'Global country code' for VoIP phones

A 'global country code' has been launched to provide local telephone numbers for worldwide businesses.

Voxbone has created iNum, which allows firms to create a local presence in any location, using the new +883 'country code' from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Chief executive and cofounder of Voxbone, Rodrigue Ullens, explained that iNum is aimed at a "new kind of world - a world with a new geography that's about local presence and global relationships, not about distance or national borders".

He said that this geography was defined by which customers and vendors companies needed to connect to via VoIP phones, not their location.

"We need 'local' communication with these people - whether calls originate on public-switched or VoIP networks, whether they are truly local or 'virtually' local," he added.

Businesses are taking to VoIP as a technology because it allows them to save on costs while still having an international presence, the head of operations at Technology Means Business said last month.

Dr Adam Le Gresley explained that this was especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).