Walk me through using VOIP to keep my US phone number in Canada

Post date: 2020-09-25 08:16:51

I'm moving to Canada from the US. My phone plan (Red Pocket) doesn't work in Canada. I'll get a Canadian plan and phone number, but I also want to keep my US number for receiving calls and texts in Canada. How to do this? I seem to have already packed most of my working brain cells, so I don't understand what the internet is telling me and need MeFi to walk me through the process.

Google says that there are things called VOIP, Google Voice, OpenPhone, TextNow etc. which may or may not provide what I need, but I'm having trouble understanding how these work and whether they fit the bill. Here's what I'd like to achieve:

- keep my existing US number, including after I switch out my SIM card for a new Canadian one
- be able to receive calls and texts on the current number while in Canada
- ideally, receive voicemail

I can't seem to find a simple step-by-step description of how to do this. Help?

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