After our recent move from Texas to Virginia, I needed to have a Virginia phone number for my business. It’s a little disconcerting for customers to be calling me on a Texas area code. So I needed a number on a local area code, because I am, well, local.
It so happens that there is an app for that! Actually I believe there are several, but the one I chose is Sideline. It works for both iphone and android devices. Basically it adds a second phone number for your smart phone – for voice calls, as well as texts and voicemail. Calls are sent and received via the app but use your normal cell service, and if you have limited minutes, your minutes are shared with the app. The best thing about the app is that it’s free! Although, as long as you’re using the free service, you have to be sure to use the number every so often to keep it reserved – otherwise they recycle the number after 30 days and you lose it. That’s embarrassing for a business to change phone numbers! There are a couple options to make sure you don’t lose your number. First, there is a “reserve the number” option that costs $0.99/month. A buck a month. Not bad, eh? Or you can go “pro” at $2.99/month, which deletes ads and adds wifi calling.
After having used the Sideline for awhile, I realized I needed to change my “main” default calling number to be the local number, and my original phone number be the secondary or “Sideline” number. In other words, I needed to swap the two numbers. I wanted to keep the Sideline number that I had because I was using it already in my business and had business cards printed with that number. I also wanted to keep my old cell phone number, because that’s the number that most of my friends have for me. Basically I just wanted to swap the numbers.
I contacted Sideline and told them what I wanted to do, but they said it couldn’t be done. Ah, but it can, because I have done it! The procedure I used is described below.
First, the Sideline account must be upgraded to “pro” if it hasn’t been already. That allows the Sideline number to be ported out. I then ported the Sideline number to my ATT wireless account. I had to go in person to the ATT store to accomplish porting the Sideline number to the ATT account. While I was there, they imprinted a new SIM card with the new number, so that my phone would work with the new ex-Sideline number when porting was complete. I forwarded the ex-sideline number to the original ATT number just to make sure I didn’t miss any calls in the transition. I also kept the old SIM card in the phone while waiting for the port to complete. Then I waited until the Sideline number successfully ported to ATT. That was actually pretty quick – a few hours. When the port was complete, I forwarded the ATT number to the new ex-Sideline number and put the new SIM card in the phone.
At that point, the old Sideline account can be deleted. Alas, poor York, I knew him well. The account is tied to the original cell phone number, and as far as I know it can’t be transferred to a new cell phone number. I created a new Sideline account, based on the number that had been the Sideline number but was now associated with my ATT account. It took a few tries, I think because Sideline still thought the number was a Sideline number. Eventually I was able to create the new Sideline account. The new account had a new Sideline-assigned number – that doesn’t matter, because the new Sideline-assigned number will get dropped when the old cell number is ported in.
I then initiated the port-in process with Sideline to port in the old cell phone number. Unfortuately Sideline seems to have a bug in their port-in process: the port form in the sideline app would throw an error every time. I engaged Sideline support – which is basically an email process and very time consuming because they are usually very slow – like a day or so – to respond. After several exchanges I finally got the idea across what I was trying to do (port in an ATT number) and the error I was getting, they had me try something different in the form: specifically put “TEST” in the field for the company, and put a “1” in the apartment number, both of which I had been leaving blank. Voila! The porting form worked that time!
Oh, one other detail. In the process of porting the ATT number to Sideline, ATT sends a text message to the original ATT phone number. Either the old SIM must be installed in the phone, or the ATT text messaging service that can both send and received text messages to that number must be used. It’s a bit obscure: on the ATT site search for “online messaging”
The porting process from ATT to Sideline took much longer – about 48 hours. But once it took, I’m done. I now have my new, local, ex-Sideline number as my main, default number that gets used when I make and take normal calls. My old Texas cell 254- area code phone number is now my Sideline number. I won’t miss any calls from my friends, because I still have my old number, and it still works on my cell phone. But for regular everyday calls I make, it now looks like I’m from Central Virginia because it’s a 540- area code.
I added the $0.99 option to preserve the phone number so I don’t lose it. I could have just arranged with my wife to only use the old number for calls between us so that it would be used regularly, but the reserve number option gives me peace of mind. I may choose to upgrade to the pro version later, mainly because having the wifi (voice over IP or VOIP) calling might be handy from time to time, like when I’m in Canada, or in the fellowship hall at church where there’s no cell signal.
Life is good!