A number that is not tied to a building
What porting actually involves, why the billing record matters, and how a move can cost you a number.
Read about business numbers
Edison, NJ
Business VoIP in Edison, NJ
732 and 848 cover central New Jersey together and have for over twenty years, which settles the code question. The one that catches businesses here is more mundane and more expensive: firms in this corridor move premises far more often than average, and a phone number that does not survive the move takes customers with it.
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Two codes, settled
732 was created in 1997 for central New Jersey and covers Edison, New Brunswick, Woodbridge and a long stretch either side. 848 was laid over exactly the same ground in December 2001, so ten digit dialling has been normal for well over twenty years and nothing printed since is incomplete.
The two are interchangeable and nobody local reads 848 as unusual. Port a 732 number if you already hold one, take 848 otherwise, and spend the attention elsewhere. Porting is on business phone numbers.
The pair covers a large and densely built corridor containing a great many separate towns, so the code places you in central New Jersey and no closer. In a region where twenty minutes of traffic decides whether somebody uses you, that is worth stating rather than implying.
The number has to survive the building
This corridor is full of office parks, flex space and warehousing, and businesses here change buildings more often than in most markets: a lease ends, a unit two exits up is cheaper, a company outgrows a bay and takes a bigger one. Moving is normal and usually uneventful.
The phone is where it goes wrong, because a number that is tied to a physical line at an address is a number that can be difficult to take with you. Traditional lines were provisioned to a building. If yours still is, and you move, you may be offered a new number and told it cannot be helped.
That is worth understanding before a move rather than during one, because a business number that changes is genuinely costly in a way that does not show up as a bill. It is printed on vehicles and signage, sitting in customers' records and purchase orders, indexed on other people's websites, written on equipment and in supplier account files. Some of those you can update. Most of them you cannot even find.
A number on a VoIP service is not tied to a building at all, which is the single most useful thing about this class of product for a business in this corridor. You take the phones, or you do not, and the number carries on ringing wherever you plug in. That is worth more here than any feature.
The related point is what to do with a number you already have. If it is currently a traditional line, porting it onto a service that is not address bound is the move that protects it, and it is better done calmly than in the fortnight before a lease ends. Porting takes time, needs the billing record to match, and is not something to start while boxes are being packed.
None of which makes the service local
There is no New Jersey phone product. The software is the same one a business in Idaho is sold, it runs a long way from here, and the only thing your address decides is the three digits at the front. That indifference to your address is precisely the point of the section above.
How it works and what it asks of your connection are on the main business VoIP guide. The rest of the state, including the capital and shore region, is on business VoIP in New Jersey.
Who gains here
The working economy here runs on pharmaceutical and life sciences, distribution and warehousing serving the port and the corridor, technology and professional services, a large wholesale and import trade, and the construction and trades that keep all of it housed.
Most of that is business to business with known counterparts, which rewards the usual short list: a direct number per person, a brief greeting, and a named colleague rather than a mailbox when somebody is away from a desk. Virtual phone system and auto attendant and extensions cover both.
There is one additional thing worth doing if you move regularly: keep a record of where your number is published externally, not just where you publish it. Directory entries, marketplace listings, supplier account records and customers' own systems all hold it, and a move is the moment you find out how many of those exist. The list is more useful than the number of times you will need it suggests.
Who should not bother: one person, one phone, customers who already reach you. That is a monthly cost against a problem you do not have. And if the connection into your building is unreliable, deal with that first, because voice is less forgiving than anything else you run over a line. VoIP vs landline is the honest case for keeping copper.
The decisions behind the number
None of these are about Edison. The first is the one to settle before a lease ends rather than after.
Answering from anywhere
One published number that reaches whoever is free, including during a move when nobody is anywhere.
Read about virtual systemsThe greeting in front
Menus and extensions, and why a known caller should not work through options.
Read about auto attendantWhether to switch at all
The honest case for keeping a copper line, which still applies to some buildings and connections.
Read VoIP vs landline
Common questions
Edison VoIP questions
We are moving units next year. Will we keep our phone number?
If it is on a traditional line provisioned to the building, possibly not, and that is worth establishing now rather than in the final fortnight. If it is on a service that is not address bound, the number simply carries on ringing wherever you plug in. Either way, do not start a port while you are packing: it takes time and the billing details have to match the record your current carrier holds.
How bad is it really to change a business number?
Worse than it looks, because the cost does not arrive as a bill. The number is on vehicles and signage, in customers' records and purchase orders, in supplier account files, on other people's websites and written on equipment. You can update some of those. You cannot find most of them, and calls to the old number simply stop reaching you with nobody telling you.
Is 848 a problem for a new business?
No. It has covered exactly the same ground as 732 since 2001 and ten digit dialling has been normal that whole time. Port a 732 number if you already hold one because it is printed on things you have paid for, and take 848 without concern otherwise.
Sort the number before the lease ends
Tell us whether your number is tied to your building and when you might move. If it is already portable and safe, we will tell you to leave it alone.