UK numbers starting 080 are free to dial from within the UK - the called party pays the bill for that call. These numbers can't be dialed from outside the UK for free, because the called party are unlikely to want to pay the international leg of the call.
This means that if you need to dial an 080 number from outside of the UK, you either have to pay large international rates to your telco, or worse, you may find the number is blocked.
If you are comfortable with Voice Over IP technology, then there is an answer. You can dial UK numbers toll free, by dialing sip:080xxxxxxxx@tollfreeuk.com. This is carried over the internet to a telephone switch located in the UK. The caller gets to make a toll free call without paying, and the called party only has to pay for a local call in order to talk to someone on the other side of the world. Everyone wins!
This service is currently run by a private VoIP enthusiast, but increased demand may mean this service becomes run by a commercial entity
If you intend to use the service regularly, then please read the advice on the 'readme 1st' page.
If you use the popular open source switch, Asterisk then please check out our configuration examples.