Number porting to GV - my experience

[Judgeless]

You can check Callcentric here http://www.callcentric.com/lnp/ .  You might also contact support at Anveo, VOIPo, etc. and ask if your number can be ported.

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a solid backup plan if GV fails to accommodate my needs. Just something else to do in my 'spare' time.

When I found out Google Voice would not transfer my number from T-Mobile I transferred the number to Callcentric.  They do not do electronic transfers and it takes 25 to 45 days to make the transfer.  They claim Mar 15 the transfer will happen. I hope this happens.  I have been working on this for 3 months.

[pug_ster]

I have a question.  I got an old t-mobile activate kit and I am attempting to move from Vonage to t-mobile.  Considering that today is Saturday, will porting of the phone include Saturday or Sunday or it will happen only on Business days?  Thanks.

Edit.  My number got ported today (Wednesday) to T-mobile.  I called on Saturday.  But my bill cycle started on the 13th, so I have to pay another $38 to Vonage...

[MrGadget]

But my bill cycle started on the 13th, so I have to pay another $38 to Vonage...

Most companies will refund 'unused' portion of your service. It may take awhile, but they should only charge you for the days up until canceled  (pro-rated). Maybe not Vonage, but other Telcos will.

[Mikey_in_LA]

I'm brand-new to Obi...I followed the OP's instructions (glad I kept that old GSM phone around), and I can confirm that my experience was virtually identical, with a few small differences...

-- I bought a T-Mobile pay-as-you-go SIM from their website -- but it was on sale for $.99, so it cost me $1.08, shipped.

-- For some reason, I was unable to register the SIM online, so I had to call T-Mobile and do it all by phone.

-- My T-Mobile account number was indeed the 10-digit phone number with a "1" prepended. And after my AT&T home phone ported over to the T-Mobile, the T-Mobile account number became my (old) ported phone number, with a "1" prepended.

-- I also got the "wrong PIN code" error message from GV after initiating the T-Mobile-->GV port, but it magically cleared itself up without me having to do anything.

-- The port from T-Mobile to GV didn't happen right at midnight...but it DID happen almost exactly 24 hours after I initiated it.

-- My home broadband (AT&T Uverse) did NOT disconnect when the home phone ported out. In my particular case (YMMV), they are two completely separate entities, despite being services of the same company.

All in, porting my home phone from AT&T-->T-Mobile-->GV cost me $21.08. Add the $49.99 for the OBi100, and the grand total was $71.07, which represents just under two months of the AT&T home phone service I've been paying for all these years...

...and it rings EVERY phone in my house, AND works perfectly with my Brinks (now ADT) alarm system.

I plan to add Callcentric 911 service, which will run $1.50/month, because I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy...

...but even so, $1.50/mo. vs. $45.00/mo...not too shabby.

[Mikey_in_LA]

One weird thing, though...

I just turned on the T-Mobile cell phone -- the one that served as the "middleman" as I successfully ported my home landline from AT&T --> T-Mobile cell --> Google Voice.

Just for grins, I used the T-Mobile cell to call another cell phone...and the CallerID came up as my "Home Phone" -- in other words, my Home Phone number is currently in two places: Google Voice, and the T-Mobile cell.

Can I assume that this will eventually change? I mean, shouldn't T-Mobile's "hold" on the number eventually fizzle out?

Any thoughts?

[jimates]

Once the port is 100% complete the cell should stop working.

[Everton]

How much testing have you done with your ADT Alarm System, since the switch over?  If you haven't done some extensive testing over many days, I would highly recommend it.  Did you have to do anything "special" to the OBi100 to have the Alarm System communicate successfully through GV with the ADT Central Station? 

I thought the Brinks System was proprietary and could only be monitored by Brink?  In other words, ADT would have to replace the panel with their own to get the system working?  BTW, do you know the model number of the ADT System that is installed?  Is it a Ademco VISTA 20P/21IP?, SafeWatch 2000/3000, etc.?

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...and it rings EVERY phone in my house, AND works perfectly with my Brinks (now ADT) alarm system.

[kirnkorner2001]

I just had to create an account to post a big THANK YOU for this! We've had our home phone number for 17 years, and we didn't want to give it up.

