Hello.
I read the instructions about transferring my landline number to T-Mobile and ultimately to Google Voice. I have two questions not covered in the article:
1. Once my t-mobile prepaid account is activated and my landline number is ported to Google Voice, do I have to keep the t-mobile account open, or am I just using that sim card temporarily?
The whole purpose of transferring to Google Voice is to have no monthly payment. So, having to pay for a t-mobile account is pointless.
2. If I have to terminate the t-mobile account, will they charge a early termination fee?
Thanks in advance.
Here is the background on why you have to do that, and how to do it correctly:
At this time, Google Voice can only accept ports-in from mobile carriers. The circumvention of this restriction is to first port the land line number to a mobile carrier just long enough to change its classification to mobile, then subsequently port it into Google Voice.
Number porting is a FCC-regulated process for allowing telephone customers to take ("port") their number to a different telephone carrier. It involves a "losing" carrier and a "gaining" carrier. When you port a number, the gaining carrier, with your permission, acts as your agent and contacts the losing carrier to ask the losing carrier to let them take over call routing for that number. The losing carrier agrees, and then the gaining carrier works with a central phone number porting authority to change call routing.
This action automatically cancels service for that number on the losing carrier.So, in plain English:
- You start with a phone number on a land line carrier.
- You port that number out to a mobile carrier. Use a prepaid carrier and buy the minimum number of minutes they sell (typically $10).
- Your service with the land line carrier is canceled, and you now have paid/working service on the gaining carrier (T-Mobile Prepaid in this case).
- You must wait a full week after porting to the mobile carrier.
- You now submit a port-in request to Google Voice, and wait for the process to complete.
- Your service with the mobile carrier is canceled, and you now have service on Google Voice's carrier.
- You can throw away the T-Mobile SIM -- it's dead and its service is canceled.
See: https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667#xferin (https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667#xferin)