Are you a Google Voice user like me? Are you on or thinking about switching to Sprint MVNO Republic Wireless? If so, you'll be pleased to hear that today Republic Wireless announced Google Voice number porting. To transfer your number to Republic Wireless you'll first need to unlock it from Google which you'll be charged a $3 fee for. You can also port your number from Republic Wireless to Google Voice for a fee of $20.
Interestingly, the same company, Bandwidth who is the parent company of Republic Wireless, also supplies phone numbers to Google to use with its service. Republic Wireless has claimed having the same company supply phone numbers to itself as well as Google Voice actually presented some challenges in handling number porting that their engineers had to overcome before they could officially offer these services to you.
> Republic Wireless is an MVNO that does things a bit differently by focusing on placing calls and text over wi-fi whenever possible. When wi-fi is unavailable, you are seamlessly transitioned to a cellular network. Operating in this manner allows the MVNO to offer plans for as little as $5 a month.