Porting cellphone only, is it possible?

[Mercurius]

Hi, instead of porting my landline, can I port my cellphone into GV then make it permanent, then link to Obi200 device to make calls?

Thanks.

[N7AS]

Yes you can. GV only supports porting of cellphone numbers. Landline numbers can't be ported directly.

[Mercurius]

So after porting to GV and makes the number permanent, can I disconnect the cellphone service and uses GV entire for day to day call?

Thank you for your reply.

[N7AS]

Once you port your number, your cellphone service is terminated.

[SteveInWA]

The process of porting a phone number from one telephone company (your cell phone provider) to another (Google Voice's carrier) cancels service on the losing carrier's side...you will no longer have service on the cell phone, and the number will instead be used as a Google Voice number.

During the process of setting up your Google Voice account, you will need to add and verify some OTHER forwarding phone number.  Google Voice is not a free phone company; it's designed to be an inbound call-forwarding system.  Your OBi can be one of the forwarding destinations, but you do need to add some other real, working, US telephone number when you port in the cell phone.

Carefully read the instructions and FAQs here for more information:

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

[Mercurius]

I'm still having confusion here.

Currently, I don't have a landline but I have cellular service (with calling plans and contract). I also have a prepaid-cellular service with verizon. I'm thinking porting the prepaid-cellular number into GV and uses the number with Obi200 as landline. Is this possible?

Thank you again.

[SteveInWA]

I'm still having confusion here.

Currently, I don't have a landline but I have cellular service (with calling plans and contract). I also have a prepaid-cellular service with verizon. I'm thinking porting the prepaid-cellular number into GV and uses the number with Obi200 as landline. Is this possible?

Thank you again.

Ignoring OBi devices for the moment, Google Voice is not a standalone telephone company to completely replace some other form of telephone service.  It is an inbound telephone call forwarding service.  By design, you are either issued a new Google Voice phone number, by clicking the "Get a Voice number" link on the web page, OR you can port in an existing mobile phone number.  Once you do that, you have a Google Voice telephone number.  However, the service expects that you forward that Google Voice number to another, separate, real telephone number.  You need to have a separate forwarding number to sign up for service with GV.  That phone number can be any land line (conventional or VoIP) or mobile phone number in the continental USA.  For example, many people use a VoIP phone number, such as a free inbound number from callcentric.com

Google Voice cannot make 911 emergency calls, and it's subject to occasional outages or other issues, so it is not recommended as your sole means of telephone communications.

Next, when you add an OBi device into the mix, it also becomes another forwarding destination which uses the Google Chat pseudo phone destination to communicate with Google Voice.  Inbound calls to your GV number will ring on the OBi-attached telephone(s), and on up to six other forwarding phones you may add to the list, here:  https://www.google.com/voice#phones

[Mercurius]

SteveInWA,

Thank you very much for your patience. Before posting this forum, I read this tutorial: http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial regarding porting the landline number to GV and the makes GV+Obi work for daily calls.

Since I don't have landline, I basically skip to step 6 (according to the tutorial), porting and making the prepaid cell# into permanent phone number in GV then join with Obi200 to work for inbound and outbound calls, is that correct assumption?

If GV is a just forwarding service only, then porting landline # to GV (through intermediate Cellular company), won't work either after all after porting, the landline service is disconnect, right?

Thank you again for your feedback.

[SteveInWA]

You're basically asking the same question repeatedly, so I can't think of a clearer way to explain it.  I'll give it one more try:

• Google Voice is not a telephone company.  It is a service provider that works with various telephone companies.
• Google Voice uses a telephone number, held by a telephone carrier, as your inbound phone number.  It then forwards those inbound calls somewhere else.  That "somewhere else" is either to your OBi device, or to any combination of 1 to 6 land line or mobile phone numbers under your control.
• When you sign up for Google Voice service, you can either get a phone number from Google, which leases them from various VoIP carries, and gives you one for free, OR you can port in an existing mobile phone number that you are currently using (paying for service with a mobile carrier).
• Porting a telephone number from any telephone company to any other telephone company disconnects service from the losing telephone company, and connects service on that number with the new telephone company.
• In this case, you are porting in your mobile number from your current telephone company to use as a telephone number on Google's service.
• You still need another telephone number to assign to your account as a forwarding phone, after your current mobile number is ported in.
• That other telephone number can be any mobile or land line telephone number in the 48 contiguous United States, including a number from a VoIP service provider, such as Anveo, Callcentric, voip.ms, etc.

