Is LNP really that bad?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 06, 2004 Posts: 1

After reading everyone's frustration with LNP, I must admit that I'm a little confused. Either my approach solves many of the problems, or I'm missing something. Here's what I did:

- When I signed up I indicated LNP, and gave my current Verizon phone number
- I hooked up my box and confirmed it was working correctly
- I activated call forwarding from my Verizon number to my temporary Vonage number. This means that people who call me don't know anything has changed.
- Since Vonage sends my current Verizon number (because of LNP) in the outgoing caller id information, people I call have no idea that I'm not using my old phone. The end result is that for both outgoing and incoming calls, the service is exactly the way I want it when LNP completes, and my Verizon service is not connected in my house anymore.

Obviously this means I am paying both phone bills until LNP completes, but I alleviated that by reducing my current phone service. I had all features removed (caller id, call waiting, voicemail, etc.) from my Verizon phone, and I reduced my Verizon service from Unlimited Metro to a pay-per-minute plan. Since I make no outgoing calls, this is fine.

The net result is that I've reduced my Verizon/long distance bill from $70/month to $17/month. This means that I'm currently paying $17 + $27 (Vonage plan) = $44/month. This still saves me $24 month over my old Verizon plan, and it is seamless in my life.

Once LNP kicks in, I'll save the final $17. Am I missing something? Is everyone else?

Posts: 21 · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 11:03 pm Post subject:

No, you are not missing anything. I would have done the same thing but I didn't have Call Forwarding on my account. I didn't want to order Call Forwarding as that would cause issues for the port.

I just didn't use my Vonage account for incoming calls until my number got ported - not a huge deal. I'm enjoying the savings now!

Posts: 37 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 12, 2004 Posts: 37

Some people have mentioned a problem with LNP that your "call forwarding" solution would not fix. They have said that the local carrier shut down their service a couple weeks before the port was complete. People who called the number to be ported could not get through. I read that on a board, so I did not see it first hand.

Posts: 10 · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:56 am Post subject:

I had a different solution to the same problem:

My two old cordless phones on Verizon didn't have caller-id and the range wasn't good (900 MHz). I picked up a pair of 2.4GHz V-Tech phones (that share a base) with all the bells and whistles for $25. The V-Tech phones are for outgoing calls and the old phones are for incoming calls until the number gets ported.

With the new phones, I don't even have to tie into the house wiring. Cool