How Does iPhone Call Forwarding Work?

[Stangs55]

Sorry for the generic question, but the answer will dictate if I can go back to the iPhone.

I work at a place with zero AT&T reception and 100% reception for every other major carrier. Classic. I'm considering picking up an iPhone 4 and a pay-as-you-go phone from Verizon. While I'm at work, I'd like to just forward my iPhone calls to my Verizon phone and then turn it off when I leave work. Will this work if there are zero bars on my iPhone? In other words, does the call have to reach the iPhone to be rerouted, or is that done "at the tower"?

What about text messages? Is it possible to have text messages that sent to my iPhone forwarded to my Verizon phone during the day?

(this all may seem crazy, but I'll be leaving this place in about a year...in addition, nearly everybody I know is on AT&T so I will save in the cost of a cheaper rate plan)

 

[Stangs55]

bump on pre-preorder day

 

[sab46]

Once forwarding is on, the call will go to the forwarded number (your verizon phone) regardless of your iphone reception. The iphone doesn't even need to be on. There are a few caveats:
1) You need reception on your iphone if you want to toggle forwarding on or off
2) If you turn the verizon phone off, the call will still be forwarded to it and would probably go to your verizon voicemail. You'll need to get in the habit of turning forwarding on before you get to work and off when you leave. It doesn't take long for the forwarding to take effect.
3) Any call that gets forwarded to your verizon phone will have minutes billed to both phones. I'm nearly positive on this one, but could be wrong.

I don't think you can forward text messages, but I've never looked into it.

You could also sign up for google voice or another similar service to get a number that rings to both phones at once.

Do you have wifi access at work? Perhaps you could forward to a skype number that you have set up on the iphone. This assumes skype multitasking would allow the call to come through as they advertise. Could be cheaper than another phone line.

 

[TLewis]

I don't think you can forward text messages, but I've never looked into it.

You could also sign up for google voice or another similar service to get a number that rings to both phones at once.

I think google voice also autoforwards text messages (to cellphones only, of course). However, the autoforwarded message may have a phone number belonging to google, and not the sender; the sender's phone number is prepended to the text message (which may truncate long text messages?). Replying to the text should work properly, though, as google knows how to route the messages. It's just that both sides have got to realize that the phone numbers involved are not the right ones, even though the messages get routed properly.

Google voice is really nice.