Regular POTS line, Vonage says it's ISDN

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 01, 2005 Posts: 1

Hi,

I am helping my friend porting his home phone number to Vonage.
He had has this number for many years (perhaps over 20). A few months back he switch from SBC to AT&T local service. It has always been a residential POTS line.

But now Vonage says it's a ISDN line and therefore he has to contact his local carrier to change it to a POTS. He called AT&T but obviously that didn't help. Vonage kept coming back saying the same thing.

Any idea what to do?

I had my home number from SBC ported to Vonage before. And mine used to be an ISDN line, switched to POTS about 2 years before I ported to Vonage. Everything went smoothly.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 5

I just got this notification from Vonage regarding my existing Sprint Total Sense local/long distance account. The Sprint rep verified that ISDN is not a feature of my line - although she said that the number cannot be ported directly to Vonage but must be switched back to SBC (Illinois) first or released by them to Vonage.

I replied back to the Vonage email stating that ISDN is not a line feature of my account. Shortly afterwards, I receive a followup email (from a second representative) thanking me for my cooperation and still wanting the ISDN feature cancellation confirmation number.

I replied back asking them (Vonage) how I possibly could provide a feature cancellation confirmation number if the feature did not have to be removed in the first place!

Is it possible that Vonage never could have ported the local number in the first place and is using my current provider as cover/fall-guy?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 5

I wanted to follow-up to let people know that I received an email from Vonage today stating that my porting request was approved by Sprint and that the cutover is scheduled for tomorrow.

I guess the key is to stay on top of the process.

Keeping my fingers crossed.......

Posts: 339 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 339

aliko wrote:

Hi,

I am helping my friend porting his home phone number to Vonage.
He had has this number for many years (perhaps over 20). A few months back he switch from SBC to AT&T local service. It has always been a residential POTS line.

But now Vonage says it's a ISDN line and therefore he has to contact his local carrier to change it to a POTS. He called AT&T but obviously that didn't help. Vonage kept coming back saying the same thing.

Any idea what to do?

I had my home number from SBC ported to Vonage before. And mine used to be an ISDN line, switched to POTS about 2 years before I ported to Vonage. Everything went smoothly.

Vonage doesn't say its ISDN, your carrier does. Now, yes they've said that it isn't. But when Vonage sends the port request, the old carrier has to say yes to the port or no, for a valid reason (valid is a pretty loose term). Most of the time, its because they don't keep accurate records that reflect the current services you purchase from them.

Sprint is fairly bad at this. Several cases of Vonage sends the port request, Sprint denies it because they say its an ISDN line. The customer then has to call Sprint and confirm that it isn't an ISDN line (Vonage can't call the carrier on behalf of you for this and even if Vonage did, the carrier won't talk to Vonage). Send the port request back, this time with the confirmation number that it is not an ISDN line. Sprint denies the transfer because they say it is a Centrex line. Ok, get the confirmation that its not a Centrex line. Then they deny it because of an address or name mismatch. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It gets even harder when your carrier that you pay for service isn't the one that actually owns the line (aka "Big Bob's Discount Telephone Company" who buys bulk minutes from SBC and sells it to you). The carrier that you're paying can't port the number our because they don't own it and the carrier that does won't port it because you don't get the service from them.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 5

My LNP went effective yesterday for incoming calls.

The outbound calls ended at midnight, just as Vonage said.

It's Vonage now, baby!