A Little Virtual Phone Line Trivia

Virtual Phone Line begin as an idea of thinking inside out in the area of telecommunications in 1999. Traditionally the emphasis in telecommunications has been upon the act of picking up one's land line telephone and dialing a phone number to place a call to someone. This is called "termination." A gentleman named Rehan Allahwala Ahmed, a Pakistani inventor and entrepreneur, saw the need for emphasis on the "origination" side of the call, the incoming call, or also known later commonly as DID, direct inward dialing. He and his team which included the CEO at that time, Suzanne Bowen and other early adopters in the industry began experimenting with VoIP, SIP and Asterisk in the 90s. In 1999, he invented the concept of Virtual Phone Line, a method of making a phone number ring to an IP address.

Virtual Phone Line was trademarked by Ahmed. It revolutionized telecommunications. (It eventually led to another one of Rehan Ahmed's inventions DIDXchange in 2005 where wholesale wired and wireless IP communications entities and other types of SMBs, enterprises and carriers bought and sold DIDs and routed over SIP or IAX2.)

Having a local presence in an area of the world that is different from one's actual physical location is a phenomenally empowering service. Students leave their families in Malaysia to study abroad in for example UK. They buy a phone number that is local to their family in Malaysia from Virtualphoneline.com. Their family dials that local Malaysia phone number. It rings where the student has set it to ring.

A business scenario now follows. A steel trading company is based in Corpus Christi, TX. In order to grow in global and domestic business, it needs presence in certain cities in the world. Instead of opening complete satellite offices, it signs up for Virtual Phone Lines in Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hamburg, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, major shipping ports around the world. Depending upon its specialties such as used clothing, steel, oil, precious gems, or tourism, it may also have Virtual Phone Lines in inland metropolitan or industrial areas.

One of the reasons that Virtual Phone Line is so popular with consumers and SMBs is the additional features which can be added. Some are complimentary, and others are additional purchases. These include call forward options to Skype, GoogleTalk, Truphone, and other instant messengers, IAX2 or SIP solutions; and Voicemail, Call Recording, Virtual PBX, and SMS Inbox, and more. These features enable a client to be reached in many different ways according to their variable needs with a few computer keystrokes.

Virtual Phone Line Offers SMS on Special Numbers

Super Technologies, Inc.'s President and CTO invented the concept of Virtual Phone Line (Virtualphoneline) in 1999. The technology was a world communications changemaker with its potential to provide virtual presence in many geographical areas of the world. Today, the company announced new SMS technology integration with "VPL." Users may change the call forwarding, also known as "ringto," of their Virtual Phone Lines via SMS with their cell phone. They may also activate to receive SMS on a Virtual Phone Line. Such a feature empowers users with more flexibility in a mobile world.



Cell phones purchases have reached over 1 billion units in 2009. In most areas of the world, SMS service is affordable and a commonly used feature of cellular service. ITU's ICT statistics show SMS use growing 3.3% yearly. More people now have a mobile phone than an Internet-connected PC in the United States and globally. There are more than 255 million mobile phone users in the U.S., roughly 85% of the U.S. population. (DIDX and its original precursor for call forwarding, Virtual Phone Line, is a media partner for ITU's Telecom World which takes place Oct. 5-9, 2009.)


"When a Virtual Phone Line user clicks to buy a phone number within the personal portal, one of the fields of descriptive data is yes or no on SMS service available. If it is compatible and the DID (direct inward dialing phone number) is purchased, then the user may click on Advanced Features and activate. One may also click on a particular Virtual Phone Line, and click yes or now to allow incoming SMS, again where the 'VPL' shows "SMS Supported," Virtual Phone Line customer Michel Chamberland of Bordeaux, France shares. "We appreciate being able to view the SMS's in the SMS Inbox in their Virtual Phone Line personal portal. It's common for many of the people we want to be in touch with us in certain areas of the world to use SMS than it is for them to use Twitter, so this new feature is very handy, SMS to change call forwarding and ability to receive SMS with some Virtual Phone Line numbers."

Direct Inward Dialing numbers are a requirement for Private Branch Exchanges (business phone systems). Now businesses with DID phone numbers (from Virtual Phone Line) can receive SMS and voice calls directly by outside of their PBX (News - Alert), without going through a receptionist or company operator. The SMS brings new flexibility and value to Virtual Phone Line users. To sign up for Virtual Phone Line, the website to visit is http://www.virtualphoneline.com.