Google Number Porting Now Available
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 10:35 am
Google has rolled out the long-awaited option to port your existing wireless number to Google Voice. It costs $20, and while the porting itself might be straightforward, dealing with your wireless carrier–you’ll still need one, and will need a wireless number–may be complicated. And if you’re currently under contract, you may end up paying an early termination fee even if you continue service.
(I’m still figuring out whether I want to give this a try.)
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January 25th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
I understand the appeal of porting one's primary number to Google, but for most people, it doesn't make sense for a few reasons. The most important, particularly for anyone on Sprint, is the elimination of mobile-to-mobile minutes. If you route all of your calls through Google, you're going to pay your carrier for every minute you use. If you're on AT&T or Verizon, you're probably getting more than half of your minutes for free because of free in-network calling. If you're on Sprint, you're probably getting 90% of your minutes for free. Port your number to Google, and you're going to need way more minutes.
Of course, that's not a problem if you already pay for unlimited minutes. Most people do not. It also won't be a problem down the road, when everyone is using smartphones that can bypass the carriers voice-network by using VoIP. That is also not the case today.
January 26th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
i have to agree with Mike…
Since I'm on Sprint, I looked at my Any Mobile anytime usage, and found I used 1500 minutes last month.. all these calls were free…
If i were to go with Google Voice, I'd have to upgrade my plan to the SImpy everything with unlimited minutes for $99.. Google voice isn't worth $30 more per month for me…