Timed call routing - the right phone at the right time
Your business does not answer the phone the same way at 10am on a Tuesday and 10pm on a Sunday, so your number should not either. Timed call routing sends calls to different places by time of day, day of week and holidays - office hours to the team, evenings to on-call, closures to voicemail.
And when a call is not answered or a line is busy, failover rules quietly pass it on - to a colleague, a hunt group or voicemail - so the caller is never left listening to nothing.
How it works on ONSIM
The routing runs at network level, using the time-based features of the ONSIM auto attendant. When a call arrives, the network checks the clock and the calendar against your rules and sends the call to the destination you chose for that moment: a person, a hunt group, a call queue, or voicemail-to-email.
The phones on the receiving end are ordinary mobiles on Landline SIM accounts - the ones your staff already carry. No app decides where calls go, no VoIP box in the office holds the schedule; the network does, which means the rules keep working when the office wifi does not.
Layered on top are the busy and no-answer failovers, so daytime rules degrade gracefully: try the shop, then the manager, then the group, then voicemail. Every step is self-served in the dashboard and changes take effect straight away.
What it costs
The base is Landline SIM at £10/user/month + VAT with unlimited UK calls and SMS. Time-based routing belongs to the auto attendant feature set - full IVR menus are an optional paid add-on on Landline SIM accounts, while a hunt group is included free with 2 or more users.
Monthly rolling, no contract, cancel any time - and because the schedule is self-served, changing your hours never costs a penny or a phone call to a support desk.
Timed routing questions
What is time based call routing?
It is a set of rules that answer one question: given the time and day, where should this call go? Office hours might ring the whole team; evenings might ring whoever is on call; Sundays and bank holidays might go straight to voicemail-to-email. On ONSIM the rules run in the network via auto attendant time-based features.
Can I set up holiday call routing?
Yes - holidays are first-class citizens alongside time of day and day of week. Set the rules for bank holidays or your own closures and the number behaves itself while you are away, rather than ringing an empty office. Callers get a proper answer instead of eight unanswered rings.
What happens when a call is not answered, or the line is busy?
Failover rules take over: on busy or no answer, the call can pass to a colleague, to a hunt group that rings several mobiles, or to voicemail. The caller never knows the first attempt failed - the call just keeps moving until something answers it.
Do I need to call support to change the schedule?
No - it is self-served in the dashboard. Closing early on Christmas Eve, adding a Saturday opening, moving the on-call rota to a different person: you make the change yourself and it takes effect immediately. This matters more than it sounds, because opening hours change more often than phone systems expect.
What do I need to use it?
A Landline SIM account at £10/user/month + VAT. The routing is part of the auto attendant time-based feature set - see virtual switchboard for how menus fit in, or call forwarding if you only need something simpler.
Set the rules once, keep your evenings
Order a SIM and build your schedule in the dashboard, or request a quote and we will sketch the routing with you. Not sure which number sits in front of it all? Try the free business number chooser.
This is one feature of the ONSIM network - browse the full feature set, or see it in context on Landline SIM.