Early in March I signed up with Vonage and asked them the transfer my
> number from AT&T, my local service provider. I signed a LOA and
> waited. When nothing had happened after 3 weeks I emailed
> Vonage. They now tell my that AT&T is apparently trying to resell my
> number and therefore the transfer is not going through. I called AT&T
> and was told that AT&T is not reselling my number and that there they
> can't see a problem with the transfer. I email Vonage with that
> information and receive an email that now that all the obstacles are
> removed they will proceed with the transfer request. So I wait
> again. Finally about 10 days later I email Vonage to ask them what is
> holding up the transfer. They reply that they are waiting for AT&T to
> set an FOC date. I turned around and ask AT&T what is holding them up
> setting the FOC (firm order confirmation) date. So I get the reply
> today that AT&T does not give an FOC but that "due to systems
> limitations" Vonage will not be able to port my local service directly
> from AT&T and that I will need to switch my local service to Verizon
> and then port to Vonage from that provider.
> I am exasperated. Is there any truth to this? Why can't AT&T port the
> number directly to Vonage? and if not, somebody at Vonage should have
> known about this from the start since I would certainly not be the
> first person to go through this process. Instead I am now paying for 2
> concurrent services (AT&T and Vonage) and have to add on another 3rd
> service (Verizon) while spending more time waiting for the
> transfer. Is somebody making money of this? Is it kind of scam?
Probably because AT&T is reselling Verizon service.
Get the local PUC involved and cc the FCC. There's clearly no technical limitation, it's just determining who owns the number.