Murdochs to face pressure at first post-phone hacking News International AGM

You may have read our posts earlier in the year about the phone hacking scandal and therefore know that, as a telecoms related blog, we have been following the story with some interest. We aim to cover all phone related stories, not just those relating to virtual London numbers. Within the last few weeks, the Serjeant-at-Arms in the House of Commons has announced her retirement. This was soon followed by an announcement by the Speaker, John Bercow, that security for the DCMS Select Committee hearing that the Murdochs were at was not good enough, and that they would look into creating a new Director of Security post for Parliament. We suspect that the timing cannot have been coincidental, and that Jill Pay was the latest individual to lose her job over the hacking furore. Saying that, she hasn't been too popular since allowing the police in to arrest Damian Green 2 or 3 years ago.

Anyway, Murdoch is back in the spotlight again today, as it is the first annual general meeting of News International since the phone hacking scandal erupted earlier this year and he was forced to close News of the World. Apparently he is going to face a tough time, and Tom Watson MP has been invited along to make it that little bit harder for him. We will report on what happens next week.

Knowing which virtual number is calling you

One problem often mentioned to us is the problem of having multiple virtual phone numbers for different areas pointed to the same phone, and then not knowing which number people are calling and therefore not knowing which area they are talking about. Such a scenario can leave you feeling rather red faced.

The solution to this is offered by many suppliers of virtual phone numbers now, and it is a application often called a whisper. The way it works is that a short recorded message is linked to each phone number. So, if you had an 020 London phone number, then the whisper might be "London number call". When you answer your phone, the whisper is played to you whilst the caller still hears the ringtone and doesn't hear the message, so you know what to expect when you answer. They are also handy for distinguishing between personal calls made to your existing number and business calls made to your virtual number.

If a virtual telephone number company isn't offering this to you as an option, then look for one that does.

What are virtual numbers?

Someone asked me the other day what exactly is a virtual phone number. Well, it is a phone number that isn't itself directly associated with a phone line. It is therefore effectively a call forwarding number. Someone phones the number and it forwards the call to either an existing landline or mobile phone number. So, a freephone 0800 number, 0845 number, 0844 number, or a local number or London phone number for a different location are all virtual numbers, as they are all forwarded to existing phone lines, aren't physically connected to that phone line, and can be moved around to point to different phone lines at will.