3 Reasons why they won’t go to a cell phone
There are 3 main reasons many phone companies don’t want to send toll free calls to a cell phone. It’s not really that they can’t but there are several reasons why they don’t want to terminate toll free calls to a cell phone.
I should also mention that although some companies say they don’t go to cell phones if you don’t tell them it’s a cell phone they may just go ahead and do it. I know AT&T for example used to have a policy against it, but some representatives admitted that they know some people are doing it. And with number portability it’s probably very hard to tell the difference. There may also be an advantage to using a phone number that was originally transferred from a land line.
1. It costs more to terminate calls to a cell phone
The company providing the local line receives a small fee from the long distance company completing a call. Cell phone companies are usually tier C numbers which may mean a slightly higher rate per minute. (C doesn’t stand for cellular, but it might be easier if you remember it that way)
Tier A usually means the largest incumbent phone companies. Tier B is for slightly smaller phone companies or the phone companies out side of the major markets. Tier C is usually the very smallest rural phone companies, cell phone or voip phone companies, etc.
2. They don’t get any outbound long distance
You obviously can’t change the outbound long distance on a cell phone and phone companies always want to sell you long distance service. Toll free service is like an accessory to most phone companies and they don’t want to sell you just the accessories if they’re not selling you the dress. I guess they make more money on the dress or on the combination than on just the toll free service by itself. This is sometimes called Toll Free Only, or “Stand Alone” Toll Free Service.
3. They are usually smaller customers
There are probably some exceptions but you probably wouldn’t run that big of a company pointing all of the toll free calls to your cell phone. When I ran my business by myself I could do this, because there wasn’t anyone else. But it’s hard to imagine a big company forwarding all of their calls directly to one person’s cell phone. Enhanced voicemail services can send calls to different people on cell phones but that’s something else.
Anyway there certainly are good companies that can send your toll free service to a cell phone and we can give you several, but it’s also important to understand why many regular phone companies don’t like to or won’t do it.
Even if you don’t want to point your toll free number to a cell phone it’s good to have that capability, because it gives you a lot of flexibility. You never know what’s going to happen and if your building has a flood or the power goes out, or you just get sick or break a leg and need to work from home for a while, having the option of sending your toll free number to your cell phone gives you a lot of flexibility.
(4 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
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Thanks for the informative site Bill. I've learnt a lot about Toll-Free Numbers and look forward to increasing revenue through their use. 
Do you need to point to a cell phone? at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
January 4, 2009 at 11:33 pm
[...] Many toll free services don’t or can’t send calls to cell phone for a couple reasons. Cell phones carriers charge higher termination fees for completing the call for what’s sometimes called the “last mile”. Many long [...]
3 Reasons why many toll free services won’t go to a cell phone at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
January 6, 2009 at 5:25 pm
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