Two phones with same number?

Hi,

Newbie question:

Is it possible to own two separate Verizon phones with the same phone
number? When a phone call comes in, I'd like them both to ring. I won't bore
you with the details of WHY I desire this peculiar arrangement. For now, I'd
just like to know if it's technically possible.

Thanks for your time,

Vincent

Vincent Vega wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Newbie question:
>
> Is it possible to own two separate Verizon phones
> with the same phone number? When a phone call comes in,
> I'd like them both to ring. I won't bore you with the
> details of WHY I desire this peculiar arrangement. For
> now, I'd just like to know if it's technically possible.

While it may be technically possible the answer is no.

-Quick

On Wed, 25 May 2005 10:12:59 -0700, "Vincent Vega" <Pulp@Fiction.com>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
> Newbie question:
>
> Is it possible to own two separate Verizon phones with the same phone
>number? When a phone call comes in, I'd like them both to ring. I won't bore
>you with the details of WHY I desire this peculiar arrangement. For now, I'd
>just like to know if it's technically possible.

No, it is a technological as well as a security issue. You *may* be
able to use features found on some land lines to ring each phone in
succession, but I don't know right off what services/equipment that
would entail. I know some 800/toll free number providers have
primary, secondary, and tertiary ring-over numbers. And that would
force the people calling you to call the land line instead.

And say 'hi' to Jules Winnfield for me.;-)

Yes and no. You can't have the same cellular number on two different cell
phones that are both active at the same time. But, you can switch between
two different cell phones from time to time by doing an ESN change on your
account through the website.

Also, you can get adapter that will fit certain models of cell phones and
provide you with a regular phone jack. So, you can wire up all the phones in
your house to your cell phone, pretending that the cell phone is an actual
dial tone line. This works quite well for me. Of course, that requires that
you only want to have more than one phone ring in your own house. If you
take the cell phone with you, those wired up to it at home will cease to
function obviously.

Another possibility is to subscribe to a 3rd-party service that does find me
call forwarding. Ring Central is one such provider. I have a toll free
number with them which is configured to simultaneously ring my cell phone,
my office phone, my home phone, and my VoIP phone all at the same time.
Whichever one answers first gets the call. Please note that this will cause
tremendous headaches if any of them have answering machines or voice mail.
(You will miss calls because the answering machine or voice mail picked up
at one of the other locations.) My solution was to disable voice mail on my
cell phone and everything else, and just use Ring Central's own voice mail
system. (If none of the phones answer in a specified number of rings, it
switches to their own voice mail.)

-Jeff


"Vincent Vega" <Pulp@Fiction.com> wrote in message
newsf2dnQNxxrOOLwnfRVn-vQ@giganews.com...
> Hi,
>
> Newbie question:
>
> Is it possible to own two separate Verizon phones with the same phone
> number? When a phone call comes in, I'd like them both to ring. I won't
> bore you with the details of WHY I desire this peculiar arrangement. For
> now, I'd just like to know if it's technically possible.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Vincent
>

> Another possibility is to subscribe to a 3rd-party service that does find
> me call forwarding. Ring Central is one such provider. I have a toll free
> number with them which is configured to simultaneously ring my cell phone,
> my office phone, my home phone, and my VoIP phone all at the same time.
> Whichever one answers first gets the call. Please note that this will
> cause tremendous headaches if any of them have answering machines or voice
> mail. (You will miss calls because the answering machine or voice mail
> picked up at one of the other locations.) My solution was to disable voice
> mail on my cell phone and everything else, and just use Ring Central's own
> voice mail system. (If none of the phones answer in a specified number of
> rings, it switches to their own voice mail.)
>
> -Jeff

Jeff, this is an interesting solution. If someone calls you and you
answer on your cell, do you pay a "per minute" charge to Ring Central as
well as to Verizon? I imagine that you would since the call is flowing
through both of their infrastructures.

You hit the nail on the head; I'm looking for a way to give my customers
a single phone number and then have the call "find me" wherever I am. Ring
Central sounds great. I'll check it out.

Vincent

"Vincent Vega" <Pulp@Fiction.com> wrote in message
news:cf2dnRqpp94NlwjfRVn-og@giganews.com...
>> Another possibility is to subscribe to a 3rd-party service that does find
>> me call forwarding. Ring Central is one such provider. I have a toll free
>> number with them which is configured to simultaneously ring my cell
>> phone, my office phone, my home phone, and my VoIP phone all at the same
>> time. Whichever one answers first gets the call. Please note that this
>> will cause tremendous headaches if any of them have answering machines or
>> voice mail. (You will miss calls because the answering machine or voice
>> mail picked up at one of the other locations.) My solution was to disable
>> voice mail on my cell phone and everything else, and just use Ring
>> Central's own voice mail system. (If none of the phones answer in a
>> specified number of rings, it switches to their own voice mail.)
>>
>> -Jeff
>
> Jeff, this is an interesting solution. If someone calls you and you
> answer on your cell, do you pay a "per minute" charge to Ring Central as
> well as to Verizon? I imagine that you would since the call is flowing
> through both of their infrastructures.
>
> You hit the nail on the head; I'm looking for a way to give my
> customers a single phone number and then have the call "find me" wherever
> I am. Ring Central sounds great. I'll check it out.
>
> Vincent \

