I’m transitioning my parents’ 2 numbers from a US# (using T-Mobile) to a Canadian # and service. Once i have the Canadian # and service in place, my plan is to port their US# to VOIP.MS and forward those calls/texts to their Cdn#.
It looks like the steps are
Sign up on VOIP.MS (done)
Put $15 in account
Port US#'s to VOIP.MS
Set up call and text fwding from each US# to each Cdn#.
Keep funding the account as necessary
Is that it?
Do I need a dialer/phone app if I am going to forward all calls and texts?
Can I do all this in ONE VOIP.MS account?
When texts are forwarded to their Cdn#, will responses appear to the recipients from their Cdn#?
As an interim step, can I get a US phone # from VOIP.MS and set it up to forward to test things out? Any downside to doing this and then porting in numbers?
Do most US phone plans include texting to Cdn#'s? (I recognize that is a very broad question). Just wondering if their US friends are going to run into any difficulty sending texts to their Cdn#.
Yes, that is it. You can do all that in one single voip.ms account. (You can port and forward as many numbers as you wish.) If you are going to forward all calls, you do not need an ip phone (softphone or device). Do not forget you will pay for the incoming and outgoing calls when transferred.
For SMS, you will have to test, but I would think (having no prior experience with this) that it probably means your parents will reply using their SMS service on their phone, so they will see the Canadian phone number. Otherwise you have to use voip.ms SMS Portal, or the Android “voip.ms SMS” application so that the US number is displayed.
For SMS plans, usually this works no problem and at the same rate from US to Canada, and vice versa. This should not be a problem. The only confusion will potentially be a different phone number.
Thank you.
So I got a DID to test things out (eventually would want to do this with a ported in number). I sent an SMS from Phone A to that DID. It was forwarded to Phone B, BUT it shows as coming from the DID. There is no indication that it came from Phone A. Which makes it pretty useless if you can’t see who the text is from. I must be missing a setting in the SMS forwarding. Any ideas to fix that?
Jim. Can your parent’s USA contacts send international messages to Canada? Cell plans in Canada are starting to include unlimited SMS to Canadian and USA numbers. For a transition period your parents can use an SMS app such as Acrobit’s Groundwire or the free “VoIP.ms SMS” app for Android by Michael Kourlas to view texts and even respond if they want. At some point they can transition to communicating by SMS using their cell plan to their contacts in the USA.
Otherwise, if your parents want to retain their USA number, they can continue using one of the apps above. Using the app means the SMS are not forwarded and the originating phone number is retained. If you have entered contact’s name and phone number in the voip.ms phone book then the name will appear with the text (and you don’t have to memorize what phone number belongs to whom).
I have a similar setup. I have a cell sim card but it’s for the data only. I rarely make calls or SMS using the sim card, mostly I use Acrobits to make calls so t the caller ID is my voip number and I use the voip.ms SMS app for texting. The world only sees me communicating with my voip.ms number. If I’m travelling I can change the sim card or use an e-sim to provide the data plan, otherwise my contacts never see my cell number.
An aside, your parents can respond to texts by email (if you have receive SMS by email enabled in voip.ms).