Google has officially made number portability part of its Google Voice repertoire, allowing users to take their longtime mobile phone number to the phone-management service.This means you’ll be canceling your current number and adding it to Google Voice.Porting only works with mobile numbers right now. This leaves you susceptible to your carrier’s early termination fee, which could be a few hundred dollars.
Google Voice is a phone-management application that lets any user route all their landlines, work and mobile calls through one special number and mailbox, accessible through the Web via Google’s cloud-computing infrastructure.
Over the next few weeks, Google Voice users in the United States can take the mobile number they’ve acquired from a phone carrier and make it ring their landline, work phone and computer. There is a one-time fee of $20, and the switch usually takes 24 hours to complete, according to Google, which offers a how-to video for the process.
Porting a number to Google Voice will result in a termination of a user’s contract with carriers. This will trigger an early termination fee—Verizon Wireless charges $350—as well as additional steps to retain calling capability on a mobile phone.
Checkout the video below.
When you’re finished, you’ll be able to take advantage all the best features of Google Voice: Transcribed voicemail, unlimited text messages, and call recording with your original mobile number.
