Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Alert – Poor Telecommunications and Mobile Phone Service

After reaching 8.9 magnitude the Earthquake off the coast of Tokyo has caused an additional Tsunami with a reported 10 meter (33ft) high waves, which is also expecting to hit Hawaii at around 3am local time. Buildings have also been rocked in China, 1500 miles away. The UK airlines are reported to have cancelled flights to Japan in the wake of the Earthquake.

Further to building damage and fires, it appears that communications have also been damaged across Japan with poor services for mobile networks being announced, this being due to potential damage to telecommunication equipment. Softbank Corp, one of the largest mobile phone operators in Japan were in the process of checking for damage on Telecommunications facilities according to one of their spokes people.

Japan accounts to 20% of the worlds Earthquakes and reports an average magnitude of 6 or higher, but this new one is very severe and comes only a few weeks after New Zealand’s Christchurch disaster.

0207 Number: A Foreign Office helpline for relatives 0207 008 1500

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VAT to 20% – What does this mean for your purchase and how to make a saving?

Firstly let’s talk about the saving. You might have forgotten that the 20% VAT change is coming on the 4th January 2011 (I doubt it!). Yes that right, not far off now. Our advice would be to get a few of your phone numbers purchased before the New Year and save a little money by doing so. See our main site menu to get your number today.

With the drop of Value Added Tax (VAT) to 15% in 2008 it was always going to cause a future increase to the consumer once the markets became stable. In January 2010 we had an increase back to the original 17.5%. However  the UK is now going to have another increase in VAT, going up to 20% starting January 4th 2011.

Basically anyone purchasing our goods on or after the 4th January 2011 will be affected by the 20% VAT charge. There are exclusions from VAT such as Children’s clothing, Food and Magazines, but that’s about it – No exclusions on phone numbers!

At 17.5% we have currently the lowest rates of VAT in Europe, so the increase to 20% VAT will bring us more in line with every other country. Not a great thing to smile about I know and it will possibly adjust some people’s attitudes to forking out on expensive items like Televisions or cars and perhaps slow down on the amount of fast foods takeaways they have in the short term, but we shouldn’t see much of a big change in the smaller business purchases.

With this VAT increase, companies unfortunately have no choice but to abide by charging the current rate. At City Numbers we will be keeping our prices the same and will not be putting our excluded VAT prices up, however due to this government change we, along with all other companies, have to now charge 20% VAT on those prices.

Please remember that our pricing on our website is Ex-VAT (always has been and always will be).

Happy New Year to you all and I hope the 2.5% pinch doesn’t hurt you too much!

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Text Messages From Santa

Santa has been around now for hundreds of years but he has just decided to join us in the 21st century! Santa has got a mobile phone!

You may ask yourself why is this so special? Well Santa is keen on keeping in touch with all the boys, girls, men and women in the UK and this year he has the ability to text them. Imagine that – looking at your phone and seeing a Text Message from Santa.

Santa can now send text message directly from his Santa mobile. He can only send them to people in the UK and as he is such a busy chap if you don’t order them before 3pm on Christmas Eve he may not send it (he has lots of other things to be getting on with!)

If you want to order a text message from Santa simply go to www.textfrom.co.uk/text-from-santa and enter the details that you would like sent. You can choose 5 personalised text messages and here is an exampleas follows:-

“Hi 
, I’m just checking that you have been a good 

as I’m getting ready to bring your 

 

The text message from santa will be sent FROMSANTA as the number so it will look as if it has come from him personally.

Text messages from Santa are sent on Christmas eve or we have an option to receive one on Christmas Morning.

Make Christmas a very special one for your friends and family and order your text message from Santa today.

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India Phone Numbers now added to the portfolio

After months of trying to set up virtual phone numbers in India we have finally cracked it! We are now able to supply local phone numbers in India and route the calls back to your existing UK landline or mobile phone (we can point them internationally if you need this but you will have to pass our credit checks first).

India Phone Numbers have been difficult to set up due to the quality issues with the networks in India. We have completed our testing 2 months ago and we are happy to release the following cities to our portfolio:- Bangalore phone numbers and Mumbai phone numbers.

Now if you want to make it look like you are a business with an office in Mumbai or Bangalore all you have to do is buy one of our India numbers and point it to your existing lines. The quality is superb as we are using traditional methods to route the calls and NOT VOIP!!! We are very excited about being able to provide India phone numbers as we get asked every day for a number. The service has been live (following our beta testing) and we have already supplied numbers to some of the UK’s fastest growing companies.

If you have any further questions about our India phone numbers then please contact us on 08453 666 555 for more information.

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0800 Travel to the Commonwealth Games 2010?

0800 Numbers can be used in many areas and a great example is currently with travel companies that are organising quick and easy advertising for the Commonwealth Games 2010. A simple call to a company like us and you can get your 0800 Number set up within hours and advertised to the public within the day, a quick and easy solution for a great advertising opportunity.

So the idea for travel companies is to get people out to the Commonwealth games and make good revenue on this, but in order to get those people to call in they need a great number for advertising. If they have a local number then they run the risk of looking too small and they want a big image, so step in the non geographic  free phone number and you have an ideal number for encouraging callers.

