Port my number to Google voice

[racedog]

I've had my current number since 2007 when VZW became active in my area. Since then we moved to AT&To and now to TMO. I have a Google voice number that forwards to my phone but I would like to port my carrier number to Google voice to take better advantage of voicemail to text options etc. and not have to port if we change carriers again.

Problem is I can't figure out how to do this. If I port the number out TMO will automatically close that phone out on our account. Has anyone done this before, and if so, how did you get it done?

 

[Aquila]

So you have Line A on TMO and line B on GV and want to move A to GV without losing B and without TMO cancelling the account for A, right? If I read that right, you'd probably want to add a line to TMO (C) and then move A out, resulting in the same number of lines and a new phone number on TMO (C).

 

[racedog]

I have Line A, B, and C on TMO with C being a free line from their special back in March. I want A to be ported to Gvoice to take advantage of voicemail texts etc.

I called TMO and I can port line a number to Gvoice and then move my sim on phone C to phone A and then point my now Gvoice number to line A. I will lose my free line but I will keep my 20 percent discount for life promo.

It is $20 to Google to port my number to them and with losing my free line (C) I'm having a lot of second thoughts about the whole idea.

 

[Aquila]

So I moved my third line (Work phone) from Verizon to Google Voice about 3 months ago and just left my Google Voice number there also. Now I have both numbers and my other Verizon number ringing one phone. I can help a little with the process, but can't tell you if it's worth losing a free line (you'll still have one, but one that's free to everyone).

 

[racedog]

Thanks for the responses. I guess I'm going to have to decide if there are any real advantages to having "my" phone number be a Gvoice number. Don't have to worry about porting it if I leave TMO but that's no big deal anyway. Not sure if there are any strong advantages to having Gvoice handle voicemail, although I do like getting voicemails as texts. TMO will do that also but for added cost.

Anyone else use Google voice for their main phone number and have it forward to their phone? I'd like to get some other ways it can be advantageous that I might be missing.

If you forward the Google voice number to your phone which line handles the voicemail?

 

[racedog]

Oh, BTW, I really don't much care about losing the third line. I got it because it was/is free but don't really use it. So that's not a consideration.

 

[Aquila]

Again for Verizon, you can use separate voicemail or forward vm to GV. If you do the latter, all vm for carrier and gv are mixed together and you can place calls from either number.

 

[Anon_Emus]

I've had my current number since 2007 when VZW became active in my area. Since then we moved to AT&To and now to TMO. I have a Google voice number that forwards to my phone but I would like to port my carrier number to Google voice to take better advantage of voicemail to text options etc. and not have to port if we change carriers again.

Problem is I can't figure out how to do this. If I port the number out TMO will automatically close that phone out on our account. Has anyone done this before, and if so, how did you get it done?

No need to port your number to use that feature. You can have GV take over the VM service so that it never hits the carrier. I have been doing this for years with Verizon. It's been so long ago that I set this up so I cant remember the steps but it can be done with a little research.

 

[LeoRex]

Yeah, I use Google voice to handle my voicemail on T-Mobile.. it's trivial to set up and only requires a special dial code that forwards calls up GV if you don't pick up, etc. Then you use the Google voice app

I thought about pushing my number up to Google voice, but I have yet to run into a situation that it would be useful to do so. I mean, I'm not switching anytime soon... I have three free lines on top of my 2UDP/100 plan... So 5 UDP lines for about $25 per line.