Best way to port my grandmother's landline # to work with GV or voice.ms?

[HunterT]

I have an Obi110 device and I am trying to figure out what the best way is to port my Grandmother's landline phone number to work with Google Voice or voip.ms. I went to the store and bought a pre-paid At&t mobile phone to start this whole process. Although, I haven't opened it yet and I am wondering if I still need to use it to convert the land-line # to a mobile # if I go the voip.ms route. From experience what would you guys recommend?

Also if anyone has advice on how to make this porting process any easier, which I heard takes about 3 days to get the number from land-line to At&t mobile and then another 2 days to port from At&t to Google Voice. I'm worried about my grandmother not having her land-line phone for too long. She does have an iPhone if this helps with any recommendations.

One of my other concerns was making it so she would still be able to use her Base station (http://www.amazon.com/VTech-CS6429-2-Cordless-Silver-Handsets/dp/B004OA74OC/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1364456953&sr=8-6&keywords=vtech+phones) which is the vtech answering machine to check receive and check her messages. I am aware that if I go the Google Voice route I have to set the vtech phone's ringtime to less than 25 seconds or it will use Google Voicemail instead. With voice.ms will this be easier to configure?

[CoalMinerRetired]

Basic ?s first:

1-You've looked at this, yes? http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial.html
2-Are you certain, or are you in the leap of faith category, that GV currently supports ports from the NXX exchange where your grandmother's landline is?
3-Three days total is about right for a landline > mobile > GV port.  The few I've done were all using T-Mobile, so ymmv.

> worried about... not having her land-line phone for too long.
During any of the ports, landline > mobile or mobile > GV, you're gonna have at least one, and for a short period of time two, phones always working. The trick is when the mobile > GV port happens is to get the obi up and running and plug in the house's phone cords asap.

I ported a landline for some elderly relatives, and one thing I took away was give them some benefit of the doubt to understand what's going on, I 'dumbed it down' too much at first. Different circumstances might warrant a different approach, alzheimer's and related conditions, etc.

One more suggestion, since you're using an Obi110. Do a several month trial period where you keep your grandma's landline and configure the obi110 with a new, free GV line to handle all outgoing calls that are not local to the exchange, and all local calls go out the landline. The landline incurs absolute minimum charges, no regional toll or long distance. If after three months all is well, port the landline and have all calls go through it. In hindsight this is what I'd do, to test if the internet connection is solid, call quality is not choppy, etc.

[HunterT]

Alright, so would this work:

I will keep everything the way it is (she is currently paying $46/mo to Verizon for Nationwide land-line service).

Before doing anything, I will first follow the tutorials and connect my OBi device to my router and register my OBitalk account.

She has one oldschool corded land-line phone (that doesn't require power) and the vTech set from the link above. The base station of the vTech set and the corded phone are both close to each other.

I was thinking about getting a random # from Google Voice and using it with the vTech phones only for testing purposes and keeping the corded land-line phone hooked up to Verizon still which is the # she's always had.

I guess if I didn't want to do a trial period and start the porting right away, during the porting process I could set her up using a random Google Voice # for the time being so at least she can make outgoing calls right? Once the porting process is complete and her number is finally with Google Voice then I can do the full switch right?

Sorry about all of the questions, I am trying to do everything as smooth as possible. She is 95 years old (btw I am getting e911).

[CoalMinerRetired]

While you could do as you describe, you're misunderstading that last suggestion.

What you describe: one phone connected to existing landline, one phone connected to an Obi with a GV number.
What I was suggesting: Connect all phones to the Obi110 (existing house phone wiring to "Phone" port), connect existing landline to "Telco/Line" port on Obi110, connect Obi to Grandma's router or Lan, Configure one free GV number in the Obi.  Then configure all local calls, (plus 911 plus 800/888/877/866) to go out "Telco/Line" port (existing landline), configure all other calls (LD, regional LD, anything telco charges for, etc) to go out new GV number.  Incoming calls to existing land line # ring all phones connected to the existing house phone wiring.  

The Obi110 is unqiue among the three Obi models in that it has a port for a traditional telco landline, allowing it to be a gateway for incoming and outgoing calls on that port.

See this: http://www.obihai.com/product-primer.html
And this: http://www.obihai.com/matrix.html

[Felix]

I would change CoalMinerRetired's suggestion a little (I did it for my 80yo dad and slightly younger in-laws).

Configure all outgoing calls (except 911) to go through Google Voice. This way you will know if router / ISP / anything else new has a problem. All incoming calls will continue over PSTN. You may want to change the plan to a cheaper one, since she won't make outgoing calls any more. You call her on the new GV number. Call her often - she will be happy , and you will know if there are any problems with incoming calls. Dead air, not ringing, etc.

I thought I would eventually port old number to GV, but over a few months he told all his friends about this new number, and after a year I ended up cancelling old number altogether (he lives in a retirement community with a "call button" to somebody on duty, plus he doesn't speak English - so 911 wasn't a concern for him). Or, you can port her old number to SIP provider (I saw VOIP.ms will port for free), and have some cheap plan from them. Or, forget GV altogether, and port to some SIP provider (Voipo or Callcentric, depending on how much she calls) and you will get full-blown VoIP service, including E911 for less than $10/mo.