I went to a T-Mobile store on Wednesday and got the cheapest prepaid phone with the cheapest plan. I even told the sales rep immediately that I wanted to port my home number to this mobile phone, and he got on with customer service to make it happen. I had a copy of my bill so I could give them my info right away to start the port process.  I was really concerned because we used Charter Communications for our home phone provider, but it went really smooth. For what it's worth, the cheapest phone is REALLY bad. I hate everything about it, but it's only temporary. I'm thinking it will make a good shotgun target

I received a text the next morning that the port was complete. Calling out from the mobile phone showed the correct number, but calling the number still rang our home phone. I called T-Mobile, and they said the port would not be complete for up to 24 hours when I received the text. So I waited...

The port complete this morning. I started the process with Google Voice just an hour ago, so no word from them yet, but the port is started!

I'm super excited to be able to keep our number! This thread has been very valuable.  I will forward to anyone who is thinking of doing the same thing.

[jerme]

Ok my turn!  My number to be ported was previously a POTS number from Pacific Bell / SBC, which got ported to various cable bundles before making its way to Vonage.  Vonage sucks and OBihai is awesome so I wanted to port the number to GV and use it with the OBi110.

Porting method:  Vonage -> T-Mobile Prepaid -> Google Voice

Hardware requirements:  T-Mobile Prepaid SIM Activation Kit, unlocked GSM wireless phone

Day 1 (Saturday):  Ordered the T-Mobile SIM Card Activation Kit from the T-Mobile website.  $6.99 - $5.00 "web only discount" = $1.99, plus tax, free shipping via USPS (with a tracking number, yay).  It has an initial $3.34 value.

Alternatives - I tried going to several T-Mobile stores earlier in the day, and just like everyone said here, the reps would not activate a SIM without putting minutes on it.  Prices ranged from $10-$20 for the activation kit, plus minutes.  There are also vendors on Amazon marketplace selling the same kit for ~$6 with free standard shipping (not Prime).

Day 5 (Thursday):  Received the SIM card and activation code in the mail.  Went to T-Mobile.com/PrepaidActivation.  Activation code didn't work for some reason, so I called (877) 778-2107 with another phone and support gave me a new activation code.  Back on the website and filling out all the details (activation code, SIM number, IMEI from the unlocked phone, etc.), I was assigned a T-Mobile number.

Note: I already had an unlocked GSM phone lying around.  You'll need wireless phone, i.e., you can't complete the process by just purchasing the SIM kit.  Amazon has unlocked phones starting around $25.

Day 6 (Friday):  By early morning I received the text confirming the T-Mobile prepaid wireless line was activated.  Went to the TMo website to fill in account information for the new line.  Called (877) 789-3106 with another phone to initiate the Vonage-to-TMobile port, providing the rep my Vonage account number and PIN.  Called again 4 hours later to find out that Vonage holds the number for 10 days, which is in line with information found on this Vonage forum thread.   Unfortunately landlines don't have the same time restriction for porting that wireless lines do, but at least the 10 day wait is during the middle of my billing cycle.

Note:  Do NOT run out the phone minutes.  You run the risk of losing the ported number should your account balance run out.

Day 15:  In the wee hours of the morning, I received text msg from T-mobile welcoming me to their network.  I logged into Google voice (I had created a dedicated account prior, which apparently solves a lot of issues with OBi devices) and initiated the port from TMo to GV, checking series of boxes confirming any possible risks during the porting process, typing my TMo acct number (1+the number to originally be ported), name, address.  I paid the $20 through Google Wallet, then returned to main screen.  At the top of the screen:

"You have a porting request in progress.  Click here to view the status."

I clicked the link, where I saw this message:

"Your request to port (XXX) XXX-XXXX has encountered an error.  Error Code:  Password/PIN required or incorrect(Prepaid PIN required)."

I filled in Billing Account Pin and Last 4 digits of account holder's Social Security Number.

Day 16:  Logged into my Google Voice account and noticed that the system had left me a message:

"Welcome to Google Voice. Google Voice gives you a single phone number that rings all of your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text. Other cool features include the ability to listen in on messages while they're being left, block unwanted callers, and make cheap international calls. We hope you enjoy using Google Voice. " The port was complete, 2 minutes shy of 24 hours.

In the afternoon I received an e-mail from Vonage confirming cancellation of account.  Also, by that time the T-Mobile line was no longer active.  Both prior accounts are inaccessible, but I'm going to keep an eye out for any charges Vonage may try to sneak in.


