Transferring number FROM Vonage

Guest

Let me preface my question by saying that I've had Vonage for a bit over a month and I like it. I'm not planning to switch to another carrier.

However, I'm curious. Since Vonage is not considered a phone company, I'm not sure if they have to give up your number if you request to switch to another carrier. The Vonage service agreement states that they may release a number at their sole discretion.

Has anyone here made a switch away from Vonage and kept their number?

Guest

Actually, I think the original incument carrier owns the number, not Vonage. I think they have to give it up if you want to switch. Actually, I don't think it is actually Vonage that ports the number. They are not a carrier, so I think they contract with competitive local exchange carriers. Perhaps someone could clarify that for us to be sure.

I have a business account and before signing up with Vonage asked them if I was not happy would they release the number (otherwise I would not do it) and they said no problem. Even though I am happy thus fair, I hope that is the case as I can't afford to be held hostage or to lose a valuable number if I want to leave.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 05, 2004 Posts: 10

If Vonage can port the number in, then they should be required to port the number out when requested. One main problem, however, is that if you don't live in the Rate Center where your number resides (decided by NPA/NXX i.e. area code/Prefix) you will not be able to port the number out.

Check with your local public service commission, or other body to find out about rate centers. They generally correspond to cities, or neighborhoods (in large cities). For instance, I chose my number in a different rate center because it gave me a larger incoming calling scope due to the way Extended area service is handled in my area.

They should have maps, and NPA/NXX listings of the rate centers.

The second problem is whether or not Vonage has an agreement with the carrier you want to port to. For my company, we only have agreements with the Local exchange carriers (Ma Bell), and a very limited number of Competing Local Exchange Carriers. (Usually resellers, but not always. They compete with Ma Bell.) If there's no agreement, they'd have to port to Bell, then from bell to the carrier you want.

Hope this helps.

Guest

What happens if they (Vonage) do not have an agreement with a Bell? Can you not get the number back to a Bell?

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 05, 2004 Posts: 10

They have to have an agreement with bell in order to port from them, so I'm sure your ok. Just be aware that you might have to port to your Local exchange carrier (bell/RBOC, Ma Bell...) in order to switch to a different provider (other than the RBOC). Most providers will attempt to take care of that for you. It would be nice for a Vonage employee to comment on this though.

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Telephone Numbers are not "owned" by anyone. In fact, they're considered a "National Resource" by the FCC. The numbers of lent to certified operators who are able to contribute to/from the national number pool.

The short answer is YES, if you move to another operator, you can indeed PORT your number with you.

This applies to competitive access areas which (since Vonage only operates in competitive) is effectively all Vonage numbers.

However, if you have a Miami virtual number and live in New York, you won't be able to port that number to a Verizon telephone LOCATED in New York. This is against the current rules of telephone number assignments.

Posts: 65 · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2004 10:19 pm Post subject:

That is true, provided the new CLEC is able to port from that pool for RBOC numbers.

In some cases, it doesn't work. Been there done that, and things don't always work out.

Take Vonage for example. You can not port a number that they provided you with to another carrier.