[Mercurius]

Thank you SteveinWA.

Is RingTo a VOIP provider or just another forwarding service like GV?

Thank you very much.

[SteveInWA]

Thank you SteveinWA.

Is RingTo a VOIP provider or just another forwarding service like GV?

Thank you very much.

ring.to is a VoIP telephone service provider, which offers forwarding services similar to Google Voice.  Ring.to doesn't issue their own phone numbers at this time, but, like GV, they do port in numbers from other carriers.

[Mercurius]

I see the light in the tunnel here.., but again, I could be wrong.

What if I port my prepaid cell-number to ring.to, and pair with Obi200, will this method work to get working landline phone?

[SteveInWA]

Yes, sort of.  Again, ring.to, like Google Voice, is not intended to be your sole, replacement telephone company.  Think of it as a supplement to another phone service.

From ring.to terms of service:

The Service is an enhanced call management service; you cannot make any 911 call or text utilizing the Service.

If You associate the Service and/or any telephone number that You obtain (or port to Bandwidth) with a VoIP adapter and/or an analog telephone adapter, including, without limitation, an Obihai device, the following applies: You (i) must obtain emergency calling (i.e., 911 service) from a third party; and (ii) acknowledge and agree that You have obtained such emergency calling (i.e., 911) service from a third party. If, for any reason, You or other callers use the Service to make or attempt to make any 911 call or text, the emergency operators may not have a number available to return the caller's call; all callers must be prepared to verbally provide their call-back information for use by emergency operators.

If You associate the Service and/or any telephone number that You obtain (or port to Bandwidth) with an over-the-top ("OTT") Internet application, the following applies: You cannot make any 911 call or text utilizing the Service. If, for any reason, You use the Service to make or attempt to make any 911 call or text, the emergency call center operators will not have a number available to return a caller's call; all callers must be prepared to verbally provide their call-back information for use by emergency call center operators. You must maintain an alternative means of calling emergency services.


That said, it's your decision.

[Mercurius]

Thank you very much for all your help. I have another phone which I can make 911 call. So I just want a landline# as I'm thinking getting rid of the prepaid phone

Yes, sort of.  Again, ring.to, like Google Voice, is not intended to be your sole, replacement telephone company.  Think of it as a supplement to another phone service.

From ring.to terms of service:

The Service is an enhanced call management service; you cannot make any 911 call or text utilizing the Service.

If You associate the Service and/or any telephone number that You obtain (or port to Bandwidth) with a VoIP adapter and/or an analog telephone adapter, including, without limitation, an Obihai device, the following applies: You (i) must obtain emergency calling (i.e., 911 service) from a third party; and (ii) acknowledge and agree that You have obtained such emergency calling (i.e., 911) service from a third party. If, for any reason, You or other callers use the Service to make or attempt to make any 911 call or text, the emergency operators may not have a number available to return the caller's call; all callers must be prepared to verbally provide their call-back information for use by emergency operators.

If You associate the Service and/or any telephone number that You obtain (or port to Bandwidth) with an over-the-top ("OTT") Internet application, the following applies: You cannot make any 911 call or text utilizing the Service. If, for any reason, You use the Service to make or attempt to make any 911 call or text, the emergency call center operators will not have a number available to return a caller's call; all callers must be prepared to verbally provide their call-back information for use by emergency call center operators. You must maintain an alternative means of calling emergency services.


That said, it's your decision.