The accidental answer — divert everything to personal mobiles — is the one that costs the most, just not on an invoice.
When a team stops sitting in one building, the phone system question changes. It stops being "which brand do we buy" and becomes something more practical: how does a call to the company number reach a person who is not at a desk?
There are only four real answers to that, and most businesses end up with the worst one by accident.
The four ways a remote team takes business calls
1. Divert everything to personal mobiles. This is what almost everyone does first, because it costs nothing and works on day one. It also quietly creates problems. Clients end up with your staff’s personal numbers, so the relationship belongs to the person rather than the business. You get no call records, no recording, no reporting and no routing. And when somebody leaves, the calls leave with them.
2. Send a desk phone home. It works, and call quality is usually excellent. But it is hardware per person, it is tied to one room in one house, and it is useless the moment that person works from somewhere else. For a genuinely hybrid team, you are buying a phone for a desk they use twice a week.
3. A mobile app. Calls to the company number ring the person’s phone, they dial out showing the business number, and nothing personal is handed out. This is the right answer for anyone who moves — field staff, technicians, directors between meetings. The things to check are how many app licences your plan includes, and whether notifications survive the aggressive battery management on modern phones.
4. A browser softphone. The phone runs in a browser tab on the computer somebody is already working at. There is nothing to install, which means it works on locked-down corporate laptops where staff cannot install software, on shared and hot-desk machines, and on Linux. The trade-off is simple and worth knowing up front: the tab has to stay open, because a browser phone can only ring while it is running.
Most hybrid teams end up using two or three of these together, and that is fine — provided they are all the same extension on the same system, rather than four separate arrangements nobody is managing.
What actually matters when the team is distributed
One number, many devices. The test is whether a single extension rings everywhere that person might be, and whether outbound calls show the company number from all of them. If your answer involves giving out a second number, it is not solved.
Transfers between people in different buildings. In an office you can walk over. Remotely, the transfer has to work cleanly — both a straight transfer and the kind where you speak to your colleague first to check they can take it.
Knowing who is free before you transfer. This is the thing distributed teams miss most. In an office you can see that someone is on a call. Remotely you need a directory that shows availability, or you will keep transferring callers to people who cannot take them.
Visibility of call quality. When a call sounds bad and the person is at home, somebody has to work out why. A system that shows the actual numbers — latency, jitter, packet loss — turns an argument into a diagnosis.
What happens when home internet drops. Ask explicitly. The answer should be that calls fail over somewhere sensible — to a mobile, to a colleague, to a queue — rather than ringing out into a dead connection.
Administration from anywhere. If changing a call route needs someone physically on site, you do not have a system built for distributed work.
Questions worth asking any provider
How many mobile app licences are included on the plan you are quoting me, and what does an extra one cost? Is there a browser option, and what does it require? Which operating systems does the desktop application support? Can I see call quality data per call, or only call logs? What happens to an inbound call if the person’s connection drops mid-call? Can I move an extension between devices without a support ticket?
If you want the broader version of this, our buyer’s checklist covers the questions that apply to any phone system, remote or not.
What we would recommend, by team shape
Fully remote, everyone on a laptop. Browser softphone as the default, mobile app as the backup for when people are away from the computer. No hardware at all.
Hybrid, desks in the office. Desk phones in the office, browser or desktop app at home, mobile app for both. The extension follows the person; the hardware stays where it is useful.
Field staff and technicians. Mobile app first, and make sure outbound calls present the company number — this is the single biggest cause of customers ending up with a technician’s personal number.
Locked-down corporate laptops. Browser softphone, because there is nothing to install and no admin rights required.
Linux shops and mixed-OS teams. Browser softphone, since most vendor desktop applications are Windows and Mac only.
How Othos handles it
Four ways onto the same extension, so you can mix them by person rather than standardising on one.
The Othos Web Phone runs in Google Chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux at R25 per user per month. There is nothing to install and no password — you sign in with a one-time link sent to your work email. It does attended and blind transfers, conference calls, and shows every extension in the directory as available, on a call or offline. It also displays live MOS, latency, jitter and packet loss during a call, which is the thing that makes remote call-quality complaints solvable. You can install it as an app on Windows and Mac so it sits in the dock or taskbar.
Mobile apps for iOS and Android turn a personal phone into the business extension without exposing a personal number. Desk phones from Yealink, Fanvil and others work alongside everything else. A desktop application is available for Windows and Mac.
Three honest caveats, because they will affect your decision. The web phone only rings while the tab or app window is open. The desktop application is Windows and Mac only, which is exactly why the web phone exists. And the R149 Starter plan includes no app licences at all — if your team is distributed, start at SMB, where mobile apps are included.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best phone system for a remote or hybrid team?
The one where a single extension reaches the person wherever they are working — browser, mobile, desktop or desk phone — with transfers, presence and reporting that work the same across all of them. The brand matters far less than whether those four things are one system rather than four arrangements.
Can my team use the office phone system from home?
Yes. A cloud phone system is not tied to your building. Staff can take calls on the company number from a laptop browser, a desktop application, a mobile app, or a desk phone plugged in at home.
Do I need to give staff desk phones to work from home?
No. A browser softphone or a mobile app covers most people. Desk phones make sense for staff who spend all day on calls from a fixed position.
What is a browser softphone?
A phone that runs in a browser tab instead of as installed software. It is useful where staff cannot install applications, where computers are shared, and on Linux — but it only rings while the tab is open.
Will staff have to give out their personal numbers?
Not if calls run through the phone system. Outbound calls present the company number from every device, which keeps the client relationship with the business rather than the individual.
What happens if someone’s home internet goes down?
That depends on configuration, which is why it is worth asking before you buy. Calls should fail over to a mobile, a colleague or a queue rather than ringing out.
The bottom line
The accidental answer — divert everything to personal mobiles — is the one that costs the most, just not on an invoice. You lose the records, the routing, the reporting and eventually the client relationships.
Everything else is a question of matching devices to how people actually work, which is usually a mix. If you want to see what that would look like for your team, tell us how your people are split and we will map it out. Or try the web phone if you want to see the browser option for yourself, and look at what it costs alongside everything else.
