How to forward a business landline to a cell phone

To forward a business landline to a cell phone, pick up the landline, dial *72, wait for the tone, and dial the cell number the way you would if you were calling it. On several carriers the forward only switches on after the cell answers that setup call. Dial *73 from the same landline to turn it off (on AT&T Phone, press # after the number and dial *73# instead). That works on AT&T, Verizon, Xfinity Voice, Spectrum Voice and CenturyLink lines whose plan includes forwarding. Where carriers differ is forwarding only the calls you miss, managing it remotely, and cost.

For a shop or practice, the bigger choice is whether to forward every call or only the ones nobody answers.

Forward all calls or only the ones you miss

Forward all calls (unconditional forwarding) sends every call straight to the cell, and the landline stops ringing. On a Verizon business line, Verizon's business guide says a short reminder tone sounds at the business when a call is forwarded, "but you will not be able to answer it." Use this when nobody is at the desk at all, such as a solo owner out on a job or a closed day.

Conditional forwarding lets the landline ring first and sends the call on only if the line is busy or nobody answers after a set number of rings. This suits a business where someone is usually at the desk but sometimes with a client. The desk keeps its chance to answer, and the cell becomes the backup.

Take a three-chair barbershop where the owner cuts hair and the only phone sits by the till. Forward-all buzzes the owner's cell mid-fade for every call, including ones a colleague at the till could have taken. No-answer forwarding after four or five rings sends the cell only the calls the shop actually missed.

Call forwarding codes by carrier

Codes and plan terms below are as published on each carrier's support pages in November 2026. They differ by line type and region, so check which service your bill names before dialling.

AT&T. On local home phone service, after the confirmation tone "the system will call the number to which calls will be forwarded," and forwarding activates only if that call is answered. Busy-line and don't-answer forwarding on this service are switched on and off through an AT&T agent, and *47 plus a code from AT&T's table sets the rings before a don't-answer forward, from 2 to 10. AT&T Phone and Phone - Advanced also list Safe Call Forwarding (*372), which forwards calls during a service disruption.

Verizon. If the setup call is not answered, the business guide says to repeat the step within two minutes, after which one ring is enough. The guide also warns: "Only one call can forward at a time. A second call coming in will receive a busy signal until the first call is disengaged." Verizon's residential star code table lists *90 for busy line and *92 for "busy don't answer", but other Verizon pages give different codes, its business page says availability varies by area, and a fixed version needs a service order to change the number. Ask Verizon which version your line has.

Xfinity Voice. Forwarding is not included with the Unlimited Saver plan, and Xfinity's call forwarding help page adds Local With More. The same page describes Advanced Call Forwarding in the online Voice settings, which sends calls to up to four numbers in addition to the home phone, with a ring setting for each line.

Spectrum Voice. Spectrum gives *71 "to forward only unanswered or busy calls," and *73 turns off either type. In select markets it also offers a backup number for when the Spectrum Voice service itself is down.

CenturyLink (Lumen). After *72 you hear a stutter dial tone, dial the number, and hang up "when the phone is answered by either a person or voicemail." The busy and no-answer codes come from CenturyLink's Connected Voice guide, and its call forwarding feature page adds *63 for forwarding calls from specific numbers only.

If your bill names a service that is not here, ask the carrier for the code rather than guessing.

Forwarding when you are not at the desk

Star codes are dialled from the landline itself, and Verizon's guide says forwarding "must be deactivated from the business line" that switched it on. If you left without setting it, you need a remote option. CenturyLink lets customers in some regions switch forwarding from any phone through the access number they received when they ordered service. Verizon's Ultra Forward did the same, but Verizon says it is no longer available to new customers. Xfinity Voice puts forwarding in its online Voice settings, and Spectrum lets you turn calling features on or off by signing in to your online account. AT&T's guides describe no remote option, so ask AT&T.

VoIP and hosted business lines

If your "landline" is a cloud phone system, forwarding usually lives in the provider's web settings or app rather than in star codes. Google Voice, for example, lets you link up to six numbers that ring when someone calls your Google Voice number. Its caller ID setting for forwarded calls shows either the caller's number or your Google Voice number on the receiving phone. Dialpad's guide describes a press-1 prompt on forwarded calls that "can help avoid situations where calls end up in your forwarded number's voicemail". The same guide notes that the star-code method sends a landline to only one cell number.

Look for the same three settings in whichever system you run: ring order, ring count before forwarding, and the caller ID the cell shows.

What it costs

Of the five carriers, only Spectrum's guide says forwarding comes at no additional cost. The others mention call charges or plan limits.

• Spectrum Voice says call forwarding "is included with Spectrum Voice at no additional cost."
• Verizon says forwarded calls on a business line "are subject to local or toll charges," and a toll-restricted line cannot forward to a toll number.
• AT&T says "additional local and long-distance charges may apply" when you forward a call.
• CenturyLink says forwarding to a long-distance or toll number incurs applicable rates and needs long-distance service.
• Xfinity Voice does not include forwarding on some plans, as noted above.

On the receiving end, RingCentral points out that your cell phone plan's minutes may be used for forwarded calls.

Test it before you rely on it

None of the carrier pages above say what number your cell shows for a forwarded call, so test it. Run these checks right after setup.

1. Call the business line from a third phone, not the cell you forwarded to. Confirm the cell rings.
2. Look at the cell's screen. If it shows the caller's own number, you can call them back. If it shows the business number, every callback needs the caller's number from the conversation.
3. For conditional forwarding, let the landline ring out and count the rings before the cell rings. Then call while the line is busy.
4. Let a forwarded call go unanswered on the cell. Listen to which voicemail greeting the caller hears.
5. Turn forwarding off and call again to confirm the desk rings. On CenturyLink, dialling *72 also tells you the status: a fast busy tone means forwarding is on, a normal dial tone means it is off.

In step 4 the caller may hear the owner's personal greeting. If you plan to leave forwarding on, rewrite it using business voicemail greeting examples so callers know they reached the right business.

What forwarding cannot do

Forwarding changes which phone rings. It does not change whether someone is free to answer. When the owner's cell is busy with another call, switched off, or in a pocket during a client, the forwarded call usually goes to that cell's voicemail like any other call. On a Verizon business line, a second caller during a forwarded call can hear a busy signal. Nobody takes the booking in either case.

That is fine if callers leave messages and you call back quickly. Two tools help when they ring the next business instead. A missed call text back sends the caller a text, usually within a minute, so the conversation can continue by message. The missed-call revenue calculator estimates what the unanswered calls are worth, using your own call volume, missed share, booking rate and average ticket.

For appointment businesses where the phone rings while everyone is with a client, LLDTEK's front desk agent answers the call itself. It talks to the caller by voice or text, books against the calendar the business already runs, such as Vagaro, Square or Booksy, and hands the conversation to a person when the request needs one. Wiring a line to an agent after close is covered in routing after-hours calls to a voice agent.

Forwarding is a routing fix, not an answering fix

Forwarding a business landline to a cell phone takes one star code on most carriers. The decisions come after it. Use forward-all when the desk is empty and busy or no-answer forwarding when someone is usually there. Check that your plan includes it, test what the cell shows, and decide who turns it off. Then count the calls that still end in the cell's voicemail for two weeks. If that number is small, forwarding is enough. If it is not, the problem is answering capacity, not routing.