The OP didn't clarify if the number he/she is porting is a landline or a mobile.
Google Voice does not allow porting in of landlines. It only accepts ports from certain mobile carriers, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are the three bis ones it uses. Cost is $20.
The way to port a landline is do a two-step port, landline to mobile to GV. For port to the mobile carrier, use a pay as you go phone from one of the providers GV accepts. Keep your number there for one or two days at most, then port to GV.
A few other things on GV -
- GV will not do forwarding to anything other than domestic US numbers (lower 48). You can place calls to AK and HI call numbers at no cost.
- During the initial port setup, and all the time thereafter you have to have one active forwarding phone. I would confirm some of the above IP phone providers are are allowed forwarding numbers in GV if you were going to count on that approach working.
- To do the initial port GV setup, you need to confirm one inbound call to the number you are porting. So your phone (temporary pay as you go or existing mobile) needs to be on and receiving calls for this to happen.
- For above reasons, and other reasons, you need to do the port to GV while in the US (or as some report from an IP address GV recognizes as in the US).
- Last important point is GV does not accept ports from all exchanges (the 555 in 201-555-1212), so there's a bit of a crap shoot if you are doing the two step landline to mobile to GV. But it's worth trying because it's a completely no cost service if it does go through.
- If GV does not accept ports from the exchange where your number lives, then a fallback plan is to port to a paid VoIP provider.
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This is the GV number port ability checker. If you are starting from a landline try a known cell phone number from the same exchange and you can tell before starting. If you are starting from a mobile number it will tell you directly, including if they do port ins from your cell provider.
Originally Posted by
krijkee
I plan on having a smart phone with data. Was hoping they could text my US number still. It's all very confusing to me on who and how to organize it.
A very nice feature in GV, people can text your GV number directly (even if it was formerly a landline), and you can reply from multiple mediums, any of your forwarding phones, from the GV website (similar to a Gmail screen), or from a text forwarded as an email.
It can be confusing at first. Best to start out with the GV help things. The videos are pretty useful for people new to it:
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html