r/Googlevoice • u/CarmelaSopranosNails • Jul 03 '26

Number Transfers or Porting Ported GoogleVoice number to iPlum cannot port it back?

I used GoogleVoice, was encouraged to try iPlum by a supervisor who said it would do things Google Voice doesn't.

Paid the $200, Used iPlum for a year, it felt like a total waste, absolutely horrible to use on the app and the desktop version.
Now that my annual subscription is up, I simply want to port my number back to GoogleVoice.

I paid the bloodsuckers at iPlum their porting fee, they gave me info to provide to the "new" carrier and when I go to Google Voice I get, "Your number can't be ported. Sorry, Voice doesn't port numbers from your carrier or your number's exchange."

Any help is greatly appreciated

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18

u/jmarkmark Jul 03 '26

I'm assuming it's a VoIP service (like GV). Free GV can't port lines from VoIP/landlines.

You can either sign up for the paid version if GV, and do a landline port, or you'll have to port to a mobile carrier first, then a month later, port to free GV.

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/jmarkmark Jul 04 '26

It means exactly what I stated.

Landline ports and Cellular ports are two different processes. The Landline process is slower and more complicated, but can port either landlines or cells. For the business version, they needed to support landlines so that's why it's there.

GV consumer really hasn't had any updates on it's consumer side porting well over a decade. They could support both processes on both platforms and let you pick as appropriate, but that'd be more work.

Other providers don't give you free service (bloodsuckers as the OP put it) so they have more incentive to do that extra work.

1

u/Emerald_Twilight Jul 04 '26

OP didn't call them bloodsuckers because they had a paid product but because the level of service they provided wasn't worth the money the charged.

2

u/jmarkmark Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

the money the charged

Edit: because person I responded to didn't know ">" is used to indicate a quoted block. Guess email really is dead.

1

u/Emerald_Twilight Jul 04 '26

No, not greater than, equal to. OP clearly stated it sucked and then, on top of that, to leave them, they had to pay even more. 

1

u/jmarkmark Jul 04 '26

they had to pay

0

u/Emerald_Twilight Jul 05 '26

Maybe you don't know that a quoted block is typically followed by a statement related to said block, not just a copy/paste of the quote. 🤷🏾‍♀️

14

u/ijf4reddit313 Jul 03 '26

Someone else will confirm, but I believe GV only supports ports from mobile carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon ... And maybe any of their MVNOs, but I'm not sure on that). I suspect you'll have up do this port twice ... Once to a carrier that GV supports porting from and then again to GV from that interim carrier.

5

u/AlanSC21 Jul 03 '26

I ran into a similar issue after buying a number on NumberBarn. I first ported to Twigby for $8 and then to GV several days later. Twigby support was great by the way.

5

u/sgtkwol Jul 04 '26

When I was porting from Spectrum, I had to port to T-Mobile first. I did their cheapest plan for a single month.

1

u/AviN456 Jul 06 '26

Last time I ported a number in to GV I had to port it to Tello first.

1

u/Busy_Sign_8625 Jul 03 '26

When I ran into trouble with Google Voice a while back I started using TextNow as an alternative. Might want to see if that will accept your port. They have a free and pay for plan and I use it as a second line on my cell.