Hi,

I've currently got 2 virgin land lines. One for us, one for the kids. Paying £11 a month for each line. Just about about had enough of that now though and looking for a better way.

Is there a cordless phone that has the ability to divert incoming phone calls to a particular handset. I'm not talking about VOIP here - in fact ignore VOIP completely for now... yes I know I can use that and some phone allow you to divert VOIP calls to any particular handset which is good except for every other person that doesnt have VOIP - im not going to try to teach 90yr old granny how to get broadband or set up VOIP Yes VOIP is not what im looking for here.

What I am looking for is a phone that for example... when someone calls the phone through my virgin phone line then the caller could press #1 to divert the call just to handset 1.... so handset 1 would be the only one to ring. Pressing #2 would divert to handset 2 and so on. Alternatively have a voice message saying to speak to Mike press #1, to speak to sophie press #2 etc etc.

Is there a cordless phone out there that can do this type of thing. That way I can cancel one of my phone lines and calls for the kids can be diverted to thier phone and calls to us would come to ours (not choosing a number i guess would call all handsets). I know there would still be only 1 out going line so we could only take 1 call at once (except for VOIP) so i'll just have to scream at em to get off if i want to us the phone and they've been on to long.

Well thanks for any info you can give me though i fear there isnt such a phone yet.

PS... I don't want to change from virgin as I can get the 50Mb broadband for £28 a month with them which I like.

I know you said you aren't looking at VoIP, but don't understand why not!

As you have 50Mbit broadband, you simply use an ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) which you plug in your regular cordless or corded phone, you set the ATA up with an account you can get for no monthly charge and you get a local number with and to anyone who uses the phone or calls the phone they wouldn't know it wasn't a normal phone line, the other person doesn't need VoIP, they are just charged as they would if they called the VM line and you can call regular numbers too, however calls to landlines and mobiles etc will be charged, but to other VoIP customers on the same service or with peering arrangements are free.

Your 90 year old granny wouldn't need broadband or VoIP only you do, she would simply call your VoIP number, which would have the same dialling code as your regular landline number and be treated the same.

For almost 4 years I had no phone line, just broadband and VoIP only have landline now because cable wanted to keep my business so offered in a larger package for less than I was paying.

You could like many (and many of my family) simply use VoIP as an extra incoming service and it would cost you £0.00 set-up, free local number and £0.00 per month, comes with all the extras that are standard with VoIP, caller display, call waiting, 3-way calling, etc etc.

Perhaps a bit overkill for what you're after, but what you ask for (and much more) could be achieved using Asterisk with a simple telephone card to connect your phones to.

Its exactly what I do at home and even diverts to the kids phones based on the incoming Caller ID if its a known "friend".