UIFN vs ITFS

What is the difference between UIFN and ITFS?

One of the main concerns of a business owner is to expand his business to each part of the world to attract a wide number of customers. But, this expansion leads to one question in his mind which service he should opt to establish reliable communication with people around the globe i.e. either a UIFN number or an ITFS number? To help him in making the right decision, let us explain what the difference between the two numbers is:

UIFN Number

UIFN refers to Universal International  Freephone Number. As the name suggests, it is a toll-free service for customers consisting of one number that can be accessed from multiple countries with zero call charges to the caller.

ITFS Number

The term ITFS refers to International Toll-Free Service. It also consists of toll-free numbers that allow the customers to contact businesses without needing to pay for the phone call. It supports global voice communication where it has one number for each country enabling customers to make a call from one country that ends up in another country.

Which number should be chosen for a Business?

Both UIFN and ITFS numbers are used to expand the coverage of your business services all around the globe. But, which one will suit your business best?

The ITFS number provides higher coverage as compared to UIFN as it is available in 140 countries whereas the UIFN service reaches 50 countries as regulated by International Telecommunication Union. Moreover, the customers need to dial their country’s International Access Code (IAC) to call a certain business via a UIFN number. This requires the customers to dial the ITC of their country followed by the 800 prefix and the following eight digits. The trouble with this is that most people are not used to this IAC dialing process and they are even unaware of their country code. The UIFN number also requires a universal registration fee and annual maintenance fee along with the monthly subscription fee which the customer has to pay to each country they want to call. The ITFS numbers also have a certain fee but they are paid by the provider rather than the business.

Therefore, if you are reaching a few international countries then ITFS is a better option since universal numbers would require registration costs and annual fees. Moreover, the ITFS numbers are also easily advertised on the business’s official website in a drop-down box, but if you want to advertise your number via multiple websites then UIFN is the right option.