How does one get a virtual international phone number that is SMS-capable?

January 11, 2011 10:58 AM

I'm looking to get a virtual international phone number that can send and receive SMS text messages and can be used with my US mobile phone. I've found Virtual Phone Line and VoipVoip, but they support voice calls only, not SMS.
posted by matrushka to Technology (3 answers total)

Do you need voice calls, or just SMS? And do you want your virtual number to be in some particular place? You might be interested in FishText, which can give you a virtual number in the UK and has cheap global texting.
posted by philipy at 11:10 AM on January 11, 2011

Google voice gives you a number in the states and free text messages.

It's very powerful.
posted by jstarlee at 2:06 PM on January 11, 2011

Response by poster: @jstarlee I am aware of Google Voice. It will not work for my needs. I cannot text message non-US numbers via Google Voice, and non-US numbers cannot send texts to my Google Voice number.

Perhaps I was not clear enough. I'm looking to get a virtual French phone number that can send and receive SMS text messages to/from French cell phones and can be used with my US mobile phone, either forwarded to my Google Voice number as a text, or through an Android app.

Virtual Phone Line would enable me to purchase a French phone number at the cost of 99 cents per month, but their website does not say whether they support text messaging to/from mobile phones with the international virtual number one purchases.
posted by matrushka at 4:16 PM on January 11, 2011