How do I keep my old land line phone number?

[Ron3rd]

I know this is not RV related, but maybe someone will know the answer. We have sold our house and will be moving out of the area. We have Time Warner Cable for TV, Internet, and phone. Time Warner is not available in the area we are moving to. I would like to keep our original telephone number that we have had for 30 years. I’ve seen ads for Magic Jack and other devices that claim you can keep your phone number but I don’t know how this works. Anyone have advice?

[Gene_Ginny]

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.

[kgragert]

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.

[MrWizard]

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

[hawkeye-08]

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.

[strollin]

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.

[2oldman]

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.

[khager76248]

Please be aware that if you are going to port your number to any of the many other services, you can not cancel your phone service until the porting is complete. When you call your current service to cancel your phone service you number is lost. If you want to keep your number, you have to port it first.

[tomkaren13]

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.

[APT]

I would recommend porting to Google Voice if you have a cell phone for example already. It is very cheap to port and maintain. There are apps for iOS/Android to handle calls to that line/phone number from smartphones/tablets as well as web browsers.

If you still want a physical home phone, VOIP to a modem/box like Vonage/Ooma/Magic Jack will allow you to plug into your router anywhere in the world and keep the number as if you are still local to your old location. Costs of the three I listed vary, so do some research on what is best for you. I had Vonage for several years, now Ooma. I may switch to Google Voice, but seems unlikely with children at home.

I highly recommend porting the number prior to moving.

[Ron3rd]

Thanks for all the info folks, I'll find something that will work.

[kgragert]

lynndiwagon wrote:

The good thing about transferring (port) your current number to Google Voice is
that you can set Google Voice up to forward calls made to the old number, to your new number or cell phone.

That way everyone that has your old number just calls it like they always do, and it automatically rings on your new phone or cell phone

A lot of folks aren't aware of the benefits of a Google Voice number and the fact that it's free, which is kind of hard to believe. You can do a whole lot of tricky things with one......

Google Voice is a great service.
A few years ago I switched carriers from AT&T to Verizon. Verizon charged for Voice Mail.
So I just set my cell phone up so all unanswered calls were forwarded to Google Voice.
Within seconds of the caller leaving a message, I get an SMS and Email, with both an audio recording of the message and a transcript of the message. All for no cost.

Well no cost except for Google data mining my voice mail. 🙂

[Ron3rd]

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.

[Halmfamily]

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.

X2. Works great. We live way out in the country and always have a great signal even when the cellphones don't.

[jplante4]

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.

This is correct and the best bet. VZ Wireless is not allowed to advertise this because is everyone knew about it, Verizon would have no wired customers. I have a home temp and water alarm that dials out on the landline. If I wanted to keep my Verizon landline, it would cost me $90/month. There's no middle ground between vacation suspend and full service. I got a Home Adapter from Verizon Wireless and for $20/month, I plugged the alarm into the adapter and turned off the land line. Verizon wireless can port your home number to the wireless adapter. Takes 7 business days, so plan ahead.

All I ever get on the landline is telemarketer calls anyway. I may not even turn it back on.

[W5CI]

I had my home number ported to a Straight Talk home phone,anytime we go camping we just take it with us. We have our home number with us anywhere we go. $15 per month plus tax, unlimited talk anywhere in US