VZ DSL Going to Vonage for Phone YIKES!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 07, 2006 Posts: 1

Hello from Northwestern PA. (Erie).

I have VZ DSL and I have heard that VZ is so ass backwards that they will actually kill not only my phone service but also my DSL, which makes sense since I would be cancelling my phone my DSL would also bite the dust. My question is this: How do I go about not losing my DSL thru VZ? Everything would be gravy if I could go with Vonage for Phone and VZ for DSL. Is this possible?

Thanks in advanced for your answers / suggestions / links.

Posts: 37 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 12, 2006 Posts: 37

VZ (and most local phone companies that I know of) bundle their DSL and phone service together. They are not capable of unbundling their phone from DSL. If you want DSL then you have to have their local phone service.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 5

Little point of disagreement. Its not that Verizon and other DSL providers can't unbundle DSL and home phone service. Its that they won't because they are afraid of losing customers to cellular providers and to a lesser extent VOIP companies.

nutty wrote:

VZ (and most local phone companies that I know of) bundle their DSL and phone service together. They are not capable of unbundling their phone from DSL. If you want DSL then you have to have their local phone service.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 7

I did it. The problem I ran into was VZ assigns your DSL service to your VZ phone number. The DSL number they need to track and bill by is the same amount of digits as a phone number. This is why they say they can't separate the phone from the DSL.

You simply must explain this over and over to your customer service rep. I was lucky and found someone on the phone side who understood the DSL side and helped me set this up.

1st port your number over to vonage and get that set up

Then call DSL and try to set up a new account just DSL. They may call it a DRYLOOP or SIMULATED DRYLOOP but it is not. It is simply a new DSL Account where they assign a 10 digit number to it not a VZ tel. number.

Lastly disconnect your VZ phone service with the associated DSL service. This should not affect your new DSL service.

Just be persistent. I assure you it can be done. I'm living proof.

Posts: 70 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 28, 2005 Posts: 70

When I was at CS for Vonage I had that issue MANY times. Unfortunately, most of the problems stemmed from Vonage sales/CS/whomever NOT telling prospective customers about this. In fact, while a Vonage trainee I'd called Vonage from home and specifically asked if LNP from a DSL line would present any issues, as 'I'd heard there were issues with DSL'. NO PROBLEMO, I was told.
Funny thing, though - I had an arrogant Verizon Mgr (in my experience somewhat of an oxymoron) on the phone who INSISTED that this would not happen - that Verizon had a service (I am sorry I forget what it was called) specifically tailored for people who wanted to xfr from Verizon, In fact, the man said it was automatic on the xfr request so that the DSL service was 'guaranteed not to be lost'.

Just relaying an experience.

Edit: BTW, mkling, I'm not too sure about your post. As Vonage requires a current, active account for the Verizon # you'd have to keep THAT service active during at least SOME point of the LNP process - plus, didn't you get reject messages stating you had DSL on the line? Maybe I'm slow, but it seems you'd be paying for 3 services (Vonage and 2 DSL) for awhile.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 20, 2006 Posts: 1

just an add'l info... hope this could help...

to save you from trouble of getting another DSL line and disconnecting the other, you could try calling VZ and inquire if they provide a fiber-optic connection in your area. with this, you can have your high-speed without a phone line thus, you'd only have to pay two bills: Vz for your high-speed and Vonage for your phone.

however, there are only selected areas in the States wherein VZ provides a fiber-optic connection for the high-speed. noetheless, it's worth a try calling VZ. Smile