November 26, 2014
As a prepaid customer I wanted to make sure that my number stays with me for life, and ideally not worry about porting it to the provider each time I change service. Perhaps more paranoid than others, I've also been concerned that the provider may go out of business and "lose my number."
The solution has been Google Voice. I ported my number from T-Mobile to Google Voice for a $20 fee. Google will hold and manage the number forever; no monthly or yearly fees whatsoever.
Furthermore Google Voice provides:
- A web-based control panel to check Voicemail, Text messages, MMS, and Call History
- The ability to make or receive phone calls from the web
- Free call forwarding to whatever number you may have at the moment
- The ability to make phone calls as your GVoice ported phone number from Android and iOS
- Low International calling rates
If you later decide to port your number out of Google Voice, you can easily initiate an "unlock" online and request a port at your new provider. The site for requesting the unlock for posting.
I've been using this solution for over 2 years now and couldn't be happier. If you are a Google Voice user and want to sound off, or if you are considering it and have questions that you haven't found answers to, use the comments area below.