Help me cut the landline cord

[lbperry]

I have an AT&T landline. I have Verizon service on our cell phones.
My wife and I are retired and far past the point that we should have gotten rid of our landline. Except for the massive job of changing 55 years of public, private, corporate, and other records to reflect a new phone number.
Is there any way of having our landline number routed to to one of our cell phones(hers)?
My wife thinks I'm crazy. But I don't see why electronically that the landline number can't be removed from AT&Ts purview and picked up by Verizon.
Can any of you electronic/telephone gurus help me out on this one?
Thanks,

 

[sselander]

Port your landline to a google phone number.
Easiest way is to port it to a disposable.phone 1st, then to google.
Once it is a google number, you can have it forward to your existing cell phone.

 

[American Locomotive]

You can have your landline number ported to a cell phone or IP phone service like Google Voice.

 

[Jim greengo]

Go unlisted like the rest of us.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Port the number as said above...

 

[ddawg16]

We use MagicJack...........last time I renewed...$95 for 5 years.

Like the above, it's VOIP (Voice Over IP).

What's nice, I have an app on my phone that lets me receive and make calls from the home phone on my cell from anywhere.

Vonage is the same thing....but way too expensive.

Downside of VOIP....if your internet goes down...so does your home phone.

But...you still have your cells.

If the cell towers go down....phone calls are the least of your worries. You have better have plenty of ammo to take out the Zombies coming.

 

[Git]

You can have your landline number ported to a cell phone or IP phone service like Google Voice.

+1

Buy an Obi 200, set up a free Google Voice Account and port the phone number over. No monthly costs, no nothing

 

[thewatusi]

+1

Buy an Obi 200, set up a free Google Voice Account and port the phone number over. No monthly costs, no nothing

This x 1000

I did the Google voice/obi thing like 3 or 4 years ago. Works absolutely flawlessly and aside from the initial ~$35 for the Obi I haven't spent one cent on the "house phone"

 

[burleyfarm]

Yes, port your existing landline number to the cell phone that you want to receive all your calls to. This would however necessitate that you drop one of the cell phone numbers. It’s a very simple process for your wireless carrier.

We did the same about two years before we retired. It simplified so many things especially for our long time friends or family. We originally acquired our landline when we moved back to our home town in our 30’s. My wife’s mother had moved from her home to a different city and we inquired as to the availability of her mother’s old number. Fortunately it was available so we still have the phone number that my wife grew up with from the early 1950’s. [emoji3]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[glend123]

I have an AT&T landline. I have Verizon service on our cell phones.
My wife and I are retired and far past the point that we should have gotten rid of our landline. Except for the massive job of changing 55 years of public, private, corporate, and other records to reflect a new phone number.
Is there any way of having our landline number routed to to one of our cell phones(hers)?
My wife thinks I'm crazy. But I don't see why electronically that the landline number can't be removed from AT&Ts purview and picked up by Verizon.
Can any of you electronic/telephone gurus help me out on this one?
Thanks,

How many of these people actually call you?
Most of my friends and family already had my cell number, so just tell them to stop calling the land line.
I wouldn't want my landline ported to my cell, the number of useless solicitors and scammers calling that number was the reason i got rid of it in the first place!

 

[anythingyoucanimagine]

Port your landline to a google phone number.
Easiest way is to port it to a disposable.phone 1st, then to google.
Once it is a google number, you can have it forward to your existing cell phone.

Yes this. You own the number. Go to Walmart and buy a cheap phone (or use an old unlocked cell phone) Buy a $20 or $50 prepaid phone plan and have your landline ported over to that number. That'll be quick, easy and almost instant (can be done in a few hours). From there you can easily move it over to Google Voice.

The only thing I don't like about Google Voice is you have only two options for caller ID: #1... all calls come in with the caller ID of your landline -or- #2... All calls come in with caller ID of the caller --but you have no idea which number the caller called.

For example: I have a business phone number on Google Voice that forwards to (rings on) my cell phone. I can either have it always show my work number when I get calls --so now I know someone is calling my work number... but I don't know who so it could be some telemarketer, sales guy/girl I don't want to talk to right now, etc.... OR, I can have everyone's individual caller ID numbers come up but then I have no clue whether it is a work or personal call... So sometimes I let stuff to to voicemail when I wanted to answer and sometimes I answer work calls when I don't want to. It can be a little quirky but it works well. If it is a home phone landline # your wife will probably be fine having it forward the actual caller's caller ID then just don't answer numbers you don't know.


OR, another option is to spend a stupid amount of money and buy an iPhone XS (the iPhone 10S). It has dual sim cards so you can port over your number to Verizon (to the second sim card) and add it to your mobile plan as a 3rd line/number. I don't own that phone so I have not done what I described. I'm in the USA and have a friend over in Europe. He was able to add his work number to his second SIM on his same phone carrier. They get cool stuff over in Europe and the rest of the world before we do in the US. I'm not 100% sure that we can do that here yet --check with Verizon first.

 

[Arkansas COB]

Consumer Cellular. When we switched to it because AT&T kept jacking up the bill we kept our landline phone number that we had for the past 37 yrs.


COB

 

[cybrdyke]

How many of these people actually call you?
Most of my friends and family already had my cell number, so just tell them to stop calling the land line.
I wouldn't want my landline ported to my cell, the number of useless solicitors and scammers calling that number was the reason i got rid of it in the first place!

100% agree.
I dumped the landline entirely and never missed a beat. The only calls I ever got on it were solicitors, robo calls and wrong numbers. Alot of my business contacts still have my old number listed in my account info. They dont seem to have any problem contacting me via text, email, instant message, etc...
The notion that you have to keep your old phone number is old folk thinking.
CD

 

[dave*99]

Yes this. You own the number. Go to Walmart and buy a cheap phone (or use an old unlocked cell phone) Buy a $20 or $50 prepaid phone plan and have your landline ported over to that number. That'll be quick, easy and almost instant (can be done in a few hours). From there you can easily move it over to Google Voice.

