I have some questions about "paths" (as ATT calls them in its California tariffs) for remote-call-forwarding numbers and how they differ from "paths" for ported numbers.
First, here's my understanding of RCF paths. Standard ATT residential remote call forwarding service ($17 per month) will permit only one call to be forwarded at a time; any additional calls made to the RCF while a call is already in progress will get a busy signal. ATT would say that this RCF service has one "path." An RCF subscriber can subscribe to additonal paths for $17 each per month. So for roughly $85 per month, the RCF service could have a total of five paths. (The pricing and path particulars are the same for business RCF service.)
I wonder whether ported numbers are similarly set up. For example, say that for my business I have the Verizon Wireless cellular number
343-999-5050 (fictitious area code for this example), and the business grows such that I convert the Verizon Wireless number to a landline and make it the head number of a five-line hunt group. Of course, this five-line hunt group would accommodate up to five inbound calls at once, but because all of the calls are routed to me via a Verizon Wireless switch, I'd guess that my quantity of simultaneous inbound calls via 999-5050 would be determined by how many paths Verizon Wireless establishes for my number on their switch. And if Verizon Wireless gives 999-5050 only one path, 999-5050 would be much less useful to my business.So my question is this: Do FCC rules or state regulations say that any company (of any type: cellular or CLEC or ILEC) that owns a switch must provide an adequate or minimum quantity of call paths for a phone number that has been ported out from the switch and is now receiving a volume of calls that would require the additional paths?
(I'm not in the telecom industry, so please correct any errors or misconceptions that you see in my text above.)
***** Moderator's Note *****I don't think any restriction applies on a ported-out number: your old wireless switch would almost never know the call existed.
When you port a number out, from any kind of switch, the number goes in the national database of ported tn's. Then, when someone calls that number, the _originating_ switch will "dip" the database, and obtain the routing number associated with you _new_ serving central office. The originating switch then routes the call as it would any other, and no interaction with your _former_ central office is needed.
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator