com any time.

This is usually our fraud protection doing its job, not a fault. Every account has a set of security limits — a concurrent-call cap, spend thresholds, and blocks on high-cost or premium-rate destinations. If your trunk hits any of those preset limits, we automatically switch it to inbound only and email an alert to the address on your account. Incoming calls keep working normally; only outbound is paused. It's a deliberate safety brake to stop a compromised handset or PBX running up a large bill before anyone notices.

If you've had that alert: check the email for which limit was hit, and if the activity was legitimate (a genuine busy period that exceeded your concurrent-call cap, or you've started calling a new destination) just reply to it or call us on 0800 310 1010 and we'll verify, adjust the limit if it's set too tight, and restore outbound calling straight away. If you don't recognise the activity, contact us immediately — it may mean an extension or admin login has been compromised, and we'll help you secure it and check for any unexpected charges. You can review and tune these controls — international and premium-rate blocks, concurrent-call caps and spend alerts — with the team; the background is in our telecom fraud guide at /telecom-fraud.

During UK business hours, every contact form, offer, number request and inbound call gets a response within seconds. Out-of-hours emergencies are answered within 15 minutes. We don't have a tiered support model — the person who answers is the person who can fix it.

We've handled over 4.3 billion calls since 2010 across FTSE-listed clients, government agencies, embassies and 400-seat contact centres. We run on BT Wholesale's IPEX platform with carrier-grade redundancy. In over 10 years of trading, total cumulative downtime affecting some IP customers adds up to roughly 40 minutes — not per year, but across the entire decade. We don't claim '100% uptime' because no honest carrier can; we tell you the real number instead.

Grandstream IP desk phones, sold at distributor invoice price (GXP1625 £28, GXP2135 £64, GXP2170 £83 ex-VAT). They arrive pre-configured for your account so you plug them into Ethernet and they're live. We don't sell Yealink, Cisco or Polycom — if you want those brands, buy them anywhere and we'll provision them on the network.

Yes if they speak SIP — which means any modern IP phone (Yealink, Cisco, Polycom, Snom, Mitel, Avaya IP, etc.). We provide SIP credentials and a configuration guide. Analogue phones need an ATA gateway — we can supply one if you have something specific you want to keep.

Yes — mobile (iOS and Android) and desktop (Windows, macOS) softphone apps are included for Members. Billing is per active install at around £0.75 per month — there are no named-user seat licences. Take an app off a device and the charge stops.

Yes. We deliver via SIP trunks with no per-channel fee, so you can connect Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, Avaya, Mitel or any modern PBX directly — step-by-step setup is in our SIP trunking guide at /blog/sip-trunking-guide, and there's a full Cisco CUCM walkthrough at /blog/connect-cisco-cucm-to-sip-trunk. For CRM, we push inbound caller-ID and call events to webhooks and support click-to-dial, with worked guides for Zoho at /blog/zoho-crm-integration and Pipedrive at /blog/pipedrive-crm-integration. If you run marketing attribution, dynamic number insertion is covered at /blog/dynamic-number-insertion-explained and the live call-events/recording webhook at /blog/realtime-call-events-and-recordings-webhook. Anything bespoke beyond those — contact the team and we'll scope it.

Yes. We trade as NumberGroup but the legal entity is Datazero Ltd, registered in England & Wales, company no. 07390438, registered office International House, 36-38 Cornhill, London EC3V 3NG. We hold our own Ofcom-allocated number ranges and deliver via BT Wholesale's IPEX platform.

Published in full at /terms. The Customer Complaints Code covers complaints handling, vulnerable-customer policy and our escalation route to the Communications Ombudsman. The General Conditions cover Ofcom's regulated obligations on number transfers, switching, billing and service continuity. Read both before you sign up — no PDFs to email-request.

We're a UK data controller under UK GDPR. Customer data is stored in UK/EU regions, billing data is processed by Stripe (PCI-DSS certified), and call-detail records are retained for 12 months for billing and regulatory purposes. We don't sell or share customer data. Full Privacy Policy at /privacy.

Email help@numbergroup.com or call 0800 310 1010 with 'Complaint' in the subject. We acknowledge within 1 working day and aim to resolve within 10 working days. Unresolved complaints after 8 weeks can be escalated to the Communications Ombudsman (ombudsman-services.org) — we'll provide a deadlock letter if you ask. Full process at /terms/complaints.