Caller ID is always the business
Outbound calls from the app show the company's main number or the employee's direct business number. The personal cell number is never presented.
Remote and distributed teams
Your team is in six cities. Your phone system should not notice.
A softphone on a laptop and an app on a personal cell give each remote employee a business extension, a business caller ID and presence their colleagues can see. Their own number is never shown to a customer.
Example
Desk phoneShips pre-configured
CordlessShips pre-configured
ConferenceShips pre-configured
HeadsetShips pre-configured
Analog adapterShips pre-configured
Mobile app
A phone system for remote work gives each employee a business extension that rings on their own cell phone and computer through an app, so customers see the business number and never the personal one. 3CTel sets up softphones, presence and ring groups for teams anywhere in Canada, and a new remote hire is added by creating a user and sending an app invitation, usually in minutes.
Onboarding a remote hire on their first morning
The clearest test of a remote phone setup is what happens when someone new starts on Monday in a city where you have no office. Here is the sequence.
Create the user
An administrator adds the person's name, extension and the ring groups or queues they belong to. This takes a minute or two in the console.
Send the app invitation
The new hire receives an email with links for the desktop and mobile apps and a sign-in. No hardware ships, no courier, no waiting for a desk phone.
Confirm their service address
Because they are calling from home, the registered service address used for 9-1-1 is confirmed with them at setup and updated if they move.
Make a test call
They call a colleague by extension, receive a transferred call, and see their status change in the directory. That is the whole onboarding.
Business Phone
Reliable calling with routing your team will actually use.
Learn more: Business PhoneDevices
Phones and headsets that arrive ready to plug in.
Learn more: Devices9-1-1 on VoIP
Why the registered address matters, how it is confirmed at setup, and how to keep it current.
Learn more: 9-1-1 on VoIPThe personal-number problem, solved properly
When a company goes remote without a phone system, the fix is usually to give customers employees' cell numbers. It works for about a year. Then people leave with the numbers, customers text at 11 p.m., and nobody can cover for anyone.
The fix is not a second phone. It is an app that carries the business number on the phone the employee already owns.
One phone, two identities
Personal calls come through the phone's dialler; business calls come through the app. The employee can silence the app after hours without silencing their life.
Coverage when someone is away
Because the business number belongs to the system, calls to an employee on leave can ring a colleague, a ring group or voicemail. Nothing is stranded on a personal device.
Texts stay on the business number too
Customers who text get a reply from the business number through a shared inbox. When someone leaves, the conversation history stays with the company.
Presence, transfers and knowing who is free
In an office you glance across the room before transferring a call. Remote teams need the same glance, and that is what presence gives them: a live status for every colleague, shown in the app's directory.
- Available, on a call, in a meeting or away, updated automatically when someone is on the phone.
- Warm transfers by name: speak to the colleague first, then hand the caller over, from anywhere.
- Ring groups that include people in different provinces, so the first free person answers regardless of location.
- Voicemail to email with a transcript, so a missed call is a searchable note rather than a red light on a handset nobody sits near.
- Video meetings from the same app when a call needs a screen share.
Video Meetings
Meetings in the app you already use for calls — no second subscription.
Learn more: Video MeetingsSoftphone
An app that makes a computer or cell phone act as a business phone extension.
Learn more: SoftphoneRemote & Hybrid Teams
One extension that works at the desk, at home and on the road.
Learn more: Remote & Hybrid TeamsRemote-team questions, answered
Does a remote employee need a company phone or a desk phone?
No. The mobile app on their own phone and the desktop app on their laptop are their business phone. A headset improves call quality on the laptop. A desk phone is only worth adding for someone who prefers a physical handset at a permanent home office, and it registers to the same extension.
What does a customer see when a remote employee calls them?
The business caller ID: either the main company number or that person's direct business number, depending on how the extension is set up. Customers never see the personal cell number, and when they call back they reach the business line, which can ring the employee, a group or voicemail as the rules dictate.
Can a team spread across Canada work as one group?
Yes. Ring groups and queues are built from users, not locations. A support group with members in Halifax, Montreal and Victoria rings as one team. Time-of-day rules can hand calls to the members whose local hours match the caller's, which stretches coverage across time zones without anyone working late.
AI agents for a team that is never in one room
A distributed team has no front desk and no shared whiteboard, which is where AI agents earn their place. The AI Receptionist covers the main number when the ring group finds nobody free, the chat and messaging agent books meetings across everyone’s connected calendars and time zones, and conversation intelligence leaves a summary of each call so a colleague can pick up the thread the next morning.
Coverage between time zones
The AI Receptionist answers when nobody in the current time zone is available, states who covers which region, takes a message with a transcript and delivers it to the right person’s inbox and team channel.
Meetings booked around scattered calendars
The AI chat and messaging agent offers slots that respect each remote worker’s hours and time zone, books into the connected calendar and sends the confirmation by text or email.
Context for whoever picks up next
Conversation intelligence produces a summary, a transcript and keyword flags for each call, and an AI workflow logs them in the CRM so a hand-off between colleagues needs no retelling.
AI at 3CTel
AI agents, messaging, workflows, answers and insight on one phone system, with a person always available.
Learn more: AI at 3CTelAI Chat & Messaging Agent
One AI agent across website chat and business SMS that answers from your approved knowledge, books appointments and hands off to people by rules.
Learn more: AI Chat & Messaging AgentConversation Intelligence
Every call summarized, searchable and turned into next steps — without anyone typing notes.
Learn more: Conversation IntelligenceHybrid is just remote with a desk sometimes
Teams that split time between home and an office do not need two setups. The same extension rings the desktop app at home and a desk phone in the office, and the person chooses which device answers. Hot-desking, where someone signs in to whichever desk phone is free, is configured for offices with fewer desks than people.
Setup is planned with a 3CTel specialist, built and tested on a temporary number, then switched over. Everything is quoted first and nothing is billed before activation.
Related pages.
Remote & Hybrid Teams
One extension that works at the desk, at home and on the road.
Learn more: Remote & Hybrid TeamsBusiness Phone
Reliable calling with routing your team will actually use.
Learn more: Business PhoneDevices
Phones and headsets that arrive ready to plug in.
Learn more: DevicesVideo Meetings
Meetings in the app you already use for calls — no second subscription.
Learn more: Video MeetingsBusiness SMS
Text from the number customers already call — as a team, not from a personal phone.
Learn more: Business SMSDesk phone vs softphone
Who needs a handset, who needs an app, and how to give each person the right one.
Learn more: Desk phone vs softphoneFrequently asked questions.
A single voice call uses a small fraction of a typical home broadband connection. Video meetings use more. The app works over Wi-Fi and cellular data, and the mobile app will use whichever is available.
Yes, recording is configured per extension or per queue and works the same on the apps as on desk phones. Canadian law generally requires that callers be informed that a call is recorded; 3CTel configures that announcement with you.
The call rings the mobile app. If both are unavailable, it follows that extension's rule: a colleague, a ring group or voicemail to email. The system does not depend on any one device being on.
Calling through Microsoft Teams can be delivered via SIP trunking or an integration scoped during planning; availability is confirmed before activation. Many teams run the 3CTel app alongside Teams for calls and use Teams for chat.
No. Users are added anywhere in Canada. Each user's registered service address is captured for 9-1-1 purposes, and that is the only location-specific step.
Give every remote employee a proper business line.
Tell us how many people work remotely, where they are and who needs to cover for whom. We will design the setup and quote it.