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Port your mobile number to Google Voice
Wed, 26th Jan 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

It was only on Monday that newly crowned Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said all of Google's strategic initiatives in 2011 will all be about mobile. And it looks like we have one of the first.

Google has launched a new service in the US that lets you to bring together your existing mobile number and Google Voice account so that all your phones ring at once, using just once number.

“One of the most frequent requests we hear from people who use (or want to use) Google Voice is that they’d like to get all of Google Voice’s features without having to give up their long-time phone numbers,” said Robert Dong, Software Engineer at Google.

“Today, we’re excited to announce that Number Porting is available for all existing Google Voice users. This means you can make the mobile number you’ve always used your Google Voice number, so it can ring any phone you want—or even your computer.”

This is how Google says it works:

  • Google contacts your carrier to let them know you’re porting your number to Google Voice
  • Porting your number to Google Voice costs US$20 and is usually completed within 24 hours
  • You service will be cancelled when porting is complete
  • To make and receive calls you’ll need a new service plan and number
  • Add the new number to your Voice account as a forwarding number
  • When people call your existing phone number it will ring your mobile phone and all your other phones
“Number Porting is currently available for existing users and will become available to new users within the next few weeks,” added Dong. The comments following the blog post are brimming with a list of countries that doesn’t have the feature yet.