You don’t need to be a new business to get the benefits from 0800 numbers, you can be a big or small company that sees an eye for a great marketing idea and then encourage users to call this marketing idea with a free phone number. The number is then transferrable over to other campaigns you want to run.

Don’t forget the purpose of a free phone number is to encourage growth in your company and encourage customers to use your service, it doesn’t matter on the size of your business or the age of your business, free phone numbers, like 0800, can help you out regardless.

 

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What have my numbers team done to me?

Having a sense of humour is a good thing to have, it enables you to get through the thick and the thin, especially in business. Now when you work here, you have to have a little bit of a sense of humour, as the team like their odd little prank and even being the ‘main man’, you are not immune.

I’m sitting in the office after a hard day’s work of shooting videos for our website and YouTube channel. Getting the videos right is important and several shots are needed in order for me to keep a straight face or stop stuttering some words. Either way, after a long day, me and a few of team got what we needed. From there my part was done or so I thought!

Back to me sat in the office. I’m browsing our twitter page and all of a sudden my account has tweeted. Strange as it may be, i hadn’t entered anything, so i checked the post out to see what had been put up. Now, being a trusting individual i give the account to 1-2 members of the team to allow them to update certain posts for special events or coupons, it makes my life easier and keeps or customers up-to-date sooner. However what i saw was a little out of that ball park. “I uploaded a YouTube video — outtakes reel it’s super 8 http://youtu.be/G_qxbs7_OgY?a” is the post. I remember saying to myself “Outtakes reel?”, “super?”, then the penny dropped. For my sins, the team decided to take the unedited outtakes of my hard days work and posted them up on YouTube and twitter. I have to admit, no matter how stupid i feel and think i look, i love them for it and my kids do even more. Great work team you got me there, now get back to your number duties.

For those who missed it, here it is in all it’s glory:

Oh yes, i did promise the team that i would get the certain individuals back one day..

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0800 numbers for Iceland volcanic ash problems

The Scottish government have released an 0800 number for people wanting to get information on travellers affected by the disruptions from the Icelandic volcanic ash. Many people have been delayed without warning and it is obviously a stressful time for some people. Having this 0800 number is one of the ways that travellers and relatives can keep up-to-date with information concerning the volcanic problems.

The Scottish government opened their line on Tuesday 20th 2010 at 9am giving advice to families of people stranded and for people stuck overseas. However the Foreign office help line is believed to be the main point of contact for people needing specific assistance overseas. For people needing advice on travelling abroad then the airline help lines are the best numbers to call before leaving for the airport. Many other travel companies and car parking facilities seem to now have their own help lines, so visiting their websites might be useful if you predict or have a problem.

With the Navy now called into some places to help with the issues, the problems should begin to subside for those overseas.

The Scottish government helpline number is 0800 027 0504. For people overseas the number is +44 800 027 0504.

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Last available 0845 number for the Olympics

We know it’s still 2 years away but the Olympics are creeping up on us fast.

When it was announced that the UK had won the Olympics in 2012 we had a run on phone numbers that ended 2012.  All of our 0207 and 0208 numbers ending 2012 sold out on the same day with people buying numbers as an investment.  Our 0844 numbers and 0800 numbers were next to sell out and here we are today with our last available Olympics phone number.

0845 231 2012 has become hot property and one of the rarest phone numbers left for the Olympics.  We understand that BT dont have any left at all!

If you are a business in the local area of London and need a number for the Olympics then this is your last chance.  Or if you want an investment to sell on nearer the time of the event get in quick.  It won’t take long for this number to be snapped up so click here to buy the number online.

If you have any questions about this Olympics phone number please feel free to call us on any of our phone numbers.

Don’t get left behind in the race for the last 2012 phone number!

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Global Communication Solutions Ltd – in Administration

We hate to say this but “We told you so”!

For a long time now we have had customers saying that they can buy an 0800 number for £150 and that is all they have to pay “FOR LIFE”.  Well the company that offered this deal is now in administration and the customers who took the deal are left picking up the pieces.  It was commercial suicide offering a freephone number for a one off fee of £150.  Every 0800 call that connects incurs a charge and if Global Communication Solutions were not passing this on it was only a matter of time until the company went bust.

It looks like the customers with 0800 numbers from Global Communication Solutions have been contacted by TTNC who will supply a continuation of service – BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THE CALLS YOU RECEIVE.  If you do not agree to TTNC taking your number over buy this evening then the 0800 number will be closed down.

We will be happy to speak to any Global customers to offer advice on what they should do moving forward.

The deal was too good to be true – I hope this doesn’t effect too many customers out there but if you have any questions please drop us a line.

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Buying Phone Numbers has never been so Secure!

Following feedback from our customers about ordering phone numbers online we have implimented SSL on our checkout pages.  If you placed an order with us prior to today your credit card details were safe as we used SAGEPAY for all our transactions.  We have added this extra level of security to the site to ensure that when you send us your address details they will be encripted.  If you have any questions regarding the security of our site or ordering numbers online please feel free to call us on 0800 0115111.

 

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