Anyone have experience porting a google voice number into Tmobile?

MrLaserman · Feb 24, 2015

If anyone has had any experience porting a google voice number into Tmobile... how long did it take before you had service on the tmobile phone?

codesplice · Feb 24, 2015

Once your GV number is unlocked and you start the porting process it shouldn't take more than 24 hours.

From https://www.t-mobile.com/switch/#Period :

Transferring your existing single phone number (wireless or landline) to T-Mobile number usually takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours. Transferring multiple – lines may take up to 10 days, however most requests are completed within six calendar days.

MrLaserman · Feb 24, 2015

Thank you codesplice!

MrLaserman · Feb 25, 2015

It's been 28 hours... nothing yet. google voice released the number almost immediately or so they say... as of 2:37 PM EST yesterday...

1.Warning: Google Voice has successfully approved your request, but the carrier to whom you are porting hasn't completed their necessary action. If you are still having issues and your number doesn't successfully port in 2-3 business days, please contact your new carrier for support, as Google Voice is unable to take any additional action.

tube517 · Feb 25, 2015

Yes, did this last year. It took 48 hours for the numbers to port. I Did this for my wife's and my phones.
Now you may get phone service within 24 hours but the SMS/MMS didn't work in 24 hours.

So, I say 48 hours for everything to work

MrLaserman · Feb 25, 2015

Thanks tube517. I only ported one number so we'll see. If I don't have it by Friday I'll call them that afternoon.

tube517 · Feb 25, 2015

MrLaserman said:
Thanks tube517. I only ported one number so we'll see. If I don't have it by Friday I'll call them that afternoon.

Yes, definitely after 48 hours, you should call T-Mobile. Good luck!

MrLaserman · Feb 26, 2015

Number ported overnight... phone is now active. Thanks all for the help and info.

Crashdamage · Feb 26, 2015

A little off topic but I gotta ask...what's the advantage of porting your Google Voice number to your carrier? I've used Google Voice from the beginning and never understood this.

MrLaserman · Feb 26, 2015

I can only speak for me but I want better quality. I've had problems with google voice from time to time... many more times than I've ever had with a cell phone or any other "real phone." I'm in the US but I have a lot of goings on in Canada and there seems to be issues on one end or the other many times and those things don't happen on a cell phone so I'm choosing to just continue using the number but now on a cell phone. Too many people have that number for me to want to start over with another. I do have another google voice number if I want to use it but mainly I give out that google voice number to those I really don't want to give any phone number to but I have to for whatever reason. I know others that have either ported out of google voice or just let their google voice number go... each for their own personal reasons. It's a good service google offers for sure but it does have some issues as most things that are free usually do... at least for some people. When I first started using google voice it was to help me with privacy... things like call blocking that my "landline" at the time wasn't good at. I don't have a landline anymore. But again this is just me and everyone thinks and feels differently and thats fine.

Crashdamage · Feb 26, 2015

My wife and I have used GV for years and thousands of calls by now and never had a problem with sound quality or reliability. But if it's a problem, I can understand that for a reason to port.

Anyone else have another reason for making your GV number your cellphone number?

MrLaserman · Feb 26, 2015

There were a few threads on another popular forum that covered things like poor call quality when using GV... dropped calls... calls not connecting... problems like mine working between the US and Canada and more. I don't think this forum would want me linking to that forum so I won't... but most people know of that forum so it would be easy to figure out.

tube517 · Feb 27, 2015

I ported because I was on the $30 T-Mobile plan with 100 minutes of voice and unlimited text and data 5gb at 4g.....I used Google voice and 3rd party apps like groove ip to use data (mainly WiFi) for my gv calls and it was great up until may 15 2014. Google blocked third party apps like groove IP from using gv the way I did. So I had to switch to a plan that had more voice minutes but had to keep my gv number that I gave out for business.

