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Number porting to GV - my experience

Started by chaiwan2000, June 16, 2011, 11:20:56 PM

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SteveInWA

Quote from: Pedro675 on April 07, 2018, 05:21:32 AM
Yes, I did check earlier and just now and got:

"Ooops! We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers."

So it looks like GV will port my number when it is from a mobile carrier.

My neighbor uses Verizon, is that an alternative? However Verizon is not GSM, only CDMA, not sure if GV cares. I can get a Verizon SIM card for about $10.


Yes, you can use any of the four carriers.  I generally advise against using any third-party (MVNO) providers, since they aren't as skilled at dealing with ports out.  H20 and Consumer Cellular are the worst.

eaglemaster

Not trying to hijack the forum, but today i finally got a text message from tmobile and my homeline is officially a cellphone number but weird thing is vonage still work and i can use to vonage to make calls but i am receiving calls on my Tmobile phone and i am also able to text on my tmobile phone i ported my vonage number to tmobile on april 2 and today finally it moved in but still seeing vonage works for making outbound calls lol

steve please advice should i wait another 5 days before calling vonage to cancel the service or i should wait 24 hours from now and see whats going on?

SteveInWA

Quote from: eaglemaster on April 09, 2018, 03:23:58 PM
steve please advice should i wait another 5 days before calling vonage to cancel the service?

Yes, wait.  Make absolutely sure that both inbound and outbound calling works now on your T-Mobile phone, using your ported-in Vonage number.  Make sure that the Vonage device does not ring on inbound calls.

Give it a few days in that working condition.  Then contact Vonage if you can still make outbound calls on their device, and tell them that you ported out the number, and to cancel your service with them.

Background:  this seems to happen all the time with Vonage.  AFAIK, it is a chronically-broken process on their side, whereby they are not receiving, or not processing, the notification from the porting system that the number has been ported away, so it stays in their inventory in error.

eaglemaster

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 09, 2018, 03:35:11 PM
Quote from: eaglemaster on April 09, 2018, 03:23:58 PM
steve please advice should i wait another 5 days before calling vonage to cancel the service?

Yes, wait.  Make absolutely sure that both inbound and outbound calling works now on your T-Mobile phone, using your ported-in Vonage number.  Make sure that the Vonage device does not ring on inbound calls.

Give it a few days in that working condition.  Then contact Vonage if you can still make outbound calls on their device, and tell them that you ported out the number, and to cancel your service with them.

Background:  this seems to happen all the time with Vonage.  AFAIK, it is a chronically-broken process on their side, whereby they are not receiving, or not processing, the notification from the porting system that the number has been ported away, so it stays in their inventory in error.

Thank you i will wait as of right now inbound and outbound calls are going through on my tmobile phone and vonage does not ring if anyone calls only the tmobile phone does but if i pick the vonage phone i hear dialing tone and i am able to call.  thanks again man

Pedro675

Eaglemaster, thanks for adding to the conversation - no hijack, just good information.

Lavarock7

When I canceled one VOIP provider, I found their service was still working months later. I made a call that had a cost involved and never saw a bill. I would not be surprised if that account was still working years later.
My websites: Kona Coffee: http://itskona.com and Web Hosting: http://planetaloha.info<br />A simplified Voip explanation: http://voip.planet-aloha.com

eaglemaster

so today as of 04/10/2018 vonage has no more dialing tone nor can i make calls from it when logged in into vonaga account under Account Status it says its : Disconnected  Next Automatic Payment 04/26/2018
Current Estimated Charges $0.00

SteveInWA

Quote from: eaglemaster on April 10, 2018, 04:17:49 PM
so today as of 04/10/2018 vonage has no more dialing tone nor can i make calls from it when logged in into vonaga account under Account Status it says its : Disconnected  Next Automatic Payment 04/26/2018
Current Estimated Charges $0.00

Congratulations.  You're done.

eaglemaster

Thank you i am waiting on obi device to arrive supposed to be here tomorrow you think i should wait for porting it to google voice till Friday?

SteveInWA

If, and only if, the T-Mobile phone now works with both inbound and outbound calling AND sending and receiving SMS, then yes, you can submit your port request now.  It is unrelated to OBi use.

