I currently have a land line, cable, and internet service, plus cell phone service. It’s probably time to give up on cable and switch to a streaming TV service for sports (we barely watch cable at all anymore).
I don’t want lose my land line number. I just got off the phone with Verizon and they can move my land line number to be a secondary number on my cell phone. So, if a call comes through on my cell phone number, it will say P next to it (primary), and it if comes through on my land line number, it will say S next to it (secondary). This service is $10/month.
Ultimately, my goal is to move it go Google Voice (as I laid out three years ago here). Here’s my factual question:
Is a secondary number on a cell phone the same as any other cell phone number? If it is, would I be able to move the phone from my secondary line on my cell phone over to Google Voice?
Google Voice has a one-time fee of I think $20 to “park” an existing number. Other services can do the same but might charge a recurring price. You set up your GV number to forward to your phone. They also have a free random number but you have to use it occasionally or lose it.
I have two numbers, I can use my phone’s dialer to call with the number associated with my phone or the built in messaging app to send texts. I can use the Google Voice app to call or text with my old phone number. The disadvantage is that Google seems steadfast in not updating or supporting the app, so some flashy features don’t work.
One advantage is that I have a built-in spam call screener as my phone numbers have different area codes. If I get a call on my GV number that I hand out and it has a local area code, I can assume it’s a legitimate call more often than not. If I get a GV call from the area code of the number in a place I haven’t lived in for 15 years, I can assume it’s an autodialer. And vice versa for my phone’s number.
I don’t know about Verizon’s primary and secondary number service. But you can accomplish this with GV, with the disadvantage of the app.
Right, the problem is that GV can’t transfer land lines to their service. So, I’m hoping that, if I transfer it as a secondary cell phone line, it will be a legit cell phone number rather than a land-line.
Many years ago I moved my land line to VoIP. I use voip.ms, a Canadian service. It is really, really cheap for a lightly used phone. E.g., $25 gives me about 4+ months of service. Porting wasn’t a problem.
The only “trick” is you need a box to attached to Ethernet (and a phone on the other end) which needs to be configured. voip.ms has a good Wiki for help with that.
I use a Linksys/Cisco PAP2 which can be had for $20 “new” on eBay and a standard Panasonic wireless phone/answering machine with remote phones around the house.
Yeah, this number has actually been on Vonage two different times – moved old-fashioned land line to Vonage, to cable, back to Vonage, back to cable. I don’t really need a home phone anymore, I just don’t want to lose the number.