As a prepaid customer I wanted to make sure that my number stays with me for life, and ideally not worry about porting it to the provider each time I change service. Perhaps more paranoid than others, I've also been concerned that the provider may go out of business and "lose my number." 

The solution has been Google Voice. I ported my number from T-Mobile to Google Voice for a $20 fee. Google will hold and manage the number forever; no monthly or yearly fees whatsoever.

Furthermore Google Voice provides:

- A web-based control panel to check Voicemail, Text messages, MMS, and Call History

- The ability to make or receive phone calls from the web

- Free call forwarding to whatever number you may have at the moment

- The ability to make phone calls as your GVoice ported phone number from Android and iOS

- Low International calling rates

If you later decide to port your number out of Google Voice, you can easily initiate an "unlock" online and request a port at your new provider. The site for requesting the unlock for posting.

I've been using this solution for over 2 years now and couldn't be happier. If you are a Google Voice user and want to sound off, or if you are considering it and have questions that you haven't found answers to, use the comments area below.

Discuss
comments powered by Disqus