What's the cheapest way to port my home phone number to Obi?
helpmeobi:
I'm thinking I'll try GV since it seems to be the cheapest, even with an E911 service. What's the best/cheapest way to port my number over? Thank you soooo much! This is what I'm most nervous about.
SteveInWA:
Read: http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial
Lavarock7:
I am cheaper than many people I know, however...
When I first started with VOIP I was with a provider who charged a lot less a month than the local telco. I was a happy camper.
After a while I found a cheaper provider and switched to them.
Then I found GoogleVoice and used that with my PC. Later I got an Obi device and configured it for GV.
GoogleVoice is fine for those who absolutely want to have free calling. However, I found that companies such as Voip.Ms and CallCentric, although they charge a dollar or so a month and a bit per minute, gave me more options and a lot less issues.
The forums here are full of questions about GoogleVoice and how to do this and how to do that. Porting a landline is not an easy thing. There are issues with 911, etc. You can't call some toll free numbers and sometimes there are other issues when Google changes something, etc. Google does not want you doing business through their service. Google does not have any real support except user forums, etc.
While free is enticing, I found that having accounts with CallCentric and Voip.Ms have their pluses and few minuses. You pay a small fee and pay per call, but there are few hassles and problems.
I suggest people port their number to a paid provider and add a GV number if you want to play, but use the paid provider as your main service.
helpmeobi:
Thank you very much for the info! That definitely is something to think about. I checked out those websites, even created accounts, but I literally cannot figure out how much the service even is nor what it provides. It seems really technical. I tried for a while to see what I'd actually be paying, but no dice.
MrTom:
Quote from: helpmeobi on April 07, 2017, 09:00:35 pm
I'm thinking I'll try GV since it seems to be the cheapest, even with an E911 service. What's the best/cheapest way to port my number over? Thank you soooo much! This is what I'm most nervous about.
Before you even try anything, you'll want to make sure that your number/area/town can be ported to GV.
https://www.google.com/voice/porting
If you check a number that's still on a landline, you'll get an error stating so. I started going through the whole process myself. Got a T-Mobile account and phone and transferred my home landline to the T-Mobile SIM card. Worked fine with the free minutes I had on the SIM. But then I tried to transfer that new "mobile" number to GV and they wouldn't accept it. There do seem to be some areas where GV can't access. Just like when I chose a new GV phone number, I had to use the adjacent town instead of the town I live in. Oh well. I'm glad to get rid of my old spam-plagued landline phone number anyway.
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