old school droid x -> nexus 4 w/ google voice

[ballalint]

Hey everybody,
Thanks for taking a look at this post- I'll keep it short. I'm switching from my droid x on verizon to a nexus 4 on t-mo, and I want to make sure what I'm doing makes sense. Here's what I'm thinking of doing (please let me know if there's anything I'm forgetting/don't need to do):
1. I want to keep my verizon #, but I also want google voice, so I'll get google to port my verizon number into google voice.
2. I ordered a sim card from t-mo and will sign up for the $30/mo service once it arrives.
Questions:
1. What do I do with the new # I get from t-mo? Is it as easy as forwarding my google voice # to my new t-mo number? Do I still give out my google voice number to everyone? Can I give out my t-mo #? Are there any known complications associated with using google voice and t-mo?
Thanks!

 

[ultravisitor]

If you know you're going to be using T-Mobile, then why don't you just port your number to T-Mobile?

You can still use Google Voice without porting your number.

 

[jaredsutter]

I use GV and T-Mobile, and almost no one knows my TMo number. I forward calls from GV to my cell number (and work phone, and last week on vacation I forwarded calls to the phone in my vacation rental because I had bad cell coverage...). It works great, except that MMS messages don't work with GV, so if anyone sends you one, you won't know it. Also, it requires a data connection for sending texts, so if you are in an area with voice-only coverage, GV texts won't send or receive.

You can give out your TMobile number if you want (say, for someone that wants to send you an MMS), but I've only given my TMobile to my wife. In most cases, you don't need to give that number out.

My only "complication" thus far is that my new TMobile number appears to have once been owned by someone with some outstanding debts, so I keep getting calls from a collections agency looking for someone else :-\

 

[Jaysus]

I am in a very similar situation to jaredsutter... save for the previously owned number being in a debt collector's database

 

[ballalint]

Thanks for responding. I'm not entirely sure I want to stick with t-mo, so I'm thinking that porting my verizon number to GV would give me more flexibility in case I want to switch carriers. I feel that this is the easiest way to do this. Am I correct in this? Also, don't you lose some GV functionality if you don't port your current #?

 

[ballalint]

I use GV and T-Mobile, and almost no one knows my TMo number. I forward calls from GV to my cell number (and work phone, and last week on vacation I forwarded calls to the phone in my vacation rental because I had bad cell coverage...). It works great, except that MMS messages don't work with GV, so if anyone sends you one, you won't know it. Also, it requires a data connection for sending texts, so if you are in an area with voice-only coverage, GV texts won't send or receive.

You can give out your TMobile number if you want (say, for someone that wants to send you an MMS), but I've only given my TMobile to my wife. In most cases, you don't need to give that number out.

My only "complication" thus far is that my new TMobile number appears to have once been owned by someone with some outstanding debts, so I keep getting calls from a collections agency looking for someone else :-\

Thanks for your response! Just to be clear, if I port my old verizon # to GV, I can no longer receive texts sent to my old verizon #? If this is the case, then would it make more sense for me to do as ultravisitor recommended and port my number from verizon to t-mo? Thanks again!

 

[ballalint]

If you know you're going to be using T-Mobile, then why don't you just port your number to T-Mobile?

You can still use Google Voice without porting your number.

Thanks for responding. I'm not entirely sure I want to stick with t-mo, so I'm thinking that porting my verizon number to GV would give me more flexibility in case I want to switch carriers. I feel that this is the easiest way to do this. Am I correct in this? Also, don't you lose some GV functionality if you don't port your current #?

 

[ultravisitor]

Also, don't you lose some GV functionality if you don't port your current #?

Like what? I haven't lost any functionality that I know of, and I've been using Google Voice on my phones since I switched to Android, which was the day the Droid X was released.

Furthermore, I don't know how you would receive MMS messages if you use Google Voice. Google Voice doesn't support MMS.

 

[ballalint]

Like what? I haven't lost any functionality that I know of, and I've been using Google Voice on my phones since I switched to Android, which was the day the Droid X was released.

Looking back at google's explanation, I realize I must have misunderstood what they were saying. I assumed that you would lose GV functionality if you didn't port your current wireless number. Thanks for helping me clear this up. At this point, I am planning on porting my number to t-mo and then getting a separate google voice number. That way, I'll be able to send/receive texts through t-mo, while using my data connection and GrooveIP to make calls with my GV number. Will this work? Thanks again for your responses.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/150640?hl=en

 

[ultravisitor]

It should work, but it doesn't seem worth the effort, if you ask me. The quality of the calls is going to be dependent on the strength of your connection, for one, and remember that the coverage for prepaid service is slightly different than the coverage for postpaid service (postpaid having wider coverage, of course). T-Mobile has the disclaimer that data roaming is not available for prepaid plans. Plus, I can't even imagine how annoying it would be to make sure everyone has my current number. Then there's also the pain in the *** of actually getting them to USE the new number. Maybe the people you know are different, but some of the people I know can't even be bothered to use the current email address for me despite the fact that I notified them of the change years ago.

Anyway, I wouldn't rely on the solution you have in mind for many phone calls. I'd use it as a backup, at most.