Porting

Sa pagkakataong ito ipagpaumanhin niyo ang paggamit ko ng Ingles. Napansin niyo siguro na may mga ads na sa gilid ng blog ko. Aba, eh naghahangad lang naman akong kumita kahit konti galing sa pagsusulat dito. Swerte na kung may mag-click sa mga ads na 'yan. Sa mga gustong mag-click, feel free to so at maraming salamat. Pang-laundry ko din 'yan. LOL.

Whenever I feel bored I try to do something to keep my mind off of unnecessary negative thoughts. Things like tinkering with my gadgets - iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung phones. Switching networks via prepaid service. Trying to figure out if something can be done or not out of curiosity. Or simply just for the thrill of doing it. 

In today's case I've been busy thinking about number porting. Back in the Philippines I had this habit of choosing my phone number. I either do it out of luck or via connections. Back in the day when I was still a Globe Platinum member I was able to choose the last 4 digits of my phone number without being charged for it. Same thing when I switched to SUN Cellular.  And I couldn't shake that off of me even if I moved here in the States. I was heartbroken when T-Mobile told me that I couldn't choose a number because it's generated by the system when I signed up for a mobile phone plan. Couldn't do anything about it so I researched and found out about Google Voice. 

The good thing about Google Voice is it's FREE. You can opt to choose a number and use it as your main number for all your phones whether it's your home or mobile number. I've been using for two years now and it works perfectly fine for me. Plus, I get to keep my "vanity" number. I was able to get the last 4 digits that I wanted and am happy about it. 

So, if I'm happy about it why port the number? Well, to tell you honestly I did get several numbers with the same last 4 digits just for fun. Just to test how porting really works I tried porting out of Google Voice. First things first, porting out is not free. They charged me a $3 fee for it. Also, you have to follow certain steps to port it. Go to the unlock site and then sign in to your account. Once you're there click on Unlock my number. A pop up screen will show which would let you confirm that you want the number ported. Once you click on that you will be redirected to Google Wallet for the payment. 

I got some snapshots here:

Once you've done all of this contact your provider tell them that you want to keep your number. Your account number is your Google number. 

For AT&T Go Phone, you have the option to port your number upon checkout. Or, you can call 888.333.6651. It's pretty easy. Takes a few minutes to do the porting. 

For T-Mobile, you can go to the switch/transfer site or call 800.937.8997.

For Globalinx Home Unlimited, they have the porting option when you go to the checkout page. A temporary number will be assigned to you until the porting process is completed.

I've tried it. It works.