How to use one phone number on two phones in South Africa

A SIM card can only be in one phone at a time. That is why most people who want one number on two devices end up carrying two phones with two numbers, or missing calls on the one they left at home.

A cloud number solves this in a simple way, because the number is not on a SIM at all. It lives in your account. Any device signed in to that account is a phone for that number.

What that looks like with Ukutel:

• You install the app on your phone and sign in. Your number works.
• You install it on a second phone, or a tablet, and sign in with the same account. Now both ring when someone calls.
• You answer on whichever is nearest. The other one stops ringing.
• When you call out from either device, the person sees the same number.

How many devices depends on the package: two on Line, four on Line+, six on Line Max. All of them share one number and one airtime balance.

Who finds this useful:

• People with a work phone and a personal phone who want the business line on both.
• Couples and families who share one home number, the way a landline used to work.
• Small shops where whoever is free should be able to answer.
• Anyone who has lost a phone. Sign in on the replacement and the number is back the same day, with its airtime.

Some things to know before you set it up. Each device needs internet to ring, so a phone with data switched off will stay silent. And the cloud number is separate from the number on your SIM; your SIM number carries on as before.

We are a small company and this is one of the quiet advantages of doing things differently: we did not have to protect an old way of selling SIM cards.