You did miss something, PAT.
A personal (or business) 800 number can be pointed at whatever carrier that will take it and route your call. My first personal 800 was gotten for me by the folks at Sprint. When I moved on to another carrier, the new carrier arranged to repoint the number from Sprint to their service. And I moved a couple of more times. Each time, the new carrier repointed the number to go to them when I moved my service. I never had to do it myself.
This carrier says I have to arrange for it to be pointed at them. But once it is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to be sent to my local phone number that they provide me.
Vonage offers toll-free numbers (I say 800 because both of my toll-free numbers happen to be 800 numbers). But, they won't accept a toll-free number that you already have. They will get you a new one, but they won't transfer an existing toll-free number. I spoke to several people at Vonage (including those who do the number portability stuff) and they all said the same thing. They did say that if you wanted to use another carrier and point it at your Vonage number that you were free to do so. So, when you dial my personal 800 number, it currently gets routed to Power Net Global who routes it to my Vonage number. Double whammy.
But this new carrier says they will allow you to move the toll-free number to their service. The only hitch (as I previously mentioned) is that you have to get the 800 number pointed at them. because they don't do it for you. Unfortunately [as I never had to arrange to move my number from one carrier to another myself], I don't know how to arrange for that to happen. Once the number is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to ring your phone. In this manner, you don't have to use two carriers to make it work.
Did I explain it better this time?
Regards,
Fred
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, you did. Let's see if anyone can provide any answers. PAT]