How do I keep my old land line phone number?

Some newer smart phones have multiple number capability just FYI.

Kind of makes me wonder when they will give up on phone numbers and just use your name or other identifer.

Back in the pre-computer days, they needed a way to route the call and saying call aunt jinny, wouldn't help if the operator didn't know who aunt jinny was.

In the modern world, it's really not that hard for the phone to remember who aunt jimmy is and handle the routing without you ever needing to know a number (first time you call, you may need to provide her full name and maybe a home city)

Simplest is to port the number to your cell phone (unless you already have a cell number that you also don't want to lose).

Any cell provider will do it and they don't care where you live.

If you are going to be getting a new landline in your new location, you should be able to port to that also but in the modern world, I just don't see much point in having a land line unless you are in an area with no cell coverage.

What about signing up for Ooma? Similar to Vonnage but MUCH cheaper. Ooma lets you "port" any number you want.

Dan

There are 3 choices that I know about for porting your old number to a wireless ( cell) device:

Verizon Home Connect - $20/month plus tax
Straight Talk - $15/month plus tax (uses Verizon cell towers)
AT&T - $20/month plus tax LINK (uses AT&T cell towers)

As mentioned earlier, you MUST port the existing number before moving.

The dowside is that people people in your new location will pay long distance charges to call what to them is a distant area code.

Porting your existing number to Google voice may be a good choice since you can get a new local number at your new address and have Google voice forward the call to the old number to the new local number.

strollin wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
20 dollars a month for Verizon home phone connect. Verizon can transfer your number for you. You can keep your same area code too.

$20 is if the home phone connect has it's own minutes. We pay $10/month and it shares our family plan minutes.

It's $20 a month flat fee. We use it for my mother in law.
It's nice because at 96 she's not interested, or capable of learning how to use a cell phone, so with the Verizon Home Connect plan she uses the same desk phone she has used for years.

I would go with Verizon Home Connect
that is unless there is NO verizon cell service at your new location

VOIP depends on good internet, if the NEW cable internet provider has spotty service then your VOIP phone aka majic jack etc.. will be problematic

We have the AT&T wireless home phone with internet. Just like the Verizon one mentioned about, but also with wifi. We ported out landline number to it and can take it with us when we travel if we want. It was added to our mobile share plan so it has unlimited calling (North America) and shares our data plan. This allows me to use it as backup when our internet is down and home and also to have internet when we travel. It is like a hotspot but I don't have to use my phone as hotspot then... check who has the best coverage where you will be spending your time and go with that one.

donn0128 wrote:
20 dollars a month for Verizon home phone connect. Verizon can transfer your number for you. You can keep your same area code too.

$20 is if the home phone connect has it's own minutes. We pay $10/month and it shares our family plan minutes.

tomkaren13 wrote:

Ron3rd wrote:

2oldman wrote:
If you're moving to a different area code I don't see how it's possible.

It's done all the time by "porting", which basically forwards the old number to the new. But if I called you, you would see the new number on the caller ID. Our work did this.

Almost every company will port your number to their phone system.

Ok. I would think after a few years of many people doing that it would become a nightmare of numbers.