Cheapest way to keep local phone number?

[h8red]

My brother has a cell phone and a local line. He wants to keep his local land-line phone number because that is what everyone has for contact information (MD, daycare, friends, etc.) but is looking for a way to cut his costs. His cell phone plan is provided by the company he works for so he doesn't want to use that as his primary contact phone number. Ideally he wants to find a way to port his local number to something cheap/free (preferably a voice mailbox) until Google Voice or Magic Jack allow local number porting.

So what's the cheapest way to "hold" a local phone number until he wants to port it to another service?

 

[sjwaste]

Prepaid cell phone, as long as you don't do whatever triggers the termination of service?

Probably have to buy a certain number of minutes per month.

 

[h8red]

I think that's what he's going to end up doing but I didn't know if there was anything cheaper out there.

 

[mb]

Dial tone service is offered for $6.50/mo on Verizon here... don't know if that qualifies as cheap enough. Every call is billable though, even local exchange calls.

 

[h8red]

@mb
I think that would be cheaper than a prepaid cell phone. He really doesn't use the land-line phone all that much. He places all his calls on his cell, he just doesn't want people leaving voice mail on his company's phone. If there was a cheap voice mailbox that would be ideal.

 

[hoihtah]

tmobile prepaid: for $100, you get 1000 min to use for 1 year.
that's about 8.3cents/min.

 

[h8red]

Originally posted by: hoihtah
tmobile prepaid: for $100, you get 1000 min to use for 1 year.
that's about 8.3cents/min.

He's hoping to switch to Google Voice soon (as soon as number porting becomes reality). I don't think he'd use 100 min let alone 1000 minutes. Is $100 for a prepaid cell the cheapest? I think he could probably do monthly until then.

 

[Slick5150]

Can't you port a number to Magic Jack? That'd be pretty cheap

 

[h8red]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
Can't you port a number to Magic Jack? That'd be pretty cheap

I don't think they have the capability to do that yet. That's what he's waiting for!!

 

[middlehead]

Ooma, I'd guess. $250 up front for the box, and you can choose pricing from there:

$40 to port the # and $0 for service, or
$99 a year service, port is free.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: h8red

Originally posted by: Slick5150
Can't you port a number to Magic Jack? That'd be pretty cheap

I don't think they have the capability to do that yet. That's what he's waiting for!!

Oh right. I fail at reading sometimes.

Yeah, I'd say your cheapest option would be a prepaid phone plan.

 

[ivan2]

italkbb is about $7 a month + 2 cents per minute calling. but you have to sign up a year to get that plan.

 

[h8red]

Middlehead - I think that isn't a bad option but right now its a little cost prohibitive. My guess is that they will have call porting in a few months so he wouldn't recoup his initial investment if he wanted to use google voice. But it seems like it would be cheaper than Magic Jack over time.

ivan2 - that looks fairly cheap (about $2 cheaper per month cheaper than most I've seen). I don't know if he wants to be locked into a year contract though.

 

[Spacehead]

Apparently you can keep you local # with TracFone but you need to give them your SS# to do it.
TracFones are cheap, especially if you don't talk on the phone a lot, but i wasn't comfortable giving them that info.



edit-
I looked briefly but didn't see anything about having to give SS# now, but i know it was there before. If you go that route, check the fine print to make sure.

 

[lxskllr]

I use Virgin Mobile, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm paying 20¢ per minute(15¢ text), but as long as I put $20 on the phone at least every 3 months, the minutes roll over. This works well for people who don't use a phone much.

 

[middlehead]

Originally posted by: h8red
Middlehead - I think that isn't a bad option but right now its a little cost prohibitive. My guess is that they will have call porting in a few months so he wouldn't recoup his initial investment if he wanted to use google voice. But it seems like it would be cheaper than Magic Jack over time.

Ooma does port numbers right now, unless you mean that they can't port from his particular area code/prefix. And Ooma would definitely be cheaper than MagicJack over time, because you don't have to pay for Ooma if you don't want to.

 

[thomsbrain]

Regular AT&T landlines have an option for measured rate service that's around $7 a month. Unlimited calls in. Limited calls out by some number of minutes, then charged by the minute like a cell phone would be.

 

[h8red]

Originally posted by: middlehead

Originally posted by: h8red
Middlehead - I think that isn't a bad option but right now its a little cost prohibitive. My guess is that they will have call porting in a few months so he wouldn't recoup his initial investment if he wanted to use google voice. But it seems like it would be cheaper than Magic Jack over time.

Ooma does port numbers right now, unless you mean that they can't port from his particular area code/prefix. And Ooma would definitely be cheaper than MagicJack over time, because you don't have to pay for Ooma if you don't want to.

They was supposed to mean either magic jack or google voice. I personally think this is a better option than magic jack. When I talked to my brother about it, he was a little afraid that Ooma may not be a financially stable company. He thought Magic Jack is a little more stable because they have advertising dollars. If Magic Jack doesn't make it, he's out $20. If Ooma doesn't make it, he's out $290 (with number porting). I think at this point he's looking at getting a pay-as-you-go cell to port the number to.