VoIP phones save us a lot of money over what we used to pay for our landline, even after equipment purchase. This one weakness caught me off guard, though …
Over the past year, we cut expenses (and commitment) by (a) switching our cell phone providers and (b) switching our landline to a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone.
I've been very happy with both our Republic Wireless service and with our Ooma Telo.
With the savings, we can get a nice dinner each month, every month.
Up until last week, I really thought there was no downside to these devices.
All cell phone numbers are not created equal
Last week I went to check my Twitter account.
I was surprised to find that it was restricted. People visiting my twitter page got warned that there was suspicious activity; no doubt this scared some people away. (Later, looking at my last few tweets, I could see why they tripped the spam filters, though of course, I didn't have malicious intent.)
I could potentially unlock the account simply by confirming my identity. All I needed to do was have a confirmation code sent to my phone.
So I tried that. I put in my Republic Wireless phone number, and was greeted with the following message:
Unsupported phone number
Confused, I tried again. The same message popped up.
I have, and use, the Twitter app on my phone, I was thinking. Why is the phone number unsupported?
What it boils down to — at least for now — is that my cell phone looks like a landline phone when the number is looked up by a service, because it's a VoIP phone. (Calls can go over the internet, as can data.)
Yep, you read that right. I have a wired cell phone, apparently.
From a post on the Republic Wireless forums:
When a company does a look-up, Republic numbers are VoIP numbers. The official FCC classification of such numbers is “wirelineâ€, but this classification comes from an era long ago. There’s nothing Republic can do to change this classification […] The provider is doing a look-up, seeing “wireline†and making an incorrect assumption that the phone won’t accept text messages.
Twitter is one of those services for now. (And, if this is the reason, I can't really blame Twitter for this, because it costs money to send texts. Why send them if there's a good chance that they won't get through?)
Google Voice runs up against the same issue
Twitter doesn't support sending texts to Republic Wireless, but it does support all major carriers, and Google Voice numbers.
My next tactic was to sign up for a Google Voice number and try to send the confirmation text to that.
Unfortunately, I couldn't claim a Google Voice number because … all of the phones in our house were VoIP phones! Our Republic Wireless phones are VoIP. And our Ooma is VoIP.
(I could forward to these phones without issue if I had a Google Voice number. In fact, Google Voice sent a text to my Republic Wireless phone! But I just can't secure a Google Voice phone number with either of these phones. Strange.)
I was getting really concerned that I would need to go back to my traditional landline or go back to a major carrier … just to unlock my Twitter account! I never thought that my phone moves would have put me in this situation.
A happy ending, and lessons learned
Fortunately, Twitter did unlock my account. I explained the situation on the form and replied to the automated message that they sent me with more information. It took less than 12 hours before someone got to my account and unlocked it.
I didn't need to verify my identity through the phone. Whew!
Here are a few lessons learned, though:
- Saving money does have a cost. I didn't see the cost at the time, but the cost was there: incompatibility with services that I used. Cellular services aren't one and the same, and this one area of difference mattered.
- The same hiccup I had with Twitter could have been happening with other services. My credit union, for example, lets me confirm my account over the phone, but I cannot do so with a text to my cell phone. Maybe the root cause is the same.
- Maybe I could have gotten a Google Voice account, and kept it after switching all of my phones over. But unless Google Voice relaxes what it accepts for getting a Google Voice number, I won't know unless I get my landline back again.
