Comments on: Google Voice Number Portability Has a Unique Challenge

By: GVCustomer

GVCustomer — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:45:55 +0000

Phone companies don’t WANT to let you move your number to Google since they will lose billions of dollars in calling plans by allowing it. I don’t really get the point though as you can use Google Voice to take over your voicemail from your previous carrier and then configure it so the other numbers ring before going to voicemail. It might be worth trying to port your number away from Google, then waiting the legal recycling time and see if you can configure Google with your old number.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:24:17 +0000

Porting is very easy for the guy who asked. It’s usually free. You also control your number after a new bill was passed back in 2004 by President Bush. As long as you pay your bill you are good to port to a new carrier. This website give a timeline for number ports with all the major carriers and prepaids

http://dustinjones.me/2010/05/28/timeline-for-porting-number-for-all-cell-phone-carriers/

By: Peter Sisson

Peter Sisson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:21:42 +0000

Yes – no problem. We can port just about any number into our system, and we do it for free, unlike other carriers who charge up to $50. Because both google and toktumi use level3, porting will be especially trivial because it not really a port, just changing which servers the number points to. If you have any questions email me at psisson [at] toktumi /dot/ com.

By: Edwin Copeland

Edwin Copeland — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:59:29 +0000

Peter,

I am trying to port my google voice number to Toktumi, is this possible?

By: NiTRo

NiTRo — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:33:35 +0000

I’ve had some experience with phone numbers being used as account/billing numbers. I’ve managed PBXs for several years, ranging from 50 to 9,000 extensions per system.

Most of the trunking I’ve done to the PSTN has been on T1 PRI circuits. In many cases, when upgrading the trunks at a small site, I would want to port the main phone number for a given site (which is already established for several years in the phone book, 411 & corporate promotional materials) away from a T1 circuit & have it ported to a different carrier or forward to a newer number. 9 times out of 10, the site’s main number was the BTN (Billing Telephone Number) for that circuit/trunk. Meaning that number was used as a reference all throughout the carrier’s billing system & also in several instances in the actual config of the trunk in the carrier’s CO switch.

Just breaking that number out of a trunk and either porting it or turning it into a remote call forward would require the local carrier to rebuild the entire trunk, taking anywhere from 5 to 10 days to process the order & also causing a few hours of no service while the trunk is being reconfigured. The months that follow would result in billing issues because the old number is still stuck in their billing system & is still posting a monthly charge alongside the new BTN that the carrier established for the trunk.

The two are tied together in many instances. Cleanest way to port your number would be to port to Google Voice (whenever they offer it), let you old cell die as the previous carrier closes the account when the port is complete, then open a whole new account for your existing cell phone with the wireless carrier.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:51:43 +0000

I used to work for Verizon and although I can’t speak for the account side of things, I can tell you that on the network side, customers are not identified by their phone number, but rather their MSID… If you originated your service with Verizon (meaning you didn’t port another number in or change your number for any reason), then your MSID is most likely the same as your phone number, but they don’t have to be the same… something to think about

By: Bill H

Bill H — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:29:27 +0000

I too have ported numbers out and had new numbers issued to the same service.

The carrier (in this case I think it was TMO?) was more than happy to do so, because they kept a customer where they usually loose one.

By: Hady

Hady — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:40:20 +0000

I saw this earlier today, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/02/google-voice-alternative-line2-is-now-live-on-the-app-store/
Signed up, so far a big thumbs up. I set up all the auto attendent features tonight so no calls to test on yet but as far as the iPhone calling/voice mail goes I’m very impressed.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:42:46 +0000

Hey what up man I need a invite so I can use this I need this so bad

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:21:04 +0000

Chris,
If you try this, let us know how it works out.