Every day, thousands of Australian families answer a call from someone in prison — on a local number that costs a fraction of what the call once would have. Most of them know it simply as their “Engine Number”. Far fewer know where that name came from, or that the service behind it started more than twenty years ago. This is the story.
2004: A VoIP Pioneer
Engine Numbers began life as a corporate telecommunications provider and one of the pioneers of VoIP in Australia. In 2004, internet-based calling was cutting-edge technology — the name “Engine Number” itself traces back to the early VoIP provider Engin, whose local numbers powered a new way of connecting calls at local rates.
An Unexpected Lifeline
Then something happened that we didn’t plan for: prisoners and their families began using the service — in numbers.
The reason was simple. In that era, inmates couldn’t call mobile phones at all, and long-distance calls from prison phones were painfully expensive for families already doing it tough. A local VoIP number changed everything: their loved one could dial a local landline number, the call would connect through to the family wherever they were, and the cost dropped dramatically.
Word spread the way it always does inside — quickly. “Get an engine number” became standard advice passed between inmates and families, and a piece of corporate telecommunications technology quietly became one of the most important connections in Australia’s prison system.
Partnering with 3CX
Rather than treat this as a side effect, we embraced it. We partnered with 3CX, the professional-grade communications platform, and re-engineered the service around the people who needed it most. The 3CX platform lets us set a fixed answering location for every number — which means the service complies with prison regulations and can be used in all prisons — while still connecting calls straight through to a family member’s mobile, anywhere in the world.
Over the years we kept developing it: instant setup, numbers matched to each prison’s location, plans priced for families rather than corporations, and no lock-in contracts — because nobody should have to pay for a service longer than their circumstances require.
Twenty Years On
Since 2004: over 30 million calls connected · 195 million minutes of conversation · more than $270 million saved by 100,000+ Australian families.
Today, Engine Numbers is the most used service of its kind for Australian inmates and their families. Newer companies have borrowed the name, but there’s only one original — the same service that’s been connecting families since VoIP was new.
Because behind every one of those 30 million calls is the same simple thing: a family staying together through a hard chapter, at a price they can afford.