I am very anxious about transferring my local phone number to Vonage
> because I am worried that users that can call me for free now, will no
> longer be able to. I live in the border line of two area codes, 225
> and 985, I can call my friends 985 number locally, no long distance
> charge, with my 225 number. However, since the number that vonage
> temporatily assigned to me is considered long distance to this town, I
> am scared that even though my current phone is local it might become a > distant number.
> According to what I have read about LNP, when porting numbers from one
> telco to another, you should remain in the same physical area; meaning
> that I should be able to still call my friends without the need to
> dial 1 and viceversa, as one would for long distance numbers. However,
> I do not want a mistake like porting my number from local to long
> distance to happen, and therefore, feel very anxious about this step
> and I am for confirmation that what I understood is right and that
> according to FCC rules it should remain local.
> Currently Vonage gave me a temporary phone line, but since I guess low
> requests in this area since most people dont have internet, they were
> not able to give me a local number, and therefore cant receive calls
> unless callers dial 1. However, something else tells me that by
> porting my current phone vonage will gain or have access to a phone
> line in this area and should keep it local, at least that is what
> common sense tells me, but just need to confirm since I cant afford to
> make this mistake.
> I understand that if exchanging local carriers the number should
> remain as local, but Vonage is over the internet and does not seem it
> would remain local, but it could with third party exchange carriers.
> Finally, should I be completely sure that my line will port and that
> will remain local?
> Thanks for reading and all your help.
> Ivan
YOU will have free LD, but you are correct that your friends calling you might have to dial and pay LD rates. I have heard from other folk to whom this happened.
I would call Vonage support for your area and ask for a supervisor to explain exactly how it would work -- give them your friends phone number for an example.