Porting a number from Georgia

[thirstyturtle18]

Hello, I just moved to Canada last week, and want to keep my phone number from Atlanta Georgia, but use it on a local plan. Is it possible to port a number from the 770 area code to public mobile. I tried to do it with another provider, but I got an error message. I figure it should be technically possible since Canada and the USA share the same phone numbering plan (NANP).

[dna2016]

@thirstyturtle18 if you're here permanently then I recommend you change your number to a Canadian number.  Trying to accomplish all that was mentioned regarding the VOIP might be challenging unless you're already tech savvy or know someone who can do it for you.  If you're here temporarily (i.e. less than a year), then sure keep the number, and fly back to Georgia for a few days out of the year to avoid having your service possibly cut off.

If you keep your number as a Georgia number while here you'll definitely be incurring a lot of roaming charges and your current provider i'm sure might have some type of limit related to it, and technically anyone you get to know in Canada tries calling you they'll incur long distance charges.  Suggest just change your number and advise everyone you know (or only advise the one's you want to know, great way to purge).  Just take like 30 minutes out of your day to inform everyone, doesn't take much.

[anya]

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@stonechucker wrote:

@thirstyturtle18, I would be cautious about keeping the T-Mobile plan in Canada.  Unless you’re one line on a family or business account, your carrier end your service if you continue to roam in Canada and do not return to the US enough.  I’ve seen reports of this, but can’t access any at the moment.

Do take a look at the VoIP.ms website, and what they have to offer.  It’s fairly inexpensive, and you can essentially use your US based number to receive calls forwarded to your Canadian plan.

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@thirstyturtle18 Yes, I’ve seen the reports specific to T-Mobile that @stonechucker is referring to as well. It’s in the fine print for most large carriers. If you roam off a carrier other than your own for more than 50% of the time in a 3 month period, they might threaten to cut you off. Even had it happen to a colleague on Rogers who had forced his phone to connect to Rogers-EXT because it gave a better signal in his area.

Eg see; https://support.t-mobile.com/thread/143815

[stonechucker]

@thirstyturtle18, I would be cautious about keeping the T-Mobile plan in Canada.  Unless you’re one line on a family or business account, your carrier end your service if you continue to roam in Canada and do not return to the US enough.  I’ve seen reports of this, but can’t access any at the moment.

Do take a look at the VoIP.ms website, and what they have to offer.  It’s fairly inexpensive, and you can essentially use your US based number to receive calls forwarded to your Canadian plan.

[computergeek541]

The number portability rules don't allow what you're asking for.  For a carrier to accept a number to be ported in, the carrier receiving the number must offer service in that same rate code (city).  This is impossible as Canadian wireless carriers aren't allowed to assign American phone numbers.

[thirstyturtle18]

Thank you everyone for your help. Seeing as it's not possible, I will probably have to keep my T-Mobile plan here in Canada active. I was hoping that public mobile could be an option, but I guess it's not possible at the momment.

[anya]

@thirstyturtle18 I’m not sure if the reasoning is more political than technical. I don’t know. Besides, getting a local number would make it easier for people from here to contact you anyway. If you only had the US number, your Canadian callers would incur US long distance charges when they call you.

[stonechucker]

Id suggest getting a VoIP service setup where you’d port your number to it, then direct your calls to your new local phone number.  Doing this you could let all your contacts know what your new local number is, and get the, to update when they contact you.

VoIP.ms has the ability to accept a port in on a US number for sure, and you could forward to a Canadian number.

[will13am]

@thirstyturtle18, I would try to do something like associate it in your google voice account.  When someone calls that number, you can still have it ring your phone.

[thirstyturtle18]

thank you for your reply. I had a feeling that was the case, but it still doesn't make sense since like I said, both Canada and the USA share the same phone numbering system which is common between the two countries. I would understand if there was an area code in Canada that conflicted with an area code in the USA, but there is not one single overlap of area codes between the two countries. Doesn't make sense.

[NDesai]

@thirstyturtle18 I don't think you can port your number to Public Mobile. May be there is an alternative way someone might know such as move the number to another carrier and then to Public Mobile. 

[anya · Accepted solution]

Hi @thirstyturtle18 non-Canadian numbers (even from the US) cannot be ported to a Canadian provider. You could port it to a service like fongo though and then forward it to your new Canadian number.

Edit: here is the info on fongo https://www.fongo.com/