Crashdamage · Feb 27, 2015

??? I don't get it. You needed more minutes because you couldn't use GrooveIP - you bought more minutes. You used your GV number for business (like me). You had a GV number for business before - you still had a GV number for business. Nothing changed except the method of connection. IOW whether you port or not, with no GrooveIP now your GV number uses your minutes. As I see it, all you've really done is give up a phone number. So why did you need to port the GV number to your carrier? Sorry if this comes off as argumentative, but what am I missing?

tube517 · Feb 27, 2015

Crashdamage said:
??? I don't get it. You needed more minutes because you couldn't use GrooveIP - you bought more minutes. You used your GV number for business (like me). You had a GV number for business before - you still had a GV number for business. Nothing changed except the method of connection. Whether you port or not, with no GrooveIP now your GV number uses your minutes. As I see it, all you've really done is give up a phone number. So why did you need to port the GV number to your carrier? What am I missing?

I forgot to mention the quality of the phone calls going thru groove IP and Google voice wasn't always crystal clear and I needed it crystal clear all the time. Some calls sounded like I was in a tunnel even on my company's WiFi. That was not all the time but it did happen. The delay in gv/groove ip calls was also annoying to customers and my managers. I used Google Voice with only one phone not multiple phones.

Another issue is I couldn't send MMS on Google Voice. It was confusing my customers to get a picture from another phone number and then having to explain all of that. Even friends and relatives were confused about the different numbers.

Trust me, I loved GV and GrooveIP and SparePhone (was a better app than Groove IP). And I am pretty frugal. (I have another GV number using it strictly for my "home" phone using an OBI device.)

Crashdamage · Feb 27, 2015

Hmmm...seems that call quality is the thing. Glad we've never had a quality problem. Thanks for your responses.

codesplice · Feb 27, 2015

MrLaserman said:
I don't think this forum would want me linking to that forum so I won't... but most people know of that forum so it would be easy to figure out.

Just so you know, there's nothing wrong with linking to another board if its got good information that could be helpful and topical - just as long as you're not actively trying to drive users away from this board (please!).

So something like "hey, XDA had a cool thread that expands upon this topic, interesting reading if you wanna check it out: <thread link>" would be great. Sharing information == we all win.

codesplice · Feb 27, 2015

tube517 said:
I forgot to mention the quality of the phone calls going thru groove IP and Google voice wasn't always crystal clear and I needed it crystal clear all the time. Some calls sounded like I was in a tunnel even on my company's WiFi. That was not all the time but it did happen. The delay in gv/groove ip calls was also annoying to customers and my managers. I used Google Voice with only one phone not multiple phones.

Another issue is I couldn't send MMS on Google Voice. It was confusing my customers to get a picture from another phone number and then having to explain all of that. Even friends and relatives were confused about the different numbers.

Trust me, I loved GV and GrooveIP and SparePhone (was a better app than Groove IP). And I am pretty frugal. (I have another GV number using it strictly for my "home" phone using an OBI device.)

I observed these same issues back when I was using GrooveIP + GV. I've been quite pleased with some of the recent GV updates, including voice calls via Hangouts and improved MMS support. About the only thing that I'm left lacking is elegant support for group MMSes - it gets broken into a bunch of individual threads instead of a single conversation. I've actually stopped having calls forward to my T-Mobile number entirely and just rely on the Hangouts VoIP now. Quite happy.

Though I do, of course, understand that some of the compromises just don't work for other folks needs, so that's absolutely fine.

tube517 · Feb 27, 2015

codesplice said:
I observed these same issues back when I was using GrooveIP + GV. I've been quite pleased with some of the recent GV updates, including voice calls via Hangouts and improved MMS support. About the only thing that I'm left lacking is elegant support for group MMSes - it gets broken into a bunch of individual threads instead of a single conversation. I've actually stopped having calls forward to my T-Mobile number entirely and just rely on the Hangouts VoIP now. Quite happy.

Though I do, of course, understand that some of the compromises just don't work for other folks needs, so that's absolutely fine.

I kept waiting for the Hangouts upgrade/integration with GV but I could not wait any longer.

Another thing is I am in and out of my building at work and I would miss calls going in and out of the wifi "zone". So, sometimes, when a manager would call me, the phone would not switch over to 4G (or wifi) in time for the app to be active to get the phone call. Imagine your manager calling you on your cell for business and getting a voicemail! Not a good thing.

Anyone have experience porting a google voice number into Tmobile?

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