The text message I received from T-Mobile said

"T-Mobile works with wireless partners to provide coverage when traveling outside our coverage area; but, this roaming benefit is meant for occasional use. Our systems show most usage for the last several months on 510xxx-xxxx was roaming off our network. This violates Terms & Conditions and so the line is scheduled for disconnection on July 27 2017. For details and contact info if you feel this is an error, visit http://t-mo.co/1NlsgDA"

Oops.  I guess I never actually read the Terms & Conditions.  I thought my North America Plan would be fine while I was in Mexico for the winter.  Oh well.  I guess I'll be losing my US cell service at the end of the month.  I was going to have to deal with what to do now.  One way or another I would eventually need to deal with it once I left Mexico in December.

So.  First thing is that I wanted to be sure to be able to keep my current phone number.  I have had it for a long time and don't want to bother everyone to update their phone books every time I get to a new country.  I also wanted to be able to have it forward to whatever my local cell phone number would be in the country I would be then.  Next I didn't want to be paying monthly to keep all of this alive on top of whatever my local service was going to cost me.

​Here is how I did this.  Please note that I started with an "Unlocked" phone.  

1 - Get a local SIM card and "pay as you go" plan for my phone
2 - Setup a VOIP phone with a US phone number
3 - Forward this number to my current cell 
4 - Port my current US T-Mobile number to Google Voice 
5 - Forward my old number (now on Google Voice) to the VOIP phone number


That's the quick version.   Stop here if you just want to understand the basic steps for how it's done.

If you are stopping here you may be interested in the following links....
Dial in to our Facebook page to get updated info on our progress - here
Just want to see pictures?  Follow on Instagram - here
Prefer to watch video updates? Subscribe to YouTube - here

Please be sure to SHARE this if you think it may help others..

If you want to follow along on how it's done you may want to continue reading as I go over each step in detail.....

While we are in La Cruz for hurricane season we have been reviewing our options for next year.  We have decided that instead of pushing through and joining the Pacific Puddle jump we will spend a season in Pacific Central America.  We have joined up with the Panama Posse for the trip to down to Panama by June 2018.

We intend to take 6 to 7 months to work our way down leaving La Cruz in November.  We will join the Posse in Barra de Navidad by the end of the month and expect to be in El Salvador by Christmas.  Christmas and New Years will probably be in Bahia Del Sol 

We plan to spend January in El Salvador and by the end of the month have touched the few islands of Honduras that are on the Pacific coast.

February will be spent exploring the coast of Nicaragua.  

March and April we expect to be in Costa Rica and May and June will be in Panama!!  Then we can book a transit through the canal and find a place to hunker down for the  next hurricane season!!

Dial in to our Facebook page to get updated info on our progress - here
Just want to see pictures?  Follow on Instagram - here
Prefer to watch video updates? Subscribe to YouTube - here