I'm not sure what Ring Central's current rates are. I am on an old
grandfathered plan. I pay $39.99 a month for unlimited use of a toll free
number. This is really cool for me because I run a small business, and
anybody in america can call me toll free and reach me at home, at the
office, or on my cell. The only time I pay extra is if I happent to take the
call on my cell during peak minutes, and happen to use up all of those.

Prior to this I used to have to pay 9 cents per minute for all my incomming
calls on the 800 number, including calls from across the street. Then when I
left the office I had the hassle of forwarding them to my cell phone. Back
then the cellular plans in my area totally sucked so when I drove more than
20 miles I had to then forward the calls from the "local" cell phone to the
"national" cell phone because the national coverage plan didn't include my
area and the local one didn't include anywhere else. Depending on where the
calls were forwarded to, I had to check any of 3 different voice mail
boxes. --- This was a total pain in the butt to say the least. Ring Central
fixed ALL of those hassles. From the day I signed up onwards, I have just
one voice mail box to check for all my messages, and all of my phones ring
wherever I'm at without having to fuss with any call forwarding games.

-Jeff

Jeff P wrote:
> I'm not sure what Ring Central's current rates are. I am on an old
> grandfathered plan. I pay $39.99 a month for unlimited use of a toll free
> number.

RingCentral are morons.

I signed up for a trial, and they advertised Victorville, CA local numbers
in AC 760. Got 760-301-something (I forget what the last four digits were)

Upon reading my phone bill I found out that 760-301 is NOT a Victorville
exchange, it's a Ridgecrest exchange, an hour north of here, and a toll
call. (I made a couple test calls to the RC number from my house.)

I called...

"Well, we only guarantee that you will get a 760 number, not that you will
get an exchange local to a specific place."

THEN WHY DON'T YOU JUST LIST THE AREA CODES INSTEAD OF THE CITIES, YOU
FLAMING IDIOT?

(Keep in mind that 760 is huge. Starting at the Mexican border... many San
Diego suburbs are in 760... and coming up the eastern edge of SoCal, through
the desert, up north of Ridgecrest. To drive from one end to the other will
take at least four or five hours.)

"Well, if you sign up, we only have a few Victorville numbers available but
I'll make a special case for you and we'll get you one."

"OK, sir, and why would I pay you for service after not receiving what you
advertise?"

(*click*)

I know the toll issue doesn't apply in your case. I'm just pointing out that
at best, RingCentral is clueless, and at worst, they're intentionally
advertising services that they won't provide. (Not can't... won't.)

I would advise everyone to stay away from RingCentral.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

No: due to security and the carriers decision to not allow it. Yes:
technically, it can be done, and used to be done by ATT.

So, while it technically "depends" the plain truth is that Verizon will not
allow it. So, you can not have two phone on the same verizon line, even if
it is technically possible. (To be fair, no other carrier will allow it
either, one phone, one esn, one line of service. Ignoring dual nam of
course)

--
dr. wireMORE (don't accept wire"less", demand wire"MORE")
Ask the dry at: dr.news@wire.snip.more.biz; or get all carriers at
www.better-price-wireless.com


"Vincent Vega" <Pulp@Fiction.com> wrote in message
newsf2dnQNxxrOOLwnfRVn-vQ@giganews.com...
> Hi,
>
> Newbie question:
>
> Is it possible to own two separate Verizon phones with the same phone
> number? When a phone call comes in, I'd like them both to ring. I won't
> bore you with the details of WHY I desire this peculiar arrangement. For
> now, I'd just like to know if it's technically possible.
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Vincent
>
>

"The Ghost of General Lee" <ghost@general.lee> wrote in message
news:f6n991deile1onaigla74dmv4fis2kcftc@4ax.com...

> No, it is a technological as well as a security issue. You *may* be
> able to use features found on some land lines to ring each phone in
> succession, but I don't know right off what services/equipment that
> would entail.

Some wireless carriers offer "Group Ringing" (and I'm not talking about
Nextel).

" Group Ringing

Allows you to have a maximum of four phones
(cellular and/or landline) to ring at the same time
Host + 1 (total two phones) monthly charge $3.00
(Host must be a cellular number.)
Additional 3rd and 4th phone monthly charge $2.00each"

Verizon does not offer this service.

