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How long does it take to port a phone number? [telecom]

I recently switched from the telephone company I had been using for a very long time (since before dial!) to the local cable company. Part of this changeover was the porting of my telephone number to the new provider.

The release of the telephone number to the cable company took longer than I thought it should. To be specific, it was exactly 3 weeks.

The telephone company said it always takes at least 7 to 10 days to port a number, but mine was longer since I had a freeze on the porting of the number. I was given a number to call to release that freeze when I placed the order for the new service, did that, and received a confirmation number. So, that should have lifted the freeze right then and there.

I've tried to get an answer from the from the phone company on why so long, and they insist that length of time is necessary. I finally mentioned to them the FCC mandate they port a number within 1 business day, and their response to that was I should contact my congressman and have that changed!

It is interesting the reason the FCC reduced that time to 1 business day was because carriers were using delaying tactics to discourage people changing carriers. I wouldn't think my telephone company would do anything like that, but then I could probably go on with other problems I have had with the change.

Any thoughts?

....Bob

***** Moderator's Note *****

Bob, I think you _should_ write your congressman! Tell him or her that the ILEC has been hiring untutored, arrogant, irresponsible salesdroids who think that not being caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth.

Oh, and by the way, it took that long to port your number because they had to re-hire a retired CO guy as a consultant in order to figure out why your coils has SSP markings on them. ;-)

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Bob K
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For what it's worth, a friend of mine ported his number several times over a short period of time and had no problems. He thought a competing carrier would be cheaper, but they merely stated all the "fees" differently and was no saving at all. He then tried a different competing carrier and found the same thing. He switched back to Verizon.

I suspect you were delayed because of the "freeze" you had applied to your number. My mother put a 'lock' on her telephone account and when she got sick I had a heck of time trying to straighten it out with the phoneco due to the lock--they simply refused to talk to me even though her account was seriously in arrears and I was trying to get it paid up. Finally she had a good day and could talk to them directly unfreezing the lock.

To Mr. Horne--did you ever get your trouble previously discussed resolved?

***** Moderator's Note *****

Oh, yuck. Someone finally called me "mister". Now I /really/ feel old.

I didn't get the toll restrictions removed from my line, if that's what you're referring to: we continued to use Google voice, and that worked out OK even though we had no access to the Google interface on the Internet. The problem is that our cordless phones have "timed" tone buttons that send a tone burst that's sometimes too short for the Google hardware to recognize: I was able to dig a 2500 set out of the morass that is my basement, and we found that it worked a lot better.

The larger issue, though, has nothing to do with Google: it's that Verizon is employing salespeople who have obviously been trained to lie and to deceive their customers. The company's viewpoint seems to be that too few of their customers will take action for it to impact the bottom line.

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Lisa or Jeff

That's how long it was for me (porting from Qwest).

Dave

Reply to
Dave Garland

Here in Australia I had my number ported from one mobile phone provider to another within an hour or so after activating my new account.

Mind you, the old carrier said that I should separate the mobile phone and my landline into separate bills before porting the mobile number, as otherwise the number porting may be blocked. My new carrier told me that this was not necessary, and it wasn't.

Liron

Reply to
Liron

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