Take my phone overseas or leave it and forward it

[pardnme]

I have my personal public mobile phone (only works in Canada) and my work phone (works worldwide).

If I take my phone to Europe with me, my understanding is that I will not get any incoming texts/missed calls/voice mails - absolutely nothing.

What if I forward my personal number to my work phone and still take my phone with me.  Will I get then all phone calls/voice mails (maybe not text messages)?

What if I forward my personal number to my work phone but leave my personal phone at home.  Will I get then all phone calls/voice mails and texts would arrive to the personal phone number which will be sitting at home?

[Nezgar]

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@pardnme wrote:

Ideally I want my phone with me so I can use WhatsApp etc on wifi...I dont have some of these apps on my work phone.

I'll look into the text now app.

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Whatsapp will continue to work on your personal phone with the SIM card removed, and then you can forward the personal SIM to your work # or TextNow while you are out of the country. Calls to your personal number could be handled by TextNow's voicemail service if you forward to that.

If you don't forward your Public Mobile line, you can access your voicemail by dialing your Public Mobile number from TextNow and pressing # at the announcement, or you can dial any one of the voicemail access numbers across Canada I listed here:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Updated-list-of-Voicemail-Access-Numbers/...

[gpixel]

@pardnme 

the sim doesn't need to be in the device to stay call forwarded. you can test this out yourself before going on your trip. just leave the sim at home and take both devices.

[pardnme]

Ideally I want my phone with me so I can use WhatsApp etc on wifi...I dont have some of these apps on my work phone.

I'll look into the text now app.

[darlicious]

@pardnme 

Rather than incur costly Roaming fees for your employer install the textnow app on your phone and choose a Canadian phone number. Then while on wifi preferably (or mobile data) use textnow to call your pm number. Once it connects to your voicemail press "*" and enter your voicemail pin #. You can then access your voicemail services.

[softech]

@pardnme   unless you need the app on your "PM" phone, there is really no need to bring it with you, the PM sim card will not work anyway

Yes, you can call yourself from another line (your work phone) and check VM that way. 

And easier way (free way) is to download VoIP app like TextNow and you can use it to make phone calls back to Canada for free

Again, no easy way for text forwarding.  

[pardnme]

I guess I'll forward my number to my work phone while in canada but take both phones to Sweden with me.   

The text that I'm waiting for is possibly from a tenant that I'll be evicting...long story but I'll just tell them to call/vm/email.

When aborad...how would I go about listening to voicemails?  Call my own number from my work phone and let it goto voicemail and then enter some.code?

[computergeek541]

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@Meow wrote:

@darlicious  is expert in these kind of forwarding.

As I remember correctly, you can do forwarding but phone with PM SIM has to stay in Canada, be On all the time and plugged in AC/DC adapter in order to receive calls and then forward them whenever needed.

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There isn't any reason to keep the Public Mobile phone turned on.  Call forwarding is done at the network level.

[Nezgar]

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@darlicious wrote:

@Nezgar 

I was always confused on this matter....as long as you have a US Roaming talk add on or the $60 US Roaming plan call forwarding will stay in place and not default to voicemail? So call forwarding your busy/unreachable while in the US when the 2G network is unavailable will forward calls to your textnow number for example? Can call forwarding be performed in the US as well or only within Canada before leaving for the US?

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Heh... you picked up on my lack of detail in that area. 😁 I don't recall if forwarding still works WITH a USA talk roaming add on, and the whole LTE/no 3G vs 2G only may add additional complication to that if it works one way but not the other etc...

[darlicious]

@Nezgar 

I was always confused on this matter....as long as you have a US Roaming talk add on or the $60 US Roaming plan call forwarding will stay in place and not default to voicemail? So call forwarding your busy/unreachable while in the US when the 2G network is unavailable will forward calls to your textnow number for example? Can call forwarding be performed in the US as well or only within Canada before leaving for the US?

[Nezgar]

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@Psygineer wrote:

The forwarding worked fine while I was still in Canada, but when I was in USA, and my work phone was on USA networks, it was not forwarding to me. Probably because I did not have USA calling on my plan and it could tell the phone was in USA? If you have an addon that allows for calls to the country you are in, it probably would work fine.

Without a USA roaming talk plan, call forwarding will break as soon as your phone registers to a USA tower. You would have to remove the SIM from your phone or keep it on airplane mode the whole time in or near the USA. 🙂

Interesting note, my mother who is on a Provincial plan, could call local calls in different provinces but could not call back to her home province despite the area code matching her. Funny how plans work!

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Traditional cell phone calling prior to nation wide or "province wide" plans always included local calls to whatever area you are currently in, and calls back to your home area were long distance. Incoming calls while you are anywhere other than your home area would always incur long distance... So it it makes sense that your mother could not call outside of the province she was currently in with a province wide calling plan. This is where those $5/500 minute canada-wide add-on minutes may come in handy, or consider switching to one of the current canada-wide calling plans...

[softech]

@pardnme For voice, forwarding would work

For text, if you need to receive 2FA text, explore to see if you can change it to Authenticator app (best and safest) or change it to email or voice call (not as safe, only good for temporary) 

[hTideGnow]

HI @pardnme   forwarding will work only for voice calls, not text

You will need some text forwarding app installed on the phone , then plug in the phone to the outlet to make sure it is on all the time

What kind of text you are waiting for?  If friend's text, ask them to text your office phone number instead

If 2FA text, then it is more trouble, maybe change the 2FA to voice call.  With the forwarding , it will work

[darlicious]

@pardnme 

You must perform all call/text forwarding while in Canada. If you also want to forward your pm texts you can use Mighty Text to do so. The pm Sim card must be left in a working phone preferably left with a friend or family member and plugged into a power source so it remains "on". Texts can then be programmed to forward to your work phone. They can also be accessed by logging into your Mighty Text account online.

If your employer us paying your Roaming charges then this is a viable option. However if you must pay the approximate $14/day then it would be a very expensive option. You would be better off forwarding calls and texts to a textnow phone number and purchasing a local Sim card that have cheap plans with lots of data. What is your arrival country?

[Psygineer]

I did something like that. I didn't go overseas, but I did go to USA without a package. I had my phone forward to my work phone which has Unlimited Canada/USA calling/text, and it failed. However, I noticed after leaving the phone plugged in non-stop for the duration of the time, that the phone's battery became a bit damaged (I had set it to max at 85% charge, but it kept dropping to 84 and then charging back up again. The constant cycling messed it up a bit. I'd suggest either put your SIM into a phone you do not care about, or maybe have the power adapter plugged into a timer so that it doesn't spend every waking moment trinkle charging itself.

The forwarding worked fine while I was still in Canada, but when I was in USA, and my work phone was on USA networks, it was not forwarding to me. Probably because I did not have USA calling on my plan and it could tell the phone was in USA? If you have an addon that allows for calls to the country you are in, it probably would work fine.

Interesting note, my mother who is on a Provincial plan, could call local calls in different provinces but could not call back to her home province despite the area code matching her. Funny how plans work!

[will13am]

@pardnme , if you forward your personal phone to your work phone, it will make no difference whether you take your phone with you or not.  The unconditional forwarding means the calls will forward to your work phone.  Text has no forwarding capability.

[Meow]

@darlicious  is expert in these kind of forwarding.

As I remember correctly, you can do forwarding but phone with PM SIM has to stay in Canada, be On all the time and plugged in AC/DC adapter in order to receive calls and then forward them whenever needed.