Steven M. Scharf wrote:
> "The Ghost of General Lee" <ghost@general.lee> wrote in message
> news:f6n991deile1onaigla74dmv4fis2kcftc@4ax.com...
>
> > No, it is a technological as well as a security issue. You *may* be
> > able to use features found on some land lines to ring each phone in
> > succession, but I don't know right off what services/equipment that
> > would entail.
>
> Some wireless carriers offer "Group Ringing" (and I'm not talking about
> Nextel).
>
> " Group Ringing
>

I worked for a volunteer organization that was running a telephone
needy drive. There were 6 to 10 cell phones that would ring when the
phone number of the drive was called. ALL PHONES would ring....when
one of us picked up the phones would stop ringing. when another call
came in the others would ring until someone would answer. When all
phones were in use....I dont think they ever were when we had the fund
drive, I dont know what the caller got, a busy signal or what.

paul814@excite.com wrote:
> Steven M. Scharf wrote:
>> "The Ghost of General Lee" <ghost@general.lee> wrote in
>> message
>> news:f6n991deile1onaigla74dmv4fis2kcftc@4ax.com...
>>
>>> No, it is a technological as well as a security issue.
>>> You *may* be able to use features found on some land
>>> lines to ring each phone in succession, but I don't
>>> know right off what services/equipment that would
>>> entail.
>>
>> Some wireless carriers offer "Group Ringing" (and I'm
>> not talking about Nextel).
>>
>> " Group Ringing
>>
>
> I worked for a volunteer organization that was running a
> telephone needy drive. There were 6 to 10 cell phones
> that would ring when the phone number of the drive was
> called. ALL PHONES would ring....when one of us picked
> up the phones would stop ringing. when another call came
> in the others would ring until someone would answer.
> When all phones were in use....I dont think they ever
> were when we had the fund drive, I dont know what the
> caller got, a busy signal or what.

Trunk rollover group? Did they have the same caller number
when they dialed out? That would tell you if it was a rollover
group.

-Quick

Quick wrote:
> > I worked for a volunteer organization that was running a
> > telephone needy drive. There were 6 to 10 cell phones
> > that would ring when the phone number of the drive was
> > called. ALL PHONES would ring....when one of us picked
> > up the phones would stop ringing. when another call came
> > in the others would ring until someone would answer.
> > When all phones were in use....I dont think they ever
> > were when we had the fund drive, I dont know what the
> > caller got, a busy signal or what.
>
> Trunk rollover group? Did they have the same caller number
> when they dialed out? That would tell you if it was a rollover
> group.
>
> -Quick

I'm not sure, I never called out, just received calls.

paul814@excite.com wrote in
news:1118029894.677101.239400@g44g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com:

> I worked for a volunteer organization that was running a telephone
> needy drive. There were 6 to 10 cell phones that would ring when the
> phone number of the drive was called. ALL PHONES would ring....when
> one of us picked up the phones would stop ringing. when another call
> came in the others would ring until someone would answer. When all
> phones were in use....I dont think they ever were when we had the fund
> drive, I dont know what the caller got, a busy signal or what.
>
>

You mean they LIED to us when they told us the wife's phone couldn't have
the same number as our phone had?!!

How awful.....(c;

Larry W4CSC wrote:

> You mean they LIED to us when they told us the wife's phone couldn't have
> the same number as our phone had?!!

Group RInging doesn't mean all the phones have the same number. Your tinfoil
hat is crumpling.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Steve Sobol wrote:
> Larry W4CSC wrote:
>
>> You mean they LIED to us when they told us the wife's
>> phone couldn't have the same number as our phone had?!!
>
> Group RInging doesn't mean all the phones have the same
> number. Your tinfoil hat is crumpling.

Since Larry returned he seems to have lost any vestige of
coherency he may have had before... Being an "old analog"
guy I'm sure he knows about rollover trunk groups.

Back to the subject, you would have to make 2 simultaneous
outbound calls to see if the caller ID was different. Otherwise
it would depend on the algorithm for picking an available trunk.
It would likely pick the first available which could always be the
first trunk in the group every time if all trunks were idle. I'm not
sure if it can be configured to show the same caller ID for all
trunks or not.

It's a sure thing you had some sort of trunk group since you
could have more than one inbound call at a time. What the
OP was thinking of (and what Larry wanted) is a single "line"
that would alert more than one phone and then the bearer
path would be set up to the one that answered. The technical
problem here is when the phones are in contact with different
towers, switches, geographically separate, etc. There is a race
condition. It could be centralized/serialized but there would be
a noticeable degradation in call setup time and it doesn't scale
well. The other obvious problem is outbound calls on a single
line with multiple handsets.

P.S. Larry, they didn't LIE to you. They just didn't take the
years it would take to teach you some basic telephony concepts
and implementation.

-Quick