Hands-On Tech 210 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

0:00:00 - Mikah Sargent
Coming up on Hands-On Tech. Let's take a look at what's involved when it comes to porting a landline to a mobile phone. Stay tuned.

Hello and welcome to Hands-On Tech. I'm Mikah Sargent and today we are taking a look at a question from Will. Will has written in to say this:

I am ready to kill off my landline, kind of I would like to port my landline number to my old Google Pixel 5 and use it as the home phone. This phone will stay at the house and be used like a home landline phone, but saving me the $35 a month AT&T charges. With the internet service. All the calls that would normally go to the landline would go to this phone. What all should I do other than port the number? Should I get a new Google account for the home number with a new email address? I would like to hear all of the great ideas you have. Thank you and have a wonderful day. All right, so here is the thing. First and foremost, will you talk about saving money by porting over your number to this Google Pixel device? It depends on how and where you are porting this. So it sounds like what you're wanting to do is use Google's own services, like Google Voice to port over this number. Services like Google Voice to port over this number. So you would take your landline that currently exists with AT&T and you would port this number over to Google Voice and from that point on, this device would stay at home and, because it has a Wi-Fi connection, it is then able to take these calls and give you access to that. There's an important point to this, though Depending on where you live, you may have an actual physical landline that is not actually just VoIP where you are. So if you don't have an internet phone and you have a true landline phone, keep in mind that that landline phone is one that works even when the internet or your home power is down. You're still able to place a call, and that's something to just bear in mind. That in emergencies, that might be a reason to keep it around. But if you're absolutely certain that you want to get rid of your landline and want to do this over Wi-Fi, this is possible.

You didn't mention the service that you're wanting to use. You said in your message what all should I do other than port the number, which sounds like you've got that part figured out. You know what you want to do. When it comes to it being figured, you know where you're going to port it to. So let's assume you're using Google Voice. We'll include a link in the show notes to the number porting requirements for Google Voice. That involves not just what you need to know on what information, but then also the porting part itself, and so when it comes to porting over, you do need to make sure that you have the necessary approval in place. So you're going to need to contact AT&T to get all of that locked in.

But you ask should I get a new Google account for the home number with a new email address? I really don't know that a separate account makes sense for this, and the reason why is because, depending on how you're setting up this Google Voice, google Voice will require that you tie an actual number to your Google Voice account that can also be used to receive these calls, and so it's kind of like a. It ends up being a bit of a forwarding service rather than a precisely a porting service. So in that way, the Google account that you're using for your personal email might be your best bet to kind of keep all of that logged and locked into the same system If you are a household of many people, then maybe it makes sense to you know, spin up a Google account that's just for this. But then bear in mind that every time you want to make changes or make adjustments or do anything to the Google Voice account, you're going to need to log into that system and you know, making it so that you and other people in your house are all able to access the voicemail that Google Voice provides or you know, whatever else that happens to involve. Maybe then it makes sense to make your own account, because a separate account, because you could make the account will Google Voice and give it a password and then share that with the other people in your household, and then everybody could log in, everybody would be able to access those transcripts of the voicemails that are sent, and so in that way it makes sense.

But ultimately I'm kind of of two minds Again when it comes to this. $35 is a lot. You may try getting in touch with AT&T and saying, yeah, I'm thinking about canceling my landline. What you can do about it and see if they'll give you a better deal for your landline instead. As Rorky Corky in the chat says, there are some alarm systems and healthcare devices that also require landlines. So you know, make sure that you don't have any of those in your household before you decide to go ahead and port this over Will. Thank you so much for taking the time to write in with your question. I hope that gives you some idea of what you need to know when it comes to sort of making this porting decision, and I'd love to hear what you end up deciding to do If you go ahead and port the number, if you stick with AT&T and try to get a deal. Of course, everything in between we would love to hear from you.

I want to remind everybody out there that we have a two-week free trial of Club Twit available to you. twit.tv/clubtwit is how you go and check that out. After the fact, $7 a month gets you access to every single one of our shows ad-free, just the content. Access to the members-only Discord server, a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and those of us here at Twit. Access to the Twit+ bonus feed that has extra stuff you won't find anywhere else, plus so much more. We would love to see you in the club. twit.tv/clubtwit is where you go to check it out. If you have questions for me, love, love, love to hear from you, mikah@twit.tv or hot@twit.tv. Both of those will reach me and I look forward to hearing from you and answering your questions on future episodes of Hands-on Tech. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll catch you again next week for another episode. Bye-bye.

0:06:57 - Leo Laporte
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