Wait at least 24 hours, but no more than 48 hours.(It's easier than explaining to the clerk that you 'have no password') If you haven't set a PIN number on your voicemail, set one before porting out. When they ask, give them your Google Voice phone number, your Google Voice account number (which is the same as your 10 digit Google Voice number with no dashes or spaces), and your password (this is the PIN you enter to check your Google Voice voicemail). Have your service provider initiate the port out process.For about $15 - $30 dollars, they'll set you up with a SIM card with prepaid service. If your worried about the process getting 'stuck' or failing (I certainly was) then head to T-Mobile. Go to to 'unlock' your number to allow other carriers to take your phone number from Google. Enable your Google Voice account for porting out.For others looking to do similar, here's one 'easy' way to port out: I ported out about five days ago, and experienced none of the problems listed above. I'm happy to report that, while this was likely true at the time, as of right now, porting out of Google Voice is relatively simple and pain free. Other Voice users recalled horror stories about having to wait 'up to 10 days', being unable to receive text messages from other Google Voice users, or being unable to use the Visual Voicemail service The internet is littered with many horror stories about porting away from Google Voice. Since I'm usually on T-Mobile or AT&T, the Google Voice integration is more hassle than it's worth, and I decided to port away. This also means you don't receive text messages unless you have a consistant data connection, or enable text forwarding, which then botches the sender phone number. This isn't a problem on iPhone or Android devices, but can be tricky on WebOS or Windows Phone 7 devices, which have much poorer Google Voice applications). (This also means your experience depends heavily on the quality of your Google Voice app. If you use your original phone number, then text messages outgoing from your phone do not show your Google Voice number, unless you specifically use the Google Voice app. However, Sprint's data service quality in Michigan is notoriously slow and spotty at best, and other carriers (such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS) do not offer Google Voice service natively.Īnd for non-native users, there are drawbacks to Google Voice. (Technically I ported to 'Google Voice', and enabled native Sprint integration). This is what I did when I ported my number to Sprint, earlier this year. Sprint subscribers can resolve much of this automatically, by using the native Google Voice to Sprint integration. Since most people don't want to give out a new number to friends and family, they port their number into Google Voice to get these extra features. (Basically everything except Visual Voicemail requires your phone number on Google Voice). The important part here is that many of the features only work if you use your Google Voice number as your main number. Google Voice has many features, a list too long to repeat here, and Google offers native Voice clients for Apple iPhone / iOS and Google Android devices.īy default, when you sign up with Google Voice, Google gives you a 'Voice Number', that compliments your other phones. The service also allows you to make cheaper international calls, and route calls to different, or multiple phones at once, among many other features. When you connect your phone with Google Voice, it automatically logs your text messages, calls, and voicemails (including transcribing them to text messages or e-mails). Porting out of Google Voice Getting your phone number back to your phoneįor those who haven't used it before, Google Voice is a half 'voice over IP' and half 'number virtualiation'.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |