Get a UK Number While Living Abroad

A UK virtual number allows individuals living outside the United Kingdom to maintain a local UK telephone presence without a physical SIM card. Calls arrive on your smartphone via app, wherever you are in the world.

Expats Living Outside the UK

If you have moved from the UK to another country, people in the UK may still want to reach you on a familiar UK number. With a virtual landline, you keep a UK 01/02 number that UK callers can dial at local call rates. The call routes to your smartphone app in your new country — no roaming charges, no international forwarding costs.

This is useful for:

• Staying reachable for friends and family in the UK
• Maintaining a UK number for UK-based services (GP, bank, utility companies)
• Freelancers and remote workers with UK clients

Diaspora Communities

Many communities with roots in the UK — across South Asia, West Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and elsewhere — maintain close ties with relatives who are UK residents. A UK virtual number makes it easy for those relatives to reach you at low cost, using a familiar UK number format.

Because the number is geographic (01/02), callers in the UK pay standard landline rates — often included in their call bundle — rather than international rates.

International Families

Families spread across multiple countries face telephone bills that can add up quickly. A UK virtual number centralises contact: anyone in the UK can call one landline number, and the call reaches whoever is holding the app — whether they are in the Netherlands, Spain, Australia or anywhere else with internet access.

How Roaming Independence Works

Traditional mobile numbers require a SIM card. When you travel internationally, that SIM card may incur roaming charges, or callers may need to dial an international prefix.

A virtual number breaks this dependency. The number itself stays fixed — a UK 01/02 number. But the delivery mechanism is the internet. Your app connects to the VoIP provider's servers, which receive incoming calls and pass them to you over your data connection. Your data connection can be any country's WiFi or 4G network — it makes no difference to the call routing.

BluePhone for International Users

BluePhone provides a UK geographic landline number delivered to iOS and Android apps via Telnyx's carrier network. It is specifically designed for users who are not physically in the UK. Setup takes minutes online, no UK address is required, and the number can be used immediately after activation.

Monthly subscription: £15. Yearly subscription: £149 (equivalent to £12.42/month). Unlimited incoming calls.

Frequently Asked Questions