Overcome GV XMPP limitations and port landline

[GaryA]

I have an Obi-110 and testing it with various VoIP providers.
My goal:  Keep my landline phone # if at all possible.

I have checked with a number of VoIP providers and none of them can port my current landline #.

Here's an assumption based on a OBI-TALK forum post:
Go to http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail?npa=320&exchange=743. If "Bandwidth.com" is listed under NPA-NXX you should be able to port it to Google Voice form a cell carrier.

Let me know if the following concepts are valid in order to achieve my goal receiving calls on my landline and: use GV, my Obi-110 and a new VoIP provider phone number:

1. Get a new phone number from a VoIP provider (e.g. 320-555-voip) and set it up on SP2, for example.

2. Port my current landline (e.g. 320-555-myLL) to a mobile provider.

3. When my landline number is activated with the mobile provider, call that # to be sure the mobile phone rings.

4. Set up in GV: When GV asks to set up a phone number, choose the selection to use your own number. Use my former landline # (320-555-myLL)

5. When GV indicates they have the former landline # ported: in GV, configure 320-555-myLL to have "Forward Calls To:" 320-555-voip (the new phone # with my VoIP provider ). This way, when someone calls my old landline number it will ring the phone connected to my Obi-110 by virtue of the VoIP provider's phone # configured on my Obi-110 on SP2.

6. In the configuration of my VoIP provider phone # (320-555-voip):  set up caller-ID Spoofing to 320-555-myLL. This way, the people we call will see our original landline number on their caller-ID.

With the above, my hope is that:
A. People calling us can still dial our original landline number and we can receive calls through my Obi-110.
B. When we dial out, those receiving our phone call will see our original landline number as the Caller-ID on their phone.


Thanks in advance.

[giqcass]

The basics of what you are doing sounds fine.  Unless you actually want to use the Google Voice features I would at step 4 first make another attempt to port the number to your new VOIP provider.  Incoming calls will experience better quality.  Much like Google Voice the step of porting the number to a cell phone first "might" reshuffle the deck and allow one of the VOIP providers to transfer your number.

[SteveInWA]

TL;DR:  don't port into Google Voice with the expectation that it will solve your porting issue.  Port in only if you like GV features and plan to use them.

If you have been unable to port your land line phone number to various VoIP Internet Telephone Service Providers (ITSPs), then you will likely not be able to port it to Google Voice's carrier, either (your steps 3 through 5).  Many people are under the mistaken impression that number porting to some intermediate mobile carrier transfers "ownership" of that number to the mobile carrier, and that move, somehow solves the previous inability to port.  This is incorrect.

Phone numbers are originally issued to Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) in numeric blocks, by the North American Number Planning Administration, or NANPA.  http://www.nanpa.com/

Those numbers will forever belong to the carrier that received them, unless that carrier transfers a block over to another carrier or the carrier is bought up by some other carrier.

Under Local Number Portability, LECs loan their phone numbers to other LECs.  This doesn't change anything with regard to the area code, LATA, or local exchange in which the number resides.  The receiving, or "gaining" LEC needs to be able to host that number in the appropriate exchange.  Not every LEC does business in every exchange, and thus, no carrier can port in every given number.  It's the downside of deregulation of the Bell System.

How local number portability works:  http://www.npac.com/number-portability/how-lnp-works

Google Voice adds a separate, and unrelated issue that limits porting-in.  GV only accepts ports in from mobile carriers.  This is an arbitrary limitation imposed by GV, due to the added cost and complexity of porting in from land line carriers.   So, people try to first port in a number to a mobile carrier to get around this.  IF the original number is in an exchange that happens to be supported by Google's LEC (bandwidth.com), THEN that workaround will succeed.  IF it is not, then the workaround will fail.  Furthermore, if you do port first into a mobile carrier, that port has to be completely error-free, and you need to wait several days to a week or more before the entire telephone network has received the broadcast notifying it of the new home for the ported number.   Otherwise, GV will report that the number is still a land line number and it will error out.

You will not know for sure if a number can be ported into GV until you enter it into GV's porting tool.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667

Note:  This statement, "Go to http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail?npa=320&exchange=743. If "Bandwidth.com" is listed under NPA-NXX you should be able to port it to Google Voice form a cell carrier." is not necessarily correct.  BW.com does business with many ITSPs, small and large.  It may not have any further capacity to port in a number in a given exchange.  Also, portability is determined at the NPA-NXX-N block level, not at the NPA-NXX level.  So, if you want to search, search down to the block level, not just the area code and prefix.