Sonetel

Sonetel virtual business phone numbers

Sonetel is a business communications company focused on selling virtual phone numbers for businesses and entrepreneurs. Its offering lets you have a local number in any city or country, so calls ring in the Sonetel app or are forwarded to your mobile or any phone worldwide. The company counts its community at more than 34,000 active paying businesses across 170 countries, and notes that its services launched in 2009.

Sonetel AB is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm (ticker SONE). Its headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden, and it maintains an R&D and customer service hub in India. The company states that its team in Hyderabad, led by COO Prashant Pant, includes customer service, research and development, an AI team with data scientists and a network operations center. The founder and CEO is Henrik Thomé, and the artificial intelligence strategy is led by CAIO Tomas André.

How the service works

Signing up takes three steps: create a free account without a credit card, choose a local number from more than 60 countries, and start making and receiving calls from your phone, computer or both. The number you get rings in the free app for iPhone and Android, so you can answer business calls wherever you are; answering in the app avoids the call-forwarding cost. On certain types of numbers you can also send and receive SMS.

Calls, forwarding and integration

In addition to the app, the service includes cloud call forwarding and SIP trunking, so you can answer from anywhere and integrate with existing PBX systems. For outbound calls, the app or the web version lets you dial from your business numbers; on a paid plan, once your identity is verified, outbound calls from the app can show your business number. Paid plans include free calls to more than 40 countries.

Voice response and recording

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) lets you answer calls with a professional menu such as "for sales press 1, for support press 2" and route each caller to the right department or person. Call recording helps deliver a professional customer service experience and supports regulatory compliance. These features are included in the Premium and Business plans.

AI summaries and analytics

The Premium and Business plans include AI tools for conversations. Call recording generates a written summary of each business call, covering the agreements reached and the topics discussed. The system scores each customer call from 1 to 5 based on how it was handled, explains the reasoning behind the score and offers suggestions for improvement. After the call, it suggests a follow-up email ready to send to the person you spoke with, covering what you agreed. Voicemail reaches you by email on any plan and, on Premium and Business, also transcribed and summarised in the major languages.

Other services and customer profiles

The catalogue is completed by SMS, meeting summaries, SIP trunking, a communications API and cloud IVR. The developer API lets you automate number purchasing, routing and AI workflows. The service is aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses that need a local phone presence without a second SIM or their own infrastructure.