Just another drop in the bucket for this thread but methinks it'd be helpful for anybody else out there who is porting out of Vonage.  I didn't have to deal with Vonage customer service at all.  Aside from the SIM activation on TMo, everything went smoothly, just took a while with the Vonage 10 day waiting period.  Thanks Obihai and thanks OP!

[carolynm]

I bought an OBI and successfully transferred my Verizon landline number to ATT gophone but now Google Voice says it doesn't currently support the area...

I have received calls on the go phone dialed to my original landline. Is there any chance there is some lag here ie GV doesn't see this as a mobile # yet?  Should I wait a day or two before I explore other options? FWIW I typed the # into Callcentric and it says it will port.

Is Verizon totally out of the loop or do I need to cancel?

Thanks for any assistance. I really wanted to get this # to GV.

[Stewart]

but now Google Voice says it doesn't currently support the area...

What is the area code and next three digits of your present number?  Try entering them here: http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail .  Then, click the link under Rate Center and see whether Bandwidth.com shows up in the list.  If so, contacting Google may help.  If not, you are probably out of luck with GV, though given that CC can port your number, there are probably also several other alternatives.

[Ostracus]

Hmmm, has anyone ever tried with a Tracphone?

[MrGadget]

Stay tuned.

PHASE II (Porting)

It's been awhile (January 11, 2012) since I started to look into porting my office phone to Google Voice and the Obi. After reading some of the other horror story posts about failing to port properly, I decided to do additional investigation (alternative VOIP providers, emergency 3G Virgin Mobile Internet access, more verification...).

After additional calls to CenturyLink, and hearing the same porting process, I was assured that my DSL service would not be interrupted. OK. Time to pick a date, close to my billing cycle for the landline. Reviewed the tutorial from Obihai on "Number Porting to Google Voice". Made a checklist and timeline with the updated time estimates from T-Mobile and
Google Voice for porting to make sure I would not be inconvenienced. (since each port could take upto 7-10 days).

I am happy to report that the porting process (start to finish) was completed in 2 Days 4 Hours, and my DSL migrated to Naked DSL without incident (after 4 days). No horror stories, no issues. I take that back, Step 5.4, calling T-Mobile to initiate porting process was a royal pain. I had several phone numbers for T-Mobile Customer Support, including 1-877-937-8997 (DO NOT USE) resulted in a "Gold Rewards" AVR and the calls to India were unintelligible, loud, full of static. I placed about 4 calls until I could understand the CSR and place my order. Now it's time to discover all of the kewl features of GV and the OBI. Good luck on your endeavor.

Task   Complete   Description
1   Y/N   Contact TelCo, Verify DSL will remain after porting (as needed)
1.1   Y/N   Perform T-Mobile/GV Sanity Checks: (Can I port my number?)
1.2   Y/N   GV "Not available from your CURRENT carrier" (Good News) https://www.google.com/voice/porting?pli=1
1.3   Y/N   T-Mobile: "Yes, you can transfer to T-Mobile" (Also Good News) www.t-mobile.com/switch/default.aspx
2   Y/N   Obtain T-Mobile SIM  ($2.99, 10 minutes talk time or less)
2.1   Y/N   SIM Activation Code: XXXX XX XXXX
2.2   Y/N   SIM Card SN: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx
2.3   Y/N   Phone IMEI: (*#06#) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2.4   Y/N   My Area Code: xxx, My ZIP: xxxxx My DOB: xxxxxxxx
2.5   Y/N   My T-Mobile PIN: xxxx
3   Y/N   Charge Battery on T-Mobile Phone
4   Y/N   Setup GMAIL account for new Google Voice (as needed)
4.1   Y/N   U:username P:password
4.2   Y/N   Support Info: alt-email, alt-security
4.3   Y/N   CREATE GOOGLE VOICE ACCOUNT. Get (temp) Number. (OPTIONAL)
5   Y/N   Activate SIM per instructions
5.1   Y/N   Insert T-Mobile SIM, call 1-877-778-2107 (from landline)
5.2   Y/N   Make test calls in and out (temporary number 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx)
5.3   Y/N   Setup T-Mobile Voicemail from LANDLINE (no minute charges)
5.31   Y/N   Call your new number, press: *, last 4 digits of cell, #
5.32   Y/N   Follow the prompts, setup new voicemail password.
5.4   Y/N   T-Mobile Port Number call 1-800-937-8997 (from landline)
5.5   Y/N   Obtain T-Mobile Call Confirmation # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6   Y/N   Wait 1 - 3 (7-10) days for T-Mobile to port from CO/POTS.
6.1   Y/N   Keep T-Mobile phone ON and CHARGED
6.2   Y/N   Receive TEXT on Cellphone, number ported successfully.
6.3   Y/N   Power phone OFF, Remove battery, replace, power ON
6.4   Y/N   Make BRIEF calls in and out from cell phone (validate number)
6.5   Y/N   Turn phone OFF after GV validation step 7.3 (unless you bought extra minutes).
6.6   Y/N   Access T-Mobile VOICEMAIL from LANDLINE as needed, see 5.31
7   Y/N   Port T-Mobile number to GV
7.1   Y/N   Login to Google Voice account, request Port Your Existing Number
7.2   Y/N   Receive call from GV, reply with special 2-digit code.
7.3   Y/N   Provide Account info, porting number 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx, Address, etc.
7.4   Y/N   Pay $20 fee into Google Wallet
7.5   Y/N   Select "GO BACK TO VOICE" Provide PIN + 4SSN
7.6   Y/N   Check GV Status - Verify confirmation, valid data submitted.
7.7   Y/N   Note: Be sure (pre-Port) GV number is forwarded to a working phone. (OPTIONAL)
7.8   Y/N   Access T-Mobile VOICEMAIL from LANDLINE as needed, see 5.31
8   Y/N   Wait 1-3 days for Google Voice to port number from T-Mobile.
9   Y/N   Update Google Voice with proper forwarding numbers.
10   Y/N   Add Google Voice to Obihai on a Service Provider port (SPn)
11      Completed

