Short answer: a virtual number can ring several people from one published line, and because billing is per number rather than per user, adding people to the ring group costs nothing. The Basic plan (₹349/month) forwards to one destination; Business (₹499/month) forwards to five; Enterprise is unlimited.
The hard part is not turning it on. It is choosing how it rings, because the two common patterns fail in opposite ways.
The Problem This Solves
A team sharing a number usually arrives here after one of these:
- Calls go to one person's mobile and stop when they are on another call.
- Everyone has their own number, so customers call whoever they met last — and that person left.
- Enquiries come in after hours and nobody can tell how many were missed.
All three are routing problems, not phone problems.
The Three Routing Patterns
Simultaneous — everyone rings at once
The call goes to every destination together and connects to whoever answers first.
Use it when: speed to answer matters more than anything, and the team is small (two to five). Inbound sales is the obvious case — a lead that rings out goes to a competitor.
The cost: every phone rings on every call. With more than about five people this becomes genuinely disruptive, and a predictable thing happens — people start ignoring it, because "someone else will get it."
Sequential — one after another, in order
Ring the first destination for a set time, then the second, then the third.
Use it when: there is a correct person to take the call first — an account owner, a duty rota, a senior who handles escalations. It preserves ownership and keeps the rest of the team uninterrupted.
The cost: delay. Three destinations at fifteen seconds each is forty-five seconds of ringing before the third phone even starts. Keep each leg short, and keep the chain to three.
Menu first, then route
An IVR answers, the caller chooses, and only the relevant group rings. See IVR menu.
Use it when: the team has genuinely different functions — sales and support want different people and different hours. Below roughly ten calls a day a menu adds friction for no benefit. Above that, it stops the wrong person answering every third call.
| Pattern | Fastest answer | Interrupts | Best team size | Preserves ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simultaneous | Yes | Everyone, every call | 2-5 | No |
| Sequential | No | One at a time | 2-8 | Yes |
| Menu, then route | Depends on the caller | Only the chosen group | 6+ | Yes, per group |
The Three Rules Worth Setting Properly
Routing is mostly these, and the defaults are rarely right.
1. Business hours. Decide what happens outside them before the first out-of-hours call, not after. An honest voicemail that states when you open beats endless ringing every time. See call routing.
2. The no-answer path. This is the rule people forget. If nobody answers, the call must land somewhere deliberate — voicemail, an overflow mobile, or a menu offering a callback. Leave this unset and enquiries disappear without a trace.
3. Ring duration per leg. Fifteen to twenty seconds per destination. Longer feels abandoned to the caller; shorter does not give anyone time to reach the phone.
Full behaviour is documented under call forwarding rules.
Sizing It by Team
| Team | Suggested setup | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Two people, one function | Simultaneous to both, voicemail on no-answer | Basic covers one destination; Business for both |
| Three to five, one function | Simultaneous, overflow to a manager | ₹499 Business |
| Three to eight, with an owner per account | Sequential, three legs maximum | ₹499 Business |
| Sales and support split | Menu, then simultaneous within each group | ₹499 Business |
| Remote across cities | Any of the above — destinations are ordinary mobiles | ₹499 Business |
| Thirty-plus, or shift rotas | Menu plus queueing; this is contact-centre territory | Cloud contact centre |
The pricing point worth repeating: you are buying one number, not five seats. See the pricing page and how many virtual numbers a business needs.
Know What You Are Missing
Routing without measurement is guesswork. Every call is logged whether or not it was answered, so three questions become answerable:
- How many calls rang out with nobody picking up?
- Which hours do enquiries actually arrive in — and do your business hours match?
- Which leg of a sequential chain answers most, so the order can be corrected?
See call logs and analytics. A team that reorders its ring sequence based on a month of logs usually finds the first destination was wrong.
You can configure all of this yourself at voice-app.edesy.in.
When a Shared Number Is the Wrong Answer
- Each person genuinely owns distinct accounts and clients call them directly. Then per-person numbers are correct, and the shared line is only for new enquiries.
- Nobody is accountable for answering. Routing does not create ownership. A number that rings five phones and is answered by none is worse than one phone that always answers.
- Volume is high enough that callers queue. At that point you need queueing and agent presence, not forwarding — see cloud contact centre.
Common Questions
How many phones can one virtual number ring?
One on Basic, five on Business, unlimited on Enterprise. The limit is the plan, not the number.
Do team members need an app installed?
No. Destinations are ordinary mobile numbers and the call arrives over the normal mobile network, so it works without data or any software on the team's phones.
Can people make outgoing calls that show the business number?
Yes — outbound calls can present the business number rather than a personal one, which keeps the published line as the only number customers ever see.
Can I change the routing during the day?
Yes. Business-hours rules handle the routine case automatically, and routing is configuration, so it can be changed at any time without touching the number.
Does a call ring the whole team when someone is already on a call?
Simultaneous ringing will still ring the remaining destinations, so a busy colleague does not block the enquiry. This is the main practical advantage over a single forwarded SIM.