Cell Phones

Creative way to get nearly unlimited texting for $5 month?

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  • Dec 31st, 2019 10:15 am
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Nov 14, 2003
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threehappypenguins wrote: Anyone ever find any legit alternatives to Fongo? The best/cheapest I could find was TextNow, but they don't port phone numbers. I have a lot of people who are willing to give my method of cheap cell bills a try, but they don't want to lose their phone number, and Fongo... well, they kinda suck. For example, every time I leave my house (or anywhere that I'm on wifi), I have to tap on the disconnection icon to reconnect. But I have to wait until I'm stopped if I'm driving. There's voip.ms, but I wasn't reliably getting texts with them (they were in beta when I tried experimented). Seems there's a lot of apps that will do texting/calling, but a lot of them don't port in numbers.
I think there are issues with all VoIP services. Some are very minor like not being able to send emojis to Canadian numbers and some like fongo just suck in general. There a VoIP services other than going that you can port to buy the will cost you more than fongo.

I use two VoIP services, Google Voice and TextMeUp. Google Voice is a US number, but just works everywhere I travel (which I do for six month of the year). The voice excellent quality is the same everywhere and works well on a slow WiFi connection. It can also transition to/from cellular/WiFi signals without dropping the call. When I'm abroad I use it to call locally, I get charged long distance but everyone knows my number. It is infrequent that I have to use it because most people use WeChat or WhatsApp for messaging and calls. I use TextMeUp with a Canadian number because it cuts down on paperwork with some Canadian banks. It can also receive verification codes from some Canadian banks. The only reason I went with it because I got a number that is easy to remember. As a bonus I can text Mexico for free. Outgoing calls have a charge but I don't use it to call out. Regardless, it seems to work well on voice calls.

I sold my Canadian cell phone number years ago but I transitioned from it to my Google voice number for over a year before I got rid of my Canadian cell phone number.

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