Porting my Cell Number
I finally did it. I ported my number over from Verizon to VOIP.ms. Or at least I started the porting process. This will eliminate my cell phone plan with Verizon, and save me approximately $68 per month, based on the plan I had selected. I know I could have simply chosen a less expensive plan, but I really want to see if I can live without a cell phone plan entirely.
I’ve already run into a few problems, but I think I should be able to overcome them. Some of my banking apps really want to text me a code to log into their website. VOIP.ms allows you to receive text messages, and they even offer a specific app dedicated to that. However, Linphone, my current softphone of choice (its FOSS), also receives text messages and seems to be working well.
I will pay for calls made to and from my phone, even with VOIP.ms providing the connection. It’s $0.85 per month minimum, plus just under $0.01 per minute. I probably talk on my phone about an hour a month on average, and maybe 5 hours in the worst case scenario. So I can expect a cell phone bill to be about $3/month for calling. Text messages also incur an additional fee, but I primarily use Signal, so that expense should also be minimal. Even if I used it a LOT, I am well under $10/month in costs - much better than the $68/month at Verizon.
I won’t have any other phone numbers, so this must work. I’ll update this as time goes on and I learn more about what works and what doesn’t work.