How best to get rid of office landline?

May 17, 2014 10:05 PM

I work from home and have an established business phone number that I need to keep. I'd like to port the number somewhere that sends the call to voicemail and return the call with my cell phone. I don't need to call from the office number, just receive voicemails. Do you have any recommendations for services you like that are cheap? I found "parkmyphone.com" which says what I need would be $5/mo plus $20 transfer fee to port the number, but don't know if it is reliable. I don't know anything about Skype or voip solutions. GoogleVoice doesn't allow landlines to be ported into it. If it matters, I have an Android Galaxy S4 with T-mobile for my cell service. Thanks!
posted by DB Cooper to Technology (6 answers total)

Best answer: Port to a cheap cell then port to google voice.
posted by Sophont at 10:08 PM on May 17, 2014 [1 favorite]

I had success porting to MagicJack. Pretty straightforward, no issues so far. $30 a year or $100 for five years, plus the adapter. Voicemail is included, but you can plug in a phone too.
posted by alexei at 10:16 PM on May 17, 2014

Google Voice accepts landlines. Callers have to ID themselves, but not much of an issue.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:08 PM on May 17, 2014

Anveo is a VoIP service that, would be overkill for this, but you could use it to do what you want. Cost would be a porting fee ($20 sounds right), $0.50/month + $0.01/minute for the incoming call to voice mail. You could also have it ring through to your cell phone, in which case you'd pay for the outgoing connection too. If you went that route, I'd suggest looking at the unlimited incoming minutes for another $3.50/month.
posted by Good Brain at 1:30 AM on May 18, 2014

Best answer: Google Voice is your answer. I wasn't aware they could port a land line (as mentioned above), but porting your number to a cheap/old cell phone and, from there, to Google voice is the answer if porting directly from the land line is a problem. I just ported our old "home phone" number (which i had already ported to a cell since my most recent house doesn't even have phone lines) to Google Voice. I get an e/mail every time there's a call, and the voice transcribed and e/mailed if there is one. Works great/Free!
posted by HuronBob at 2:40 AM on May 18, 2014

Best answer: Be careful with Google Voice, there are rumors that Google may be phasing it out.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:24 AM on May 18, 2014 [1 favorite]