How to Get a Virtual Phone Number in Another Country

What Is a Virtual Phone Number?

A virtual phone number is a phone number that isn't tied to a physical SIM card or a specific device. It exists in the cloud, routes calls over the internet, and can have a local area code from almost any country — even if you're sitting on the other side of the world.

When someone dials your virtual number, the call travels through VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) infrastructure and reaches you wherever you are: on your laptop, your phone's browser, or a desktop app. The caller sees a local number on their screen. They don't know — and don't need to know — that you're not in their country.

This is different from a traditional phone number in a few important ways. You don't need a contract with a local carrier. You don't need to visit a store or provide a local address. You can get a number in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, or Japan in under two minutes, entirely online.

Virtual numbers support both inbound and outbound calls. You can receive calls from people dialing your local number, and you can make outgoing calls that display that local number as your caller ID. Some providers also support SMS on virtual numbers, though this varies by country and carrier regulations.

Why You'd Want a Virtual Number in Another Country

There are three main reasons people get virtual numbers abroad: business presence, personal privacy, and sales effectiveness.

**Business presence without a physical office.** If you're a freelancer working with clients in the UK, having a +44 London number makes you look established and local. If you're a startup selling into the US market from Europe, a +1 number removes the friction of international dialing for your prospects. You don't need to rent office space or hire staff in another country to have a credible phone presence there.

**Personal privacy and separation.** Many people want a second number to keep their personal line private. If you're selling things online, listing on rental platforms, or running a side business, a virtual number lets you take those calls without giving out your real number. When you're done, you can cancel it. No contracts, no cancellation fees.

**Sales and customer support.** This is where the data gets interesting. Studies consistently show that calls from local numbers get answered 40% more often than calls from international or unknown numbers. If you're doing cold outreach or following up with leads in another country, a local caller ID is the difference between getting picked up and getting ignored. Your prospects are more likely to answer, more likely to call back, and more likely to trust you from the first interaction.

There's also a cost angle. If your clients call you back on your virtual number, they pay local rates instead of international rates. That removes a barrier to communication, especially in price-sensitive markets.

How to Get a Virtual Number with TwinPhone

Here's the step-by-step process. It takes about two minutes.

**Step 1: Create a TwinPhone account.** Go to [twinphone.com](/) and sign up with your email. No credit card is required for the free trial — you can explore the platform first.

**Step 2: Add calling credit.** TwinPhone uses pay-as-you-go pricing. Add as little as $5 to start. This credit covers both outgoing calls and virtual number subscriptions.

**Step 3: Browse available numbers.** Go to the [Virtual Numbers](/virtual-numbers) section. You'll see numbers available in 40+ countries, organized by region. You can search by country, city, or area code. Want a New York number? A London number? A Tokyo number? Pick the one that matches your market.

**Step 4: Choose your number and activate.** Select a number and confirm. It's active immediately. You can start receiving calls right away, and any outgoing calls you make will display this number as your caller ID.

**Step 5: Configure your preferences.** Set up call forwarding if you want calls to ring on multiple devices. Enable voicemail for missed calls. Turn on call recording if you need it for business compliance or personal records.

That's it. No paperwork, no waiting period, no hardware. Your virtual number works anywhere you have an internet connection, and all calls are encrypted with TLS + SRTP by default.

If you need to learn more about virtual number features and capabilities, check out our [complete virtual phone number guide](/blog/virtual-phone-number-guide).

Virtual Number Pricing by Region

TwinPhone's virtual number pricing is straightforward. There are no setup fees, no annual contracts, and no hidden charges. You pay a monthly fee for the number itself, plus per-minute rates when you make outgoing calls.

Here's what virtual numbers cost by region:

**United States & Canada: $1.95/month.** This is the cheapest tier. You get a local US or Canadian number with full caller ID support. Outgoing calls to US/CA numbers cost $0.02/min with per-minute billing — you only pay for the exact time you talk.

**European Union (UK, Germany, France, etc.): $2.95/month.** Covers numbers in major EU markets. Outgoing call rates vary by country — UK landlines are $0.03/min, UK mobiles $0.04/min. Other EU countries have similar competitive rates.

**Australia & Sweden: $3.95/month.** These countries have higher regulatory requirements for virtual numbers, which is reflected in the price. Still far cheaper than maintaining a physical presence.

**Israel & Japan: $4.95/month.** Premium markets with the highest regulatory overhead. Japan outgoing calls run $0.10/min to landlines and $0.14/min to mobiles. Even at these rates, you're paying a fraction of what a traditional international plan would cost.

