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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss fetus musicmakers, Apple and the 80 million iPhones, new Pixel phone rumors, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO’s payoff, and more.
Our guest this hour:
Donna Sorkin, Executive Director – American Cochlear Implant Alliance
Mike in Ontario, Canada listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: “I work for the government and am about to be deployed for a year overseas where I can’t use my Verizon phone. I’m trying to keep my number. What do you recommend to move my number somewhere where I can make minimal or no payments and keep my number until I come back in a year?”
Imad, we’d recommend going with a VoIP service, since those will let you transfer your number and they won’t cost you a lot to keep.
Google Voice in particular is probably your best choice. Google will port your number into Voice for $20 and it won’t cost you anything to keep it.
Chris uses Ooma as his home service and loves it
In most places overseas you would still be able to use your number to call your friends and family in Pennsylvania by just making your calls with the Google Voice app and it wouldn’t cost you anything.
There are other services but many won’t port your number and those who will, won’t beat free or Google’s infrastructure, so we’d recommend giving them a shot.
Chris uses Ooma as his home service and loves it. The number porting is a little more expensive than Google – at about $30. He bought the Ooma box for about $100 and only pays taxes on his service, so his home phone bill averages between $3 and $4 a month.
Debbie in Windsor Ontario, Canada listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: “I own an old Samsung Phone GPF7560M. It’s quite old but still working. When I see about getting a new one through my provider, Bell Mobility, they tell me I qualify for a free phone but when I inquire to do it, they say my plan must change and I’ll be paying more money per month. How does that qualify for “free” if I’m paying more per month? Is that true, that when you upgrade a phone that you must change plans because they said I’d be going to a smartphone and would need a different plan?”
Debbie, if you’re going from a feature phone to a smartphone and intend to use any smartphone features, then yes, you probably need a new plan.
Depending on your old plan and whether it relies on newer or older towers, you may be able to keep it and just use your phone on WiFi. Having said that, it will be hard to convince your phone company to give you a smartphone for free on a plan that doesn’t provide the service it needs to function normally.
If you’re being charged too much more, you may be better off buying a basic phone on your own and pocketing the difference every month to pay for it.
Unfortunately, your answer is yes, you will normally have to pay for a plan with the feature the phone uses to get the phone.
In the long run though. A suggestion Debbie, it sometimes is worth investing to jump Into Tomorrow with a new smartphone. Its smart, it’s fast and best of all its user friendly. It makes it easy for you to learn how to navigate through it within minutes.
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