The only thing I don't like about Google Voice is you have only two options for caller ID: #1... all calls come in with the caller ID of your landline -or- #2... All calls come in with caller ID of the caller --but you have no idea which number the caller called.

For example: I have a business phone number on Google Voice that forwards to (rings on) my cell phone. I can either have it always show my work number when I get calls --so now I know someone is calling my work number... but I don't know who so it could be some telemarketer, sales guy/girl I don't want to talk to right now, etc.... OR, I can have everyone's individual caller ID numbers come up but then I have no clue whether it is a work or personal call... So sometimes I let stuff to to voicemail when I wanted to answer and sometimes I answer work calls when I don't want to. It can be a little quirky but it works well. If it is a home phone landline # your wife will probably be fine having it forward the actual caller's caller ID then just don't answer numbers you don't know.


OR, another option is to spend a stupid amount of money and buy an iPhone XS (the iPhone 10S). It has dual sim cards so you can port over your number to Verizon (to the second sim card) and add it to your mobile plan as a 3rd line/number. I don't own that phone so I have not done what I described. I'm in the USA and have a friend over in Europe. He was able to add his work number to his second SIM on his same phone carrier. They get cool stuff over in Europe and the rest of the world before we do in the US. I'm not 100% sure that we can do that here yet --check with Verizon first.

Is there a reason you can't port the landline number directly to Google voice (skip the burner phone)?

 

[slow]

google voice will only port cell phones
https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667?hl=en

 

[Kirk T]

My wife and I have been without a landline for five years now. We did not make any preparations or do anything special. Most everyone already had our cell phone numbers and use them anyway. We just had the landline disconnected and as someone previously said we never skipped a beat.

 

[memphisnate]

So how many places have ONLY your landline # and not one of the cell #s? Majority of all forms where your #s are collected from have spots for Home, Work, and Cell Phone. If you've filled in the Cell Phone spot too, you're good. Just go ahead and cancel the landline

 

[acer66]

Consumer Cellular. When we switched to it because AT&T kept jacking up the bill we kept our landline phone number that we had for the past 37 yrs.


COB

I am happy with CC and last time I checked they use att.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

+1

Buy an Obi 200, set up a free Google Voice Account and port the phone number over. No monthly costs, no nothing

i have the 2 port/4 line OBi talk box. it works great.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

We went with Straight Talk via WalMart. House phone we kept same number we've had 40 years. Each cell phone also Straight Talk. Like $25/ month home...$50 cell.
What's amazing is the home box has a built in battery which lasts a long time. A.c. adapter is 12vdc...so it will work in car cigarette lighter.
On vacation we take home box with us sometimes.
$25/month...cheapest mobile phone I can think of.

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

 

[barnee]

Ooma. (voip).

Lots of features and mostly free after you buy the equipment.

 

[country83]

We went with Straight Talk via WalMart. House phone we kept same number we've had 40 years. Each cell phone also Straight Talk. Like $25/ month home...$50 cell.
What's amazing is the home box has a built in battery which lasts a long time. A.c. adapter is 12vdc...so it will work in car cigarette lighter.
On vacation we take home box with us sometimes.
$25/month...cheapest mobile phone I can think of.

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

We did something similar to this, Verizon has the "Wireless Home Phone" available, looks like a WiFi router you plug your house phone into, uses the cell towers to give you a landline replacement. Runs us about $25/month.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

 

[Git]

Ooma. (voip).

Lots of features and mostly free after you buy the equipment.

Ooma is a great choice also. The service is free after you buy the equipment BUT you have to pay taxes and other FCC type fees that will depend on where you live. For example in my location, the cost would be $4.82 monthly for their basic service

We have an original Ooma hub that we bought from Costco when it was first released and it truly is free (no taxes, no nothing). It has to be around 8 or 9 years old at this point and is still going strong, but I think the voice quality of the Obi is just as good as the Ooma

Here is a link to a page to see how much you would pay monthly in fees for the newer Ooma:

https://shop.ooma.com/tax_calculator

 

[slow]

I have an Obi 200 and the only people that call that number are solicitors. I wented to keep my old number, but then realized, there is no reason to worry about it. Got rid of it 8 years ago and never looked back. I only have the obi200 to prevent the cost of the home phone from Spectrum and for emergency calling. (note, it does not support 911 without a charge)

 

[Jinks]

We kept our land line number when we changed internet providers. We ported the number to the new internet provider, plugged the primary phone into the modem, & added wireless subsets throughout the house. The price of phone service dropped a little, but the expense is worth it. We didn't have to change our number with all the things that had & need it, we don't give our cell numbers to anyone that doesn't need them, & along with Nomorobo & some call blocking service we cut down on a lot of robocalling.

 

[lbperry]

Thanks for all the good replies. Now I've got several solutions to research the best one for me.
I appreciate your help,

 

[fastrucken1]

Also went the Obi 200. First ported to t-mobile pay as you go (bought 20$ phone with i think a minimal amount of minutes) then ported to google voice, then connected the obi 200.

We kept a "land line" so kids could call out and it is a super easy # for them to remember too.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I use a ZTE Phone Connect 4 device and Ting cellular. The ZTE Phone Connect converts a cell phone signal into a "plain old telephone" 2 wire interface. Cut the out side wire an plug into a modular jack. Your existing phones ring and you can make outgoing calls.

Ting rides on top of Sprint, but it is strictly "pay as you go". Effectively, this costs me $6/month. Of course 99% of the calls are telemarketer.