ajGoes

I have a Google Voice number which I use for two purposes:

1. I forward my Verizon voicemail to it to enable Hangouts voice recognition
2. I register it as my phone number for United and other international airlines so I don't have any worries about two-factor authentication when I'm abroad.

Now that I have a Pixel phone that supports an eSIM for Fi, I can't think of a good reason not to use Fi on my upcoming trip to France. But I plan to pause or cancel my Fi account when I get home. I understand I can't receive voice mail on a paused account.

Should I use another Google account for my Fi number, or is it easy to cancel Fi altogether and revert to Voice?

Bandicoot

One thing to note, if you cancel your Fi service, Google does not promise you that your old Google Voice number will be available for you to go back to. (Even if that is the number that you ported from Google Voice to Project Fi.)

It sounds like you're only considering Project Fi for brief trips abroad. I'd say there's not much benefit to that over simply using Google Voice when you're abroad. If you're mostly in areas where you have wifi, Google Voice has you covered for making and receiving calls and text messages anyway. The big advantage of Project Fi is that you do not need another carrier's service (Verizon or some local carrier where you're traveling) to "support" your Google Voice reception when you're out of wifi. In money terms you'll have to look at balancing the cost of Project service with the cost of Verizon's international roaming or a local carrier's SIM service.

freecia

You could use a roaming data eSIM which wouldn't have to be paused/unpaused and keep the Google Voice number.
https://esimdb.com/france
https://www.airalo.com/france $3 7 days/1GB

Slightly OT nitpick - I use Fi for international travel and actually making Hangouts calls with Hangouts Dialer over cellular roaming data on Fi can be hit or miss. Google Voice would have similar limitations but local sim data should have lower latency since the APN's would be local. An actual roaming cellular call (Fi $0.20 per minute when outside USA) has better quality. There's more options for roaming data only eSIM providers out there, too, which might have higher latency/ping time. The data can be cheaper per GB than Fi. Fi cellular call vs eSIM data + Google Voice might depend on if one expects to make some phone calls while roaming.

ajGoes

I should have mentioned that my phone is a Pixel 2 xl and doesn't support non-Google eSIMS. But I was also forgetting that I probably want a French phone number, which means either a new SIM or gritting my teeth and using the Toggle card I've been keeping alive for emergencies. Hmmm.

Thanks for the suggestion and for sharing your Project Fi experience.
[EDIT] Looks like Toggle is out. They no longer offer data outside the UK except at the extortionate price of Ł0.15/Mb -- US$1000/GB!

der_saeufer

Cancelling Fi and going back to GV involves actually porting the number back to a different provider, even though both are controlled by Google. I would definitely recommend setting up Fi on a separate Google account so you can pause and resume it as necessary without messing around with your 'real' GV number. I had Fi on my 'real' number a few years back and it took them four days to port the number back to GV.

This is real, but it's rare--there are a few GV numbers that are 'from' places where bandwidth.com no longer has blocks of numbers. Numbers from big cities are more or less immune to this. Far more common is the situation where Fi assigns a new number from T-Mobile's space but you can't take that to GV because bandwidth.com doesn't exist there.

ajGoes

I've ordered a Three UK SIM card instead. :-)

König

I think you've made the right choice. Three UK has unlimited roaming in Europe and very low prices elsewhere.

ajGoes

The card came yesterday and I scheduled its activation at the vendor's web site. Then I thought I'd set up my three.co.uk account.

I entered the phone number and accidentally clicked "Submit" instead of the link to create a new account. It has now become impossible to create an account; when I try, I get an error telling me my number has already been registered. I've cleared cookies to no avail. I'm going to wait until the card is activated and try again.

I'm not too worried about this but if anyone has had this problem and resolved it, I'd appreciate hearing what you did.

bukzin

A couple of points... there is a BIG difference between cancelling and pausing a Google Fi account.

Secondly, I was in the process of signing up to get new service from Visible (Verizon) I got a little confused with their online sign up which has become a HUGE mess.

Visible's site asked me if I was moving my Fi number and asked for my Fi account and PIN numbers. The Fi chat support gave me those numbers and then ASSUMED I was porting out my Fi phone number.
The chat agent instantly cancelled my Fi account. So no more calls or voicemails and no way to call forward.

Been on the support (chat and email) for 3 days now and no progress. My 10 year old business number is disconnected.

Beware!