Google Voice with Monthly 4G $30 walmart plan

**adam1991** · 06-20-2012, 07:23 PM

I think it's an issue with conditional call forwarding.

**richardho** · 06-20-2012, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by bread22

I have a problem when using GV on this plan.

Basically I add my TM # in GV, and have GV to forward all calls to TM #. When ppl call my GV #, it suppose to ring my TM cellphone. But the problem is that 70% chance it will just ring my phone once, before I can pick up it will go to TM voice mail directly, and charge me 1 minute.

(snipped)
Does anyone experience the same problem with TM & GV? Any idea what problem it could be? Many thanks.

I have the same t-mobile plan, and it works fine with GV. I have GV set to ring up to three phone simulaneously -- two cell phones and one landline. One problem I did run into is that the landline usually rings first, and may ring several times before the cell phones ring. If the lineline has an answering machine or voice mail that picks up on the third or fourth ring, it may pick up the call after only one ring on the cell, and before I get a chance to answer the cell. But this doesn't seem to be your problem, since you say it is the cell phone that is going to voice mail. The solution to my problem was to turn on call screening in my GV account so that a call forwarded by GV cannot be picked up until I respond to the screening query. Unfortunately that wouldn't fix your problem as far as I can see.

**sjv** · 06-21-2012, 03:37 PM

ok, since some of you have this working, its worth trying a little harder.

So point #1 is that TMO cannot forward out to GV voicemail. So I guess its in the setup of GV that I am not getting it right. Having taken a closer look online, the first entry I see in Google Voice settings is the following:

Your Google voicemail access number
(123) 456-7890 "Get a Google Voice number"

So does this mean I still need to get a GV number and the voicemail access number is useless here?
Then once I get that number it will be obvious how to forward calls placed to that number over to my TMO number?

The lines below that are filled in with my TMO number but its currently the activation of that voicemail that fails.

**mtmjr90** · 06-21-2012, 03:48 PM

First off, is your GV account set up as a PURE GV number or just a voicemail account linked to your mobile number? If the former, skip ahead down to the next paragraph. If it's the latter, there's probably nothing you can do except create a full GV number and proceed with the steps below.

Have you tried calling TMo customer service and having them completely disable TMo voicemail? Once you do that, I'd suggest removing all your forwarding phones from GV, then add ONLY your TMo number. Be sure you have GV voicemail set up (not on your TMo phone, but just in general GV settings).

Then, have someone call you that has never been listed in your account as a forwarding phone. See if your phone rings normally. I It should eventually go to GV voicemail after many rings. I know this works because it's exactly how I use it.

If all else fails, I'd say try buying a completely new SIM and set up a new TMo account as a last resort. I know GV can sometimes have weird issues with specific numbers (for a while, Sprint numbers inexplicably couldn't connect to my GV number).

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

**whacker** · 06-21-2012, 04:33 PM

sjv -

It looks like you're starting to discover what GV is all about. Its primary (albeit not its only) purpose is for you to have a number (either provided by GV or something you pay $20 to port in) that you hand out to people to call you, and in turn have the GV process forward those incoming calls to whatever other existing phones with existing numbers you choose to have rung up. So then, of course you need a GV number, or at least the GV account needs a number of some sort. Otherwise it cannot fulfill its primary function. What I consider the side features of being able to handle calls to your original cell number that you set up to forward to GV to be picked up by GV's voicemail, as well as the features inherent in the GV application that runs on Android and/or iPhone devices, are just that: side features. Also, you've found out that T-Mobile Prepaid (unless something has changed or I'm on drugs) does not offer conditional call forwarding, which is necessary to send incoming calls made to your original cell number over to GV.

So if you still think it's something you want to use, your best best is to get that GV number established, and get it handed out to people to start using as your new number, so you can take advantage of GV's feature set. You can port your existing cell number to GV for $20 as well; whichever makes it happen in the best way for you. Obviously if you do port an existing cell number in to GV, that cell account would need its own new number, in order for it to be functional on its own, and for you to forward calls to it from your GV account.

**sjv** · 06-22-2012, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by whacker

sjv -

It looks like you're starting to discover what GV is all about. Its primary (albeit not its only) purpose is for you to have a number (either provided by GV or something you pay $20 to port in) that you hand out to people to call you, and in turn have the GV process forward those incoming calls to whatever other existing phones with existing numbers you choose to have rung up. So then, of course you need a GV number, or at least the GV account needs a number of some sort. Otherwise it cannot fulfill its primary function. What I consider the side features of being able to handle calls to your original cell number that you set up to forward to GV to be picked up by GV's voicemail, as well as the features inherent in the GV application that runs on Android and/or iPhone devices, are just that: side features. Also, you've found out that T-Mobile Prepaid (unless something has changed or I'm on drugs) does not offer conditional call forwarding, which is necessary to send incoming calls made to your original cell number over to GV.

So if you still think it's something you want to use, your best best is to get that GV number established, and get it handed out to people to start using as your new number, so you can take advantage of GV's feature set. You can port your existing cell number to GV for $20 as well; whichever makes it happen in the best way for you. Obviously if you do port an existing cell number in to GV, that cell account would need its own new number, in order for it to be functional on its own, and for you to forward calls to it from your GV account.

yep, the light is dawning over Marblehead as the saying goes. I'm not sure I want to port my number to GV just yet but may have to since there are no more numbers available in my area code. I'm just a bit peeved that TMO does not allow the call forwarding on prepaid and then charges minutes for checking voicemail, further restricting the 100 minutes a month we get.

I'm also starting to think TMO's prepaid coverage is not as good as their postpaid but need to do more research.

**PL1** · 06-22-2012, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by sjv

I'm just a bit peeved that TMO does not allow the call forwarding on prepaid and then charges minutes for checking voicemail, further restricting the 100 minutes a month we get.

You can call Voicemail from a landline to avoid using your minutes.

A: Call your own number from a landline phone and press "*" during your outgoing message.
B: Call 1-805-637-7243 and access your mailbox.

**MeatCatalog** · 06-24-2012, 05:28 PM

It appears OP solved his problem but I wanted to weigh in. I have a very similar setup in that I ported my sprint # to google voice last month and activated a new t-mo prepaid plan (new number with t-mo) on the pay as you go plan. Here are my results:

1. In google voice when I set my google voice number to forward to my T-mo number (prepaid) it does so just fine. My t-mo number rings 5+ times. Interestingly however, when voicemail finally picks up it picks up my google voice voicemail and not my t-mo number voicemail.
2. When I uncheck "forward calls to t-mo" in my gv settings, the phone immediately rings to my home phone which I have set up with an obi100.
3. In both cases (t-mo forwarding checked, and t-mo forwarding unchecked) the t-mo number can be called directly without issue.

I wish I could help OP but I wanted to say that gv forwarding works perfectly as far as I can tell with t-mo prepaid, at least in my case on pay as you go plan.