Transfer Vonage # to Other Carrier?

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 10

I have already tried to ask Vonage. It takes forever to speak with a human and the email route fails.

The numbers were initially from SBC and I ported them to Vonage.

We were all ready on the switch, had the SBC rep here and he did the last step which was calling to their offices and they said the number would not be released by Vonage.

SBC says it's Vonage, Vonage says they don't own the number some Red Carpet or Red something owns it and there is nothing they can do.

Posts: 44 · Full Forum Member Joined: Dec 22, 2004 Posts: 44

wow, that's pretty bad. I've found most Vonage tech support is easy to get to level1 (the guys with the thick accents) but they are usually decently helpful, they can at least submit tickets and stuff. Getting to level2 is much harder, i had to wait for upwards of an hour on hold when I needed one (in the process of porting out my number, they assigned it to someone else which meant that Vonage callers got the new guy, but everyone else not on Vonage got me). Email i've been pretty lucky with, although I think sometimes they slip thru the cracks.

As for who owns the number- first off what happens when you call it from a cell phone? That will indicate who currently 'has' it.

I have never heard of Red Carpet but they may be a CLEC. Vonage never directly interfaces with the PSTN (normal phone network), they operate via a handful of CLEC (competitive local exchange carriers).
These CLECs are the companies formed after the telecom act of 1996 which was designed to create competition in phone service. There is no real competition in phone service but they do provide the useful offering of connecting DSL circuits for 3rd parties and providing Voip connection to the PSTN. There are a few big ones and many small ones, and Vonage uses many of them to provide the actual PSTN connections. Thus, when you port a number 'to Vonage' it actually gets assigned to one of these CLEC companies, and either you or Vonage is the customer of record.

So it is possible that Vonage is saying the CLEC owns it and isn't releasing, which is possible, however the CLEC should release it if Vonage tells them to.

If calling the # from a cell phone rings the Vonage line, then they still have your number. Email dslreports@vonage.com or maybe this forum has their own email alias to high level tech support. If that fails, try filing a complaint with the FCC, I've heard that gets the ball rolling on just about anything pretty quickly.

Good luck and let us know what happens!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 1

[font=Symbol] [/font][font=Arial] [/font]I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PORT MY NUMBER FROM Vonage SINCE 10/6/06 AND THEY STILL HAVE NOT RELEASED IT TO MY CURRENT CARRIER.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 10

I feel your pain.

My phone numbers are for my business and I have phone book, website, business cards, etc out there so they have me bent over.

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

So what if you want to port your number (one that you ported in) away from Vonage but still keep Vonage service? Can you make the number you want to port a virtual number (obviously you can make any number a virtual number by doing a number change with "keep old number as a virtual number"), and then submit the port request to the other carrier? Will Vonage then simply disconnect the virtual number when the request comes in and leave the rest of the service active?

Posts: 44 · Full Forum Member Joined: Dec 22, 2004 Posts: 44

Vonage generally wont drop an account if they have an excuse to keep a paying customer around. I'd do this- sign up for a virtual #. Keep it secondary. port main # out. once that goes through, call Vonage and tell them to remove the main # from their database, making your virtual # primary. Ensure that the database removal actually happens and you can correctly call yoruself. then you are done Smile

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

IronHelix, have you EVER tried to get a virtual number turned back into a primary number on Vonage? No can do. Really.

In fact, I want to keep my current primary number as my primary number while I port in a number from Verizon. You can only port a number in as a new primary number. You can make the current number a virtual number in the process.

The convoluted scheme we're using to make sure that I keep my current primary number as my primary is as follows: We added a new second line (2nd port on my ATA) under the current free second number promotion. I'll port my Verizon number there. Then I'll issue a number change on the second number, which will make the ported number into a virtual number. And then I'll drop the additional line.

If I had ported the Verizon number to my current line, I would have forever lost the current number as a primary number. It would/could have become virtual, but there is no way to make a virtual number primary again. I've been through this before.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 10

Hi Ironhelix,

Not sure you have read my other posts. If I could port my number out (either one of them) I would be gone. I can't make that happen and have described the reasons in the posts above this one.

The whole issue is getting my numbers from Vonage to SBC.

One of my other posts talke about death threats I was getting on my phone, so I called the police, they came out took a report and then the police called Vonage up to set up a pin trap on the line and Vonage said we aren't set up to do that so nothing we can do. SBC is set up to do that and frequently does.