So, I was looking at my credit card bill a few months ago and it hit me… My monthly telephone bill via Vonage has grown to $37.44! Â I wasn’t really certain how that aligned with, say, phone from Verizon FiOS (which we have for internet) or other options, but I thought I’d look around for alternatives.
I finally settled on buying an Obihai Obi200 VoIP adapter for $47.99, connecting to Google Voice (free for domestic phone calls, $0.01/min for international calls I could think of any reason to make), and e911 service from Anveo ($12.99/year for up to five 911 calls). Â The other part, of course, was to port my current “home” number from Vonage to Google which turned out to be a little more exciting.
Google only supports porting from mobile numbers, for some reason, and Vonage doesn’t count as mobile. Â So, it required a two-step process: Â first, port from Vonage to T-Mobile ($14.99 for a sim activation kit + $10 for some airtime to deal with setup – I already had an unlocked phone, but the battery was dead, so I needed another $9.98 for a new battery). Â That step took about 48 hours, not counting the excitement of getting a new battery for an old phone. THEN I could immediately port from T-Mobile to Google (another $20!) and wait another 24 hours.
…. and it worked! Â Same phone number, all new services, new hardware, and I have far more control over the components so I can switch providers as needed. Woo hoo!
Total cost: $102.96 one time (more than half was fees to port my old number), and $12.99/year recurring costs. Compared to $449.28/year with Vonage, and I’ll break even in three months.
