Landline to GoPhone to GV?
DonJ:
As I said I have a cell to use and do not use the landline that much. Since the deal includes Priority Mail (2-3 days to most places) I wouldn't have sweated it anyway. The landline number has been in the family 65+ years which is why I decided to keep it. Probably silly, but many do it for that reason.
sixrealms:
DonJ,
Thanks for your report. I'm in the process of purchasing a Gophone to port my land line number and subsequently port it to GV. AT&T is my land line provider. The Alcatel 510A remains on the AT&T web site and I find it suitable to purchase it as you had ~ port my land line number with placement of the order. Your post ends with your receipt of the Gophone assigned the number ported from your land line. I question if the subsequent port to GV went as smoothly, and if Gophone minutes were used to get this done.
Do I need to purchase a prepaid card? How is it that you didn't need to purchase a prepaid card... were you able to activate the Gophone and complete the port to GV without use of any minutes? I'm not familiar with the 10¢ a minute plan ~ If Gophone minutes were used, when and how is it that you pay for these minutes?
I use Tracfone. My recent upgrade to a Tracfone LG 840G leaves me with an unused Tracfone LG 225. I am not confident that GV will accept to port from the LG 225. If the Alcatel 510A is known to port reliably for GV, then that is what I'll use.
Thanks for your contribution.
Rick:
The model cellphone you use is totally irrelevant.
The phone gets 1 call from GV plus any that come from the time of landline port completion until GV is done, IF you choose to answer those.
sixrealms:
Rick,
Your response sent me back into researching. This all can be very frustrating to us who know little.
Reviewing GV's requirements, I found, as you stated, that they are accepting porting from most all cell carriers and porting from a Tracfone should not be a problem. Then I uncovered a different dead end: TracFone's service status, as of May 30, 2013, is it does not support CCF, conditional call forwarding:
http://www.tracfoneforum.com/search.php?sid=58351180068e7d1bded2a33abcbf5af2
CCF forwards unanswered or busy calls from the mobile phone line to GV. This feature is provided by the cell service provider, not by Google. Some prepaid carriers do not support CCF to cut costs, and TracFone does not support CCF.
I upgraded my TracFone cell along with its accessories to obtain more convenience ~ primarily hands free access in the car (bluetooth), and call screening in order to eliminate my land line and need for the answering machine for listening to incoming calls (Google Voice). My LG 840G was activated yesterday morning and last night I read that as TracFone service does not provide CCF, Google Voice call screening feature will not work.
In order to have cell phone listen call screening (versus announcement of caller ID), it seems to me that I'll have to change to AT&T's cell service. I know nothing of AT&T's cells, plans and pricing structure to compare to what I've had with TracFone. So, it is more research for me along with acceptance of the sunk cost for what I've paid for the TracFone upgrades. Recommendations will be appreciated.
Thank you, Rick.
Rick:
Sixrealms:
The subject matter of this thread is PORTING a number to Google Voice. Porting means moving the service from one company to another. If you have a home number, and you want to make it a Google Voice number, you PORT from your home service provider to a cellphone provider then to Google Voice, since GV won't allow direct porting from a home service provider.
If you have cell number that you want to port to Google Voice, you just do that.
Porting is NOT forwarding. Porting CHANGES THE PROVIDER to a new provider. The old provider's account with you then CLOSES, and the new provider takes over the phone number.
If you have existing cell phone service, as many of us do, that cell phone service may - or may not - have capabilities when used with Google Voice WHILE MAINTAINING THE CELL SERVICE. You can have GV be the voicemail service for your cell phone for example.
This has nothing to do with call screening, call forwarding, or anything related to that.
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