Note:  starting a number port into Google Voice on a Friday will likely not result in the port finishing over the weekend.  While most of the process is automated, if your request requires manual intervention of some kind, that only happens on weekdays.  Also, sometimes the porting system goes down on weekends for maintenance.  Although mobile#<--->mobile# ports can be completed in minutes, ports into Google Voice typically take a minimum of 24 hours, because you are porting into a land line carrier, not a mobile carrier.

eaglemaster

quick update:
i am finally done ported tmobile number to google voice yesterday and exactly after 24 hours my number moved to google voice is there anything i should do after this or i am set and use google voice for free as my landline?
should i consider callcentric's free DID for free CNAM and E911 ($1.50/month)? as based on other thread this was mentioned " there is a current issue with google voice and inbound calls.  Sometimes (most times) answering the call produces dead air. "

Total cost:
$35 for the device ( got on sale from newegg.com)
$10 for pay as you go minute for the tmobile unlocked phone (i already had an unlocked gsm phone and tmobile simcard in my drawer)

$20 porting number from tmobile to google voice

Total expense: $65

SteveInWA

Well, Google Voice is not simply a free phone company (if they were, you'd have to pay Federal taxes and USF fees, by law).  It's a call forwarding service.  Inbound calls to a Google Voice number forward somewhere; either to up to six different 10-digit US phone numbers, or to an OBi.  So, you can, for example, link your mobile phone number, and it will ring on inbound calls as well as your OBi.

I assume you do realize that you need to now set up Google Voice on your OBi, right?

eaglemaster

yes already did setup the google voice on my obi and been able to make and receive calls with the number that got ported from tmobile

Pedro675

Received my OBi200 today and have confirmed my borrowed cell phone can use an AT&T sim.

I will set up the OBi and get a temporary (for me) GV number to test the service for a while before I port my home phone number to GV. What I don't understand is how any phone (landline & cell) can call the GV number without being connected to the internet? How does it get routed?

drgeoff

Quote from: Pedro675 on April 16, 2018, 01:17:51 PMWhat I don't understand is how any phone (landline & cell) can call the GV number without being connected to the internet? How does it get routed?
But you can understand how a landline can call a cellphone or a cellphone can call a landline despite being different technologies?

Pedro675

Well no I don't understand (technically), but you're right, it does just work. So I guess once I set up GV through OBi any phone can just call me and visa versa.

SteveInWA

To (over)simplify:  The worldwide Public Switched Telephone Network, or PSTN, consists of millions of telephone "exchanges", or geographic location "central offices", with phone switches owned by telephone carriers, and all interconnected over dedicated networks.  Think of the phone switches as call routers.  When one phone number calls another, the switches use routing tables to create a connection between the two endpoints.  Traditionally, this was called "circuit switched" telephony, because originally, a physical "circuit" or set of wires, was used to make these connections (now, this is all done digitally, and routed over many different paths via fiber optic, copper wire, satellite and/or microwave).  The call connects from one phone, to the local CO, where it is digitized for transit over the network.

Voice over IP (VoIP) calls are "packet switched", meaning:  they are digitized right in the device on your premises, such as your OBi box, and then sent over the internet in little chunks (packets), in the same way as all of your other internet communications (email, web browsing, video streaming, etc.).

VoIP calls travel either over the public internet or over a private IP network, eventually reaching the "termination point", where the Internet Telephone Service Provider, or ITSP, then connects them to a telephone switch, as above, where they then become traditional phone calls on the telephone network.  The telephone carrier then uses the same phone switches to route the call to your called telephone number.

So:  it doesn't matter how the call travels from one end to the other, it's eventually connecting to the PSTN.

Pedro675


Pedro675

i guess I have a follow up question. If our home phone is normally a long distance call for someone calling me, when they call after I'm on GV is that call still long distance charges for them?

drgeoff

Quote from: Pedro675 on April 16, 2018, 04:29:27 PM
i guess I have a follow up question. If our home phone is normally a long distance call for someone calling me, when they call after I'm on GV is that call still long distance charges for them?
Your GV number is just like any other US number.  How much your caller is charged depends solely on their provider's rate from their area code to your area code.