All virtual numbers include inbound calling (callers pay their local rate), caller ID on outgoing calls, voicemail, and the ability to cancel anytime. There are no cancellation penalties — if you don't need the number next month, just let it lapse.

For comparison, most competitors charge $5-15/month for a single virtual number, often with additional per-minute fees on top. TwinPhone's pricing is designed for people who want a local presence without committing to enterprise-level subscriptions.

Use Cases: Who Benefits Most from Virtual Numbers

**Freelancers and consultants.** If you work with international clients, a virtual number in their country makes communication seamless. A graphic designer in Portugal working with US clients gets a +1 number. A consulting firm in India serving UK companies gets a +44 number. The clients call a local number, you answer from anywhere.

**Remote teams.** Distributed teams often need local numbers for each market they serve. Instead of setting up physical phone lines in five countries, you get five virtual numbers through TwinPhone and route them all to your team's devices. This is especially relevant for [sales teams doing outbound calling](/blog/best-voip-for-sales-teams) — local caller ID makes a measurable difference in connect rates.

**Expats and digital nomads.** Living abroad doesn't mean you want to lose your home country number. Many expats keep a virtual number in their home country so family, banks, and government agencies can reach them at a local rate. It also works the other way — get a number in your new country without signing a local carrier contract.

**E-commerce sellers.** If you sell on international marketplaces, listing a local phone number builds trust with buyers. A US number on your Amazon listing, a UK number on your eBay page — these small details increase buyer confidence and conversion rates.

**Real estate and property management.** Landlords and property managers with international tenants benefit from local numbers. Tenants can call without worrying about international charges, and you maintain a professional local presence.

The common thread: virtual numbers remove geographic friction from communication. You can be anywhere and present as local, without the cost or complexity of traditional telecoms. Compare how TwinPhone handles this versus competitors in our [Dialpad vs TwinPhone comparison](/comparisons/dialpad-vs-twinphone).

The Local Caller ID Advantage: 40% Higher Answer Rates

This is the single most important reason businesses get virtual numbers, so it deserves its own section.

When you call someone from an international number — or worse, from a number that shows up as 'Unknown' or 'Spam Likely' — the odds of them answering drop dramatically. People screen calls. They ignore numbers they don't recognize, especially if the country code looks foreign.

But when your call shows a local number on their screen, the dynamic changes. Research from multiple telecom industry studies puts the answer rate improvement at roughly 40% when using local caller ID versus international numbers. Some studies show even higher gains in specific markets.

Here's why this matters in practice:

**For sales teams,** if you make 100 outbound calls per day and your connect rate goes from 15% to 25%, that's 10 extra conversations per day. Over a month, that's 200+ additional opportunities. At any reasonable conversion rate, the ROI on a $1.95-4.95/month virtual number is absurd.

**For customer support,** when you call customers back from a local number, they actually pick up. This reduces the back-and-forth of missed calls and voicemails, speeds up issue resolution, and improves customer satisfaction scores.

**For personal calls,** if you're calling your elderly parents in another country, showing up as a local number means they're more likely to answer instead of assuming it's a scam call. This sounds trivial, but it matters to a lot of people.

The 40% figure is an average. In some markets — particularly India, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia where spam call volumes are high — the improvement can be even more significant. People in these regions are especially cautious about answering unknown international numbers.

TwinPhone makes this easy because every virtual number automatically becomes your outgoing caller ID for calls to that country. You don't need to configure anything. Buy a UK number, call a UK contact, and they see your UK number. Buy a US number, call a US contact, same thing.

How to Get Started

Getting a virtual number takes less time than reading this section.

1. **Sign up at TwinPhone.** Visit [twinphone.com](/) and create your account. The free trial lets you explore the platform and make a test call before adding credit.

2. **Add credit.** Start with $5 or more. This covers your virtual number subscription and any outgoing calls you make. All billing is per-minute, so you're never rounded up to the next minute.

3. **Pick your number.** Head to [Virtual Numbers](/virtual-numbers) and choose a number in your target country. Numbers are available in 40+ countries, starting at $1.95/month for US/CA.

4. **Start calling.** Your number is active immediately. Make and receive calls from any browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge. No app to install, no hardware to set up.

Every call is encrypted with TLS + SRTP, whether you're calling from a coffee shop Wi-Fi or your home network. per-minute billing means you pay for exactly what you use — a 47-second call costs for 47 seconds, not a full minute.

If you need numbers in multiple countries, you can add as many as you want. Each one has its own monthly fee, but there are no bundle requirements or minimum commitments. Scale up or down as your needs change.