Google Voice number being marked as a landline
December 30, 2017 5:44 PM   Subscribe

I have a Google Voice number instead of a landline and I give it out in general where I don't really need to talk to someone so our mobile numbers don't get into the hands of marketers. It's worked quite well so far, but I'm running into issues where websites claim the number is a landline and can't receive SMS, which is not true. Is there a way to fix this?

This is happening more and more. I just had to verify an account to change the billing address and it won't send an SMS with a one-time code to my Google Voice number. I can't change the number either, so I have to call these people now. I assume the number is marked wrong in a database somewhere. How does a number get marked as landline or not-SMS capable? Lots of other places send me SMS with no problem. Googling is not producing helpful results.
posted by disaster77 to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)
Yeah, I use my "real" non GV number for my bank, kid's school emergency alerts, cuz they just would not work with GV.
posted by k8t at 6:33 PM on December 30, 2017

All of this is assuming you have a US/Canadian/other number in country code "1" - if not, skip to the end.

There is no central database of SMS capable or incapable numbers that you can be added to or removed from. Back in the days before number portability, you could sort of reliably determine if a number could receive SMS or not by looking at what carrier the number was registered to. This really hasn't been the case for 10 years or more now, though; if anyone is still making assumptions about whether or not you can receive SMS based on the carrier that originally owned your number, they are officially Doing It Wrong. If this is what they're doing, they're also unable to communicate with anyone that ported their landline to a cell.

If the place is really cheap, they may be using a freely-available SMS "gateway" that looks up the carrier that originally owned the number and then tries to send the message to that carrier directly via email. This is much cheaper and easier than proper SMS integration, but again, number portability means this is Wrong. A company using this "solution" would be unable to communicate with anyone who ported their landline to a cell, or anyone who ported their cell number from one carrier to another.

I've also run into a few places that seem to try to blacklist Google Voice or other VoIP-type numbers from their services, out of a misguided or obnoxious desire to have your "real" number; this is also done by looking at the original carrier and then making a wild guess, but once again, number portability means this is Wrong. I noticed this a lot in the early days of Google Voice but in my own anecdotal experience that sort of thing seems to be on the decline - your mileage may (and apparently has) varied.

Unfortunately, if you want to keep using that number, your only recourse is to complain to the company that's having trouble communicating with you. Whatever is happening is internal to their system (or perhaps more likely internal to the third party that they're using to send SMS.) Good luck reaching anyone that can actually do anything about it!

If you are curious about what your number looks like from this perspective, you can look up your area code and the first three digits here and it will show you who the block was originally allocated to. It looks like Google bought the number they gave me off of Ameritech, back when Ameritech was a thing.

You can port numbers into Google Voice, so if you'd like to keep using the service and you're willing to put up with a bit of a hassle, you could get a cheap prepaid SIM and then immediately port the number off of it - you would then have a Google Voice number indistinguishable from a "real" cell number.

If your (or some future reader's) number is in a country code other than "1": Some country codes have area codes specifically allocated to landlines, and others for mobiles, and the two are not interchangeable; it is possible you have a number from the wrong block.

Source: I used to work for a phone company, although Twilio's support page backs me up :)
posted by jordemort at 7:17 PM on December 30, 2017 [8 favorites]

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