[Cyberchip]

Have you ever had anyone get both messages with GV?

I got both:
Porting your mobile number to Google Voice is unavailable
Your mobile number can not be ported at this time.
- This number appears to be from an area we don't currently support for porting.
- We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers.

I guess this means NO PORT.  As I would presume the "Area we don't support" supersedes the "your carrier" message.  Have you heard of this situation?

[Frankfone]

But I wonder if anybody knows if GV is going to start charging for their service or will continue to be free. It is nice of them to keep it free!!!

[jimates]

I transferred my sister's number to a trafone but google said it does not support the area. She wasn't really concerned about keeping the number but at least with it on a cell she has an announcement for callers that give her new number. Other wise they would have got no info when calling.

[Fasttimes]

Transfer from Vonage to tmobile took about 3 business days.  Transfer from tmobile to google voice almost exactly 24 hours.

Google voice took about 3 days to start receiving text messages.

[dial.tone]

I'm in the process of porting my home phone to T-Mobile.  That should be done tomorrow.  After that, I will port the number to Google Voice.  However, the GV account I will port to already has a GV number and I will pay the extra $20 to keep it, so I will end up with a GV account with two GV numbers.  Here is the question: when I associate the GV account with my Obi202 device, how will Obi know which GV number to use?  For that matter, since I want to put one of the numbers on Obi SP1 and the other number on Obi SP2, how will I do that? 

[QBZappy]

dial.tone,

so I will end up with a GV account with two GV numbers.  Here is the question: when I associate the GV account with my Obi202 device, how will Obi know which GV number to use?  For that matter, since I want to put one of the numbers on Obi SP1 and the other number on Obi SP2, how will I do that? 

Hi. I didn't even realize that you could have 2 GV numbers using one gmail acct. The OBi expects each Service Provider slot that gets configured with a GV account to use the following info to "Connect" with the service:
AuthUserName
AuthPassword

Hey wait a moment, I see a problem here.

Momentary Pause "Please enjoy this short intermission and relax to some soothing sounds as I read up on this."

OK I'm back. I was reading up on this. It seems GV rings your primary number even if someone calls the old GV number. So either way for incoming your OBi should ring if any of the two GV numbers are dialed. For outgoing it seems that the primary GV number handles the CID. Since each GV offers 2 voice channels I wonder if there is a way to get 4 voice channels in a setup like that.

(\ /) "Good question"
( . .)
c(")(")

[jimates]

Everything works as if only one GV number existed. The "new" main number is used for both outgoing and incoming calls. Incoming calls to the old number will be forwarded (within google) to the new number.

So there will still only be 2 simultaneous sessions available. You can't set up the old number to use on the Obi.

Hey QBZappy, I finally reached 1000.