rmhall/landlinetips.txt

## landlinetips.txt
Landlines are outdated and expensive now - go VOIP for free with Google Voice.

I originally wrote this up back in late 2010 - Google voice has been free since I did it and they keep saying it will continue to be free - but who knows - in any case, this has saved me hundreds of dollars - don't have to deal with Verizon, and the service is BETTER - no more spam or telemarketing callers - just better all around - here is how I did it:

Google will only port mobile numbers into its service right now, so I did the following to go from Verizon landline to Google Voice.

1. Get a prepaid sim card from t-mobile. Get one online online where they are cheaper for $6.99  http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit or you can get them from a local tmobile store and activate it for a little more around 10 bucks it comes with around 10 minutes time, all you need, I did the latter as they were sold out for a while, but they appear to have more in stock now and are sometimes free. (UPDATE as of today it's free!)

2. Once the sim is activated with a temporary number, put the card in an unlocked or t-mobile locked phone, and call t-mobile to do a number port to that sim and account, of the landline or mobile number you want to port. Landline porting takes 8-10 days. Mobile to mobile porting takes about 24-48 hours. Mine took about 6 days for the landline port. One it's complete you will get a text message. It will probably complete well before you get the text message as SMS messages don't start coming in right away for whatever reason (or didnt in my case), so check manually by doing quick calls and hanging up (don't use your minutes up, you'll need them for the google confirmation).

3. Once that port is complete, go to your google voice account and port that new t-mobile number to google voice, following the steps they provide. It costs $20 bucks, a one time charge through google checkout. Took about 24 hours and It was complete. You'll need your t-mobile pin from when you setup the prepaid card, and your account number from t-mobile, which is 1 plus the original number that the prepaid sim was assigned.

4. Set up all your forwarding devices and other phones on google voice while you are waiting for the port to go through. Then you are all set.

5. The final thing I did so we could still use the wireless dect6 phones around the house for outgoing and incoming calls like normal over the existing in house wiring, in addition to our cell phones, was to get an Obahai Obi100 VoIP bridge, that also works with google voice seamlessly. Grab one from Amazon for 43 (NOW only $39!) bucks: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LO098O/ go with the 110 model if you still plan on retaining a landline and want to bridge that with the VoIP google account, otherwise the 100 is much smaller/super tiny smaller than a deck of cards. It has a power port, Ethernet and rj11 to hook up your landline phones. (There are newer models with even more features now, check out their site - www.obihai.com) Once you get it, set up your account at obi for free and then configure the device to use your google voice account and your good.  Your existing landline phones can be hooked up to it. If you disconnect your outside pots service from Verizon, etc. You can reuse your inside wiring to send the signal throughout your house. I just use a Wireless base station dect6 phone, with satellite wireless handsets, works perfectly.  The Obi device adds a TON of features to also save you money and convenience - fantastic little devices.

Now my cell and my wifes cell rings, PLUS the house phones when someone calls the landline # and we have way more control over blocking telemarketers and spam as part of the services of Google voice - never be interrupted or even hear a call ringing during dinner, ot other times. Plus you can control or set a schedule as to how and when you also ring your cell's or other forwarding device. The really nice things are text messages in and out on what was a landline, plus transripted voicemails, listen in, recording, all the google voice stuff, plus best of all spam/telemarketer blocking just like gmail. The phone won't even ring if you mark a number as spam, or if it's already in the google spam list, really nice.

Two potential downsides:

1. No emergency 911 services, not too big because cells are good for most issues,  but in a big disaster where power is out for a long time, cell towers might go down too.

2. If you still need to send/receive faxes, without support for t.38 fax or VoIP protocol, faxing is hit or miss, but most everything is email now anyway, so not too big a deal. Supposedly google and obihai will support t.38 with a future firmware update anyway. (UPDATE: Obi 100 now supports t.38 and the other newer devices have other FAX protocol support as well - think the weak link here is Google voice but seriously who faxes other than lawyers?)

The obi100 is really sweet little piece of hardware, tons of configuration stuff you can control, too much in fact, but they do make it easy to setup and it supports more than one active VoIP service, so if you have another one beside google voice you can have that active too. They also have nice iPhone and Android apps to use it locally over wifi, or to call directly from one obi to another, plus there are plenty of VoIP apps to let you use just software or software and hardware on Mac/pcs to dial out, send messages etc. All domestic calls are free and international is 10 cents a minute, stil better than most landline long distance packages, and you can always use your cell plan too and use that number for outgoing by having google call you first.

So far it's been totally seamless for us, and we are saving between 40-60 bucks a month which is what Verizon was raping us for on the landline with no features. The reason I used a t-mobile prepaid sim was that it was the cheapest minimum prepaid sim I could find (free via the web) and I read that others had the greatest amount of success porting landlines with t-mobile. Your mileage may vary.

