Porting Number to Google
January 25th, 2011, 6:28am by MikeWith my new job, I’m getting a new iPhone, and I’m thinking about porting my current number to Google (they just announced porting last week).
In my vision, I won’t have to change anything with most people — they can just continue to call my old number and it’ll ring my new phone, while I can give the actual iPhone number out as my work number. Seems like it should work fine, right? The end result is that I’ll switch off our family plan and onto a plan that work pays for, saving us around $70/month. The only downside I see is that I’ll be giving up my grandfathered unlimited data plan, but it seems worth it for a $0 phone bill. I’m still under contract until June, but from what I can tell, the $175 ETF is prorated $5/month, so I should owe about $90 — less than 2 months of service, making it worthwhile to terminate now.
And unlike some other peoples’ work phones, I’ll be able to install whatever I want on it. It’s not clear that I could use a jailbroken phone (don’t think I want to risk that), but I’m OK with other apps.
A couple of things, and questions for anyone who knows about GVoice (that’d be you, Lance):
— I’ll have to call out with the Google Voice app if I want people to think I’m calling from my “personal” number. No problem, I don’t think. What’s the current best app — the official one, or one of the several others out there?
— Work and GV numbers will have separate voicemails, which could be fine.
— I know you can have multiple Exchange accounts, but can I have Exchange and Google Calendars living in harmony side-by-side? What about my contacts — can I have Exchange sync OTA, while syncing my personal contacts via USB (so I don’t have to put them all into Exchange?). Is there “one contact list to rule them all” yet? I’ve heard Google Contacts isn’t that great for doing this.
— Facetime supposedly works even with a GV incoming number, from what I’ve read — you just can’t both have GV, and Facetime has to be initiated from the GV number. Either way, Skype will work fine for video.
Any thoughts or warnings?
January 25th, 2011 at 10:59 am
An iPhone from work? Seems like a cool outfit! Google calendar syncs over-the-air using Exchange Active Sync, so it should work fine side by side with what the iPhone would see as another Exchange calendar. I’m not sure the iPhone can use multiple contacts lists– I will check with some co-workers.
January 25th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
As I mentioned on twitter, I don’t use the GV app to call out at all. I do use it to archive SMS and to listen to voice mail (as I have set it to be my default VM instead of AT&T’s). SMS is interesting as you need to maintain two numbers for everybody (their actual number and their GV SMS number). You will still need to use your regular number to send and receive MMS, unfortunately. For the app, itself, I use the official Google app rather than GVMobile+.
As far as multiple exchange accounts goes, I have my work and google apps accounts both syncing contacts, mail, and calendar. It works just fine for me since I don’t sync my google apps stuff to my Outlook client at work (and vice versa). Pre-jailbreak, I was syncing my google contacts and calendar to Outlook at work. That setup had a lot of problems and was difficult to set up correctly. I really like the way I have things configured now though.
January 27th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
I got the new iPhone — it’s pretty sweet. The retina display is nice, the front-facing camera is good, and the rear-facing camera is much better than the previous one. All things we knew before.
Reading up on the Google Voice number porting, it sounds like the timing couldn’t be more perfect. It’s really best suited for someone out of contract who’s switching carriers anyway — I’m not quite out of contract, and not switching carriers, but I do have new service (with a new number) and a small ETF. If this hit a month from now I’d have been kind of screwed.
The only potential downside I’ve read so far is that incoming calls aren’t free to other AT&T users, since you’re not calling an AT&T number. Unless they have an A-list and the GV number is on it…
January 27th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Here’s what I’ve been looking for — a review of what happens after you port, the upsides and downsides. Sounds overall worth it — and easily solvable if it doesn’t work out (I just tell the <10 people who call me my new phone number).
January 27th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
“The only potential downside I’ve read so far is that incoming calls aren’t free to other AT&T users, since you’re not calling an AT&T number.”
Actually, our Sprint plan gives us unmetered calling to all mobile numbers, regardless of carrier, so it would theoretically impact us as well if your Google Voice number were considered a landline. In practice, we waste 1000 anytime minutes between the 5 of us each month anyway…
Of course, I don’t know have your current cell phone number memorized; it would be a trivial matter to change the phone entry in your contact card to your new work #. Or to your current Google Voice number. But sounds like you should cancel your AT&T account one way or another.
January 27th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Yeah, I think I’ve memorized about 5 new telephone numbers since I got my first cell phone nearly 10 years ago. I recognize Mike’s number, but I’m not sure if I could dial it from memory.
January 28th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Your workplace has come a long way. When I was there the phone they gave me was that tiny Nokia non-flip phone (I forget what it was called). No wonder they’re now rated #2 best place to work!