Porting number into Comcast [Telecom]

Hi- I'm trying to port two numbers into Comcast from Vonage, one being in the 856-461/RIVERSIDE, NJ, originally a Verizon number, the other one being 856-735/RIVERTON, NJ, which has always been a Vonage number.

Comcast is stating that they can port over the 856-461 number since the Riverside, NJ switch in which it resides is my 'home' switch, which the 856-461 number would be served from if I had Verizon. They are stating that they can't port 856-735 since the Riverton, NJ switch is not in my locale (its 2 towns over, roughly 3 miles away).

Does this make sense to anybody? They originally said sure we can port it, however after all is said and done (8 calls later with 15 different reps...not exaggerating), i get a resounding "no".

Thanks Matt

Reply to
MB
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On Thu, 1 Sep 2011 07:33:06 -0700 (PDT), MB wrote, in Message-ID: :

The bottom line is that a number can be ported only within the same "wire center" -- which may be a single switching office, a part of a switching office (if several WCs share a CO), or several swtiching office.

In these days of flat rate calling long-distance plans and "buckets" that don't distinguish between local and long-distance, the notion of having a physical location as a wire center for toll rating purposes may seem a bit anachronous. However, our entire inter-carrier compensation system is premised on determining where a call begins and ends geographically, largely based on the NPA-NXX prefix of the phone numbers. Moreover, there are many different end-user "toll" rates that depend on distance, including not only interLATA but also intraLATA (or "short distance") tolls.

It's my understanding that New Jersey is perhaps the most extreme case of highly localized wire centers and inter-office tolls (or varying message units even within "local" calling areas). As a result, it might matter considerably whether your phone number is terminated at a switch that is present in the local wire center, or one that is present only in a wire center a few miles away from the one that normally services your area.

But I agree that you should be persistent in trying to get what you want, for at least a while. You might get someone who can make it work, even by bending some rules.

--Mike Sullivan

Reply to
Michael D. Sullivan

Comcast has a prefix in Riverton, so they should be able to port numbers there. This looks to me like a limitation of Comcast's ordering system, not a fundamental inability to port.

R's, John

Reply to
John Levine

So many different polygons...

A wire center can contain a small portion of a neigbhoring rate center. Isn't the polygon being regulated the rate center and not the wire center? I cannot imagine that public notice is required or that the public utility commission would issue a finding or a certificate of public convenience before the boundaries of this polygon were changed.

So shouldn't porting be among numbers in the same rate center and not wire center? And if a portion of the rate center is in a neighboring wire center, shouldn't porting be allowed regardless?

Reply to
Adam H. Kerman

On Thu, 1 Sep 2011 07:33:06 -0700 (PDT), MB wrote,

They're right. You can't port it.

You're apparently in the Riverside rate center area. So you can port any Riverside number to your home phone. But Riverton is a different rate center. So if you were to port it to a fixed line, then that fixed line would become a foreign exchange line.

Vonage is "nomadic VoIP". Under the applicable rules, there is no penalty to being foreign exchange -- they do not control where you plug in your ATA into the Internet, so you can take your number with you when you travel. You are supposed to update the E911 location, but otherwise it's okay.

Comcast is a fixed line, same as Verizon. Ignore the detail that there are VoIP headers used in the transmission medium -- that is totally irrelevant. It is not a "VoIP" service; it is a local exchange line, covered by local rules. You can't take your cable with you; Comcast installed the EMTA (cable modem), and thus knows where you are, and the E911 is fixed to that too.

This all matters for two reasons. Both stupid, but they're the rule... One is tax. The FCC has a 15% (more or less, it varies by quarter) Universal Service tax on interstate communications. For a fixed line, they can tax your LD calls or your LD calling plan. For a nomadic line, they don't know how much is really interstate so unless the provider demonstrates otherwise, they assume that 64.9% of calls are interstate, and tax that percentage of the plan's price. Of course two towns in the same state don't change that item.

The second reason is intercarrier compensation -- what Comcast, Paetec (Vonage's CLEC there), Verizon, et al pays another carrier for its half of the call. In most caes, Verizon charges totally different rates for "local" and "long distance" calls. Comcast, as a CLEC, is essentially bound by contract to install only "local" numbers for its customers, or they would be required to pay high LD terminating charges for what are really local calls. This is a totally obnoxious practice that Verizon is now allowed to get away with, but the price for a call varies depending on whether it is "local", intrastate toll, interstate toll, VoIP (nomadic), wireless, "ISP-bound", etc. So Comcast has reason to not want to install an FX line. They could, but it could cost you.

Because of this, the local number portability rules do not require, or nominally even allow, a number to be ported outside of its rate center. VoIP doesn't care because it's nomadic, but porting Riverton numbers to Riverside would be "geographic portability", which is not currently allowed, as it breaks the sacred local/LD billing system.

Welcome to the 1930s, brought to you by the ILECs and their friends at the FCC.

Reply to
Fred Goldstein

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