Enjoy!
	Landlines are outdated and expensive now - go VOIP for free with Google Voice.

	I originally wrote this up back in late 2010 - Google voice has been free since I did it and they keep saying it will continue to be free - but who knows - in any case, this has saved me hundreds of dollars - don't have to deal with Verizon, and the service is BETTER - no more spam or telemarketing callers - just better all around - here is how I did it:

	Google will only port mobile numbers into its service right now, so I did the following to go from Verizon landline to Google Voice.

	1. Get a prepaid sim card from t-mobile. Get one online online where they are cheaper for $6.99 http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit or you can get them from a local tmobile store and activate it for a little more around 10 bucks it comes with around 10 minutes time, all you need, I did the latter as they were sold out for a while, but they appear to have more in stock now and are sometimes free. (UPDATE as of today it's free!)

	2. Once the sim is activated with a temporary number, put the card in an unlocked or t-mobile locked phone, and call t-mobile to do a number port to that sim and account, of the landline or mobile number you want to port. Landline porting takes 8-10 days. Mobile to mobile porting takes about 24-48 hours. Mine took about 6 days for the landline port. One it's complete you will get a text message. It will probably complete well before you get the text message as SMS messages don't start coming in right away for whatever reason (or didnt in my case), so check manually by doing quick calls and hanging up (don't use your minutes up, you'll need them for the google confirmation).

	3. Once that port is complete, go to your google voice account and port that new t-mobile number to google voice, following the steps they provide. It costs $20 bucks, a one time charge through google checkout. Took about 24 hours and It was complete. You'll need your t-mobile pin from when you setup the prepaid card, and your account number from t-mobile, which is 1 plus the original number that the prepaid sim was assigned.

	4. Set up all your forwarding devices and other phones on google voice while you are waiting for the port to go through. Then you are all set.

	5. The final thing I did so we could still use the wireless dect6 phones around the house for outgoing and incoming calls like normal over the existing in house wiring, in addition to our cell phones, was to get an Obahai Obi100 VoIP bridge, that also works with google voice seamlessly. Grab one from Amazon for 43 (NOW only $39!) bucks: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LO098O/ go with the 110 model if you still plan on retaining a landline and want to bridge that with the VoIP google account, otherwise the 100 is much smaller/super tiny smaller than a deck of cards. It has a power port, Ethernet and rj11 to hook up your landline phones. (There are newer models with even more features now, check out their site - www.obihai.com) Once you get it, set up your account at obi for free and then configure the device to use your google voice account and your good. Your existing landline phones can be hooked up to it. If you disconnect your outside pots service from Verizon, etc. You can reuse your inside wiring to send the signal throughout your house. I just use a Wireless base station dect6 phone, with satellite wireless handsets, works perfectly. The Obi device adds a TON of features to also save you money and convenience - fantastic little devices.

	Now my cell and my wifes cell rings, PLUS the house phones when someone calls the landline # and we have way more control over blocking telemarketers and spam as part of the services of Google voice - never be interrupted or even hear a call ringing during dinner, ot other times. Plus you can control or set a schedule as to how and when you also ring your cell's or other forwarding device. The really nice things are text messages in and out on what was a landline, plus transripted voicemails, listen in, recording, all the google voice stuff, plus best of all spam/telemarketer blocking just like gmail. The phone won't even ring if you mark a number as spam, or if it's already in the google spam list, really nice.

	Two potential downsides:

	1. No emergency 911 services, not too big because cells are good for most issues, but in a big disaster where power is out for a long time, cell towers might go down too.

	2. If you still need to send/receive faxes, without support for t.38 fax or VoIP protocol, faxing is hit or miss, but most everything is email now anyway, so not too big a deal. Supposedly google and obihai will support t.38 with a future firmware update anyway. (UPDATE: Obi 100 now supports t.38 and the other newer devices have other FAX protocol support as well - think the weak link here is Google voice but seriously who faxes other than lawyers?)

	The obi100 is really sweet little piece of hardware, tons of configuration stuff you can control, too much in fact, but they do make it easy to setup and it supports more than one active VoIP service, so if you have another one beside google voice you can have that active too. They also have nice iPhone and Android apps to use it locally over wifi, or to call directly from one obi to another, plus there are plenty of VoIP apps to let you use just software or software and hardware on Mac/pcs to dial out, send messages etc. All domestic calls are free and international is 10 cents a minute, stil better than most landline long distance packages, and you can always use your cell plan too and use that number for outgoing by having google call you first.

	So far it's been totally seamless for us, and we are saving between 40-60 bucks a month which is what Verizon was raping us for on the landline with no features. The reason I used a t-mobile prepaid sim was that it was the cheapest minimum prepaid sim I could find (free via the web) and I read that others had the greatest amount of success porting landlines with t-mobile. Your mileage may vary.

	Enjoy!