8 September 2026
How to divert landline calls to your mobile (all three ways, honestly compared)
Call divert from BT, a VoIP app, or a virtual landline number — what each one costs, when it breaks, and which one fits a one-person business.
£9.99 a monthUp to 300 minutes a month to a UK mobile included, then 5p a minute.
If you've ever missed a job because the landline rang in an empty office, you've already had the thought: why can't this thing just ring my mobile? It can. There are three ways to do it, and the right one depends less on technology than on how you actually work.
The first way is to ask your existing provider to add call divert to the line. BT, Sky, TalkTalk and the rest all offer it. You dial a code, and calls to the landline are forwarded to your mobile. The catch is the bill: each forwarded call is charged at your provider's per-minute rate for calling a mobile — commonly around 15 to 25 pence a minute on a standard tariff — on top of the line rental you're already paying. Ten minutes a day of forwarded calls is £50 or more a month, before you've done anything clever.
The second way is to move the number to a VoIP provider and answer calls in an app. This is the cheapest per minute and gives you features — voicemail to email, working hours, call recording — but it has a failure mode that catches people out: the app only rings when it's open and you have data. On site with one bar of signal, or with the app closed to save battery, the call goes nowhere. For a desk job it's fine. For a plumber it's a missed quote.
The third way, and the one we built, is a virtual landline number that forwards at the network level. The number exists on a carrier's network rather than a copper line; when someone dials it, the carrier places an ordinary call to your mobile. No app, no data, no special SIM. It rings like any other call, you see the caller's number, and if you can't answer the voicemail is emailed to you, and the transcript follows in a second email. The forwarding is included in the monthly price — £9.99 a month — rather than metered per call.
Which should you choose? If you already have a landline and you only forward occasionally, call divert from your provider is the least effort — just watch the bill. If you work at a desk with good Wi-Fi and want the cheapest possible minutes, a VoIP app will do. If you're the one-person business whose phone is the business — trades, salons, consultants, anyone whose customers ring for a quote — the network-level forward is the one that never leaves you wondering whether it rang.
One more thing worth knowing: you don't have to give up your existing number to do any of this. Landline numbers are yours to move. A transfer takes a few weeks, your old line keeps working until the day it switches, and there's no fee on our side. If you've got a number that's been on your van for ten years, keep it.