Porting/Keeping Numbers When Moving From State To State

Posts: 1147 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1147

Rob,

The only folks who won't let you take your phone numbers are your baby bells.

I believe their reason is b/c they have specific routing systems that go by the prefix of your phone # and it helps them bill you correctly for local calls vs. toll calls vs long distance calls etc.

so in the chicago area, a call within an 8 (not sure if this is still accurate now) mile radius was a local call. Call greater than 8 miles but within the state of Illinois were toll calls and anything outside of Illinois was a long distance call or something like that.

All of this billing was based on your prefix.

Wireless and voip phone numbers are not bound by these since all calls from a wireless or voip phone are considered long distance. so there are no issues with moving numbers to different places etc.

So if verizon wireless tells you that you have to surrender your number, that csr is really screwed up. But if you had a verizon landline, then yes, you cannot take that number, not even to the next town.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 05, 2005 Posts: 13

HI,

This is what I seem to understand, and you confirmed it. For a baby bell phone number...From what I "think" is that you can take that number with you, but you need for first port it to Vonage or somewhere else. But after doing that, if you move, I am unclear to where you can move it after that (like from Vonage to Verizon, then maybe to Comcast VoIP, in the same manner like you didn't move in the first place).

Still we have come a long way from the days where we were tied to our landline (pre wireless phone days). Today I can't imagine being limited to phone at a particular location.

Rob

mundy5 wrote:

Rob,

The only folks who won't let you take your phone numbers are your baby bells.

I believe their reason is b/c they have specific routing systems that go by the prefix of your phone # and it helps them bill you correctly for local calls vs. toll calls vs long distance calls etc.

so in the chicago area, a call within an 8 (not sure if this is still accurate now) mile radius was a local call. Call greater than 8 miles but within the state of Illinois were toll calls and anything outside of Illinois was a long distance call or something like that.

All of this billing was based on your prefix.

Wireless and voip phone numbers are not bound by these since all calls from a wireless or voip phone are considered long distance. so there are no issues with moving numbers to different places etc.

So if verizon wireless tells you that you have to surrender your number, that csr is really screwed up. But if you had a verizon landline, then yes, you cannot take that number, not even to the next town.

Posts: 1147 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1147

that's correct. I did that with my sbc # from chicago. i ported it to vonage and now use it in st. louis. but you cannot move with your # if it is with one of the telcos. So that's the problem. it's too bad that they haven't caught on, but that's where they are at still.

i guess that's what monopolies do, they get institutionalized and then they can't adapt to the changing culture and situation in the telecom industry.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 05, 2005 Posts: 13

This is what I thought. If I moved a telco to Vonage then moved, then I can't move it to Sunrocket, for example, but if I didn't move, then I would be able to move it to Sunrocket. Is this correct?. I wasn't sure if moving a telco number to a VoIP before moving would enable you to move it around freely after that.

With the above said, I guess it is true (just want to confirm) that if I have Verizon Wireless, then move to another state with this number, then decide I want T-Mobile, then I should be able to port (same should go between wireless carriers and VoIP, anything that is non-telco).

The question in my mind which I may not be 100% on still is the ability to port around freely after moving (not just being able to take the number with you when you leave the state with your current service as it stands).

mundy5 wrote:

that's correct. I did that with my sbc # from chicago. i ported it to vonage and now use it in st. louis. but you cannot move with your # if it is with one of the telcos. So that's the problem. it's too bad that they haven't caught on, but that's where they are at still.

i guess that's what monopolies do, they get institutionalized and then they can't adapt to the changing culture and situation in the telecom industry.