options for incoming only local phone number besides magic jack for apartment guest entry?

[sirscrubsalot]

Well if google voice does the job that I need - awesome! I'll let y'all know in a bit if this is useful for the situation I wanted it to work for.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by sirscrubsalot

Hi, looks like my new apartment requires a local phone number to allow guests to gain entry into the complex. I have an out of state cell phone which won't won't work for them... I tried googling up some random search phrases but didn't come up with anything relevant.

They had recommended magic jack for me, but then I'd need to keep a computer on 24/7 apparently.

I don't plan on making outgoing calls - just need some service that's cheap (i.e. low yearly plan) that can ring my out of state cell phone (under AT&T) to let me know someone is there.

Without this, I can't get food delivery or packages to come to my place... and I looked at the most basic landline features and they all seem to be like $15-30/month...
so to recap :

* just need incoming calls without the aid/use of a computer
* hopefully forwarded to my current cell phone
* be able to talk to whomever calls my door.
* no outgoing calls needed.

I have comcast for internet, but their fees are pricey for what I need which is basically to allow people to come to my complex when needed.

Hopefully you all might have some better suggestions because I am clueless! I looked at the pre-paid cell phones here locally but then I'd have to actually use the service every few months to keep it active, buy air time which expires after a certain period plus some $1.00 daily fee for it being used to receive calls...

thanks for any ideas!

Do you get lots of visitors? Just get a pre paid cheap cell phone.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by sirscrubsalot

Yes those ideas on the latter seemed to be the most favorable... I've been looking to get a google voice invite for some time as this would most likely solve the problem... the pre paid cell phones like AT&T go, were one of my last options... there was some maintenance required on it though...

If anyone has a google voice invite, please hook me up I tried requesting one a while back on their invite request form but never got a response back...

Regarding the google voice, to my knowledge... you can get a local number which anyone call dial, and then you put a number for google voice to forward to... like another cell phone for example... should happen in real time too...

You can get a Google Voice invite for about $5 with no waiting:

google voice, great deals on Computers Networking, Everything Else on eBay!

This will give you a free local number to use

[sirscrubsalot]

Fortunately got a google voice account and did test out the local number picked out from a selection of hundreds of number sequences... I had a friend call me through there, and it immediately forwarded the call to my cell phone with no trouble! Very impressed so far...

I'll have to wait until next week to get the number assigned to the front gate to see it's use on that end. There's a whole array of settings once you log into google voice on how you would like to use and access the service both for yourself and for how the caller gets in touch with you. Pretty neat!