Comments on: Google Voice to support number portability

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:37:47 +0000

I have had Google Voice for about 2 weeks and I really like it. If you are interested in seeing it in action I just posted a walkthrough / review to my blog at techietalker.com

Keep up the great posts!!

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By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:07:44 +0000

It makes total sense for Google to allow incoming number portability, especially for those of us who have two numbers like a cell and a landline. Wouldn’t it be easier to use a number that my contacts already have for me? Rather than using a new random number that Google is providing me? For example, I have two cell phones and I plan on using one of the numbers as a Google voice number. That will save me a whole cell phone bill, as one number will forward to the other. The writer of this post should think of these things.

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:57:18 +0000

That’s what I want too, to port my # in

By: Michael Davis

Michael Davis — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:57:17 +0000

I think it would be great for Google to allow numbers to be ported in, it just make sense.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:11:56 +0000

But that message has been there since before Google Voice existed. Grandcentral has stated the same thing since before Google bought it (http://www.google.com/support/grandcentral/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79949).

By: ShaunsHouses

ShaunsHouses — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:20:41 +0000

Google is making innovative moves while Yahoo and the other ya-hoos out there are sitting on their ass. Thats why they loose market share and suck. I would have LOVED for a small business or a company like phone.com or something of that matter to have done this first, but they’ve sucked wind.

By: Mohit Agrawal

Mohit Agrawal — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:23:30 +0000

Since last week an intense debate has been going on across the telecom world about Google Voice, aimed at disrupting the telecom and Internet industry: A bunch of Internet phones and messaging services are christened as Google Voice. Actually a Googly remix of GrandCentral, a start up it bought in 2007.

The debate is that how would this impact the carrier business? I guess the bigger question is that how would this impact Google’s most awaited innovation in the Telecom business – The Google Android Operating System?

Read the complete article at http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/03/googlevoice/

By: thegeniusfiles

thegeniusfiles — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:53:58 +0000

Way to light a fire under the carriers’ oligopolistic asses, GOOG! Perhaps the walled gardens are about to come crashing down…

By: D

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:51:21 +0000

fair..

By: D

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:50:59 +0000

Fare enough…

By: Jason G

Jason G — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:11:35 +0000

@ tanders

Yea, and I don’t have one of the qualifying minute plans for verizon for the “my friends” or whatever they are calling it. And even then, it still would be free for me, but still would cost my friends money as well

@ D

Yea I know they never will, but I’m just saying if they could, it’d be awesome!

—

but overall I think I’m still going to use this service when I give out my number to places (weather it be businesses, or just people who I don’t want to have my actual number

By: D

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:21:31 +0000

They’ll never let you choose a “Verizon Wireless” number. All numbers that GV has will be owned by GV.

By: tanders

tanders — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:19:46 +0000

@ Jason G: Good point, hadn’t really thought of that.

Although on the flip side the whole reason I got a grandcentral in the first place was to scam T-Mobile’s fave five. You put one of your five as the grandcentral then all calls to and from it are free.

By: D

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:50:19 +0000

No, you would just get a new number from the wireless provider.

By: Buzzdar

Buzzdar — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:43:58 +0000

If were a person that wanted to port my wireless number to google voice doesnt that cancel the cell phone once it ports out.

By: Jason G

Jason G — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:52:51 +0000

If Google Voice let you “choose” a service provider number like a “Verizon Wireless” number I would use this thing in a HEART BEAT!

The problem I have now is all my contact is mobile-to-mobile, and so although this service is AMAZING. Placing calls to and from the number is going to rack up my billing… so if it wasn’t for that… I’d be all for it!

By: backbeat

backbeat — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:32:10 +0000

@AnthonyR: That makes perfectly good sense. Grandcentral is supposed to be a means where the customer is able to take back more direct control vs traditional Bell/wireless companies as well as well as have much more flexibility than experienced elsewhere.

By: Anthony R.

Anthony R. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:15:34 +0000

GrandCentral supported porting out of numbers all along – I did it successfully last year (to Verizon Wireless).

The benefit was you could choose a great number using the GrandCentral signup utility — pages upon pages of numbers available in a rate center, and you were free to accept an easy-to-remember one.

By: Don Louie

Don Louie — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:01:07 +0000

That’s what I was wondering, can those waiting to get in port a # in?

By: Roger A

Roger A — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:17:47 +0000

Why the hell would anyone wanna port OUT the GV/GC number is beyond me… Porting in will be awesome though. I’d only out port my GV/GC number if it was more convenient, however the idea of having my mobile private to people I don’t know makes it better to just keep it like it is

By: bdawg

bdawg — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:15:40 +0000

we need a blackberry visual voicemail app…sleek, small, clean and fast (unlike fatty google maps)

we need a desktop alert widget for mac and pc (for sms’s mainly)

what other ideas??

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:53:53 +0000

This would be great. I feel like it’s the other way around. What’s the point of this if I can’t keep my number by porting it over?

Better question – when is this going public? I didn’t get in on GrandCentral.

By: colin

colin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:43:40 +0000

I just last night signed up for a bold at No coat but I’m having to get a new number. Being able to port my current number that all my friends have to google talk and then forward it to my new number would be a huge thing. I would love to have my current number ported to google so any future carrier moves could happen without me having to tell my friends that I have a new number. It seems to me that such an offering would be significantly more useful then porting my gc number somewhere else.

By: Cion

Cion — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:01:48 +0000

I hope that Google Voice will one day support free International Call connections. That would be a killer feature and would make many people want to sign up for the service.

I could see them doing that in places like the U.S., Europe, Australia, and some parts of South East Asia.

By: Ross

Ross — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:21:35 +0000

I completely agree with D & tanders above. GrandCentral/Google Voice is an awesome service, but I don’t use it because it’s a different number than the one I’ve been giving out to everyone for the lat ~10 years.

If I could bring that number from at&t to Google Voice I’d do so in a heartbeat. I could be carrier independent (my company’s about to start providing cell phones, rather than having us expense service. This way I get to retain ownership of my number, but can use that phone, or my personal phone, or whatever, with the call transfer options and other features of Google Voice).

Porting into Google Voice would be HUGE!

By: tanders

tanders — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:27:24 +0000

I would love to port my number to google voice.

I was just thinking the other day about it actually. I got a wrong number through google voice (my grand central) and wondered why I don’t actually give that number to more people. Then I realized its because most people that I want to have my number already have it and giving them my grand central number so that it would ring my current number would be just as annoying as switching numbers completely.

Being able to port to grand central would just be an easier way to have that one number for everything and have it for life. After that anywhere you moved or any carrier you went to you wouldn’t have to worry about porting, just add it to your google voice account.

By: D

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:07:51 +0000

They have been on the come-up. This help page has been out for a while though…

BG, why doesn’t it make sense to port your number to GV? I would think it’s a great idea, especially if you’ve had your number for years (I’ve had my number for 10 years now, only multiple providers).

By: Richie

Richie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:22:37 +0000

I see Google has been doing their thing lately…

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