How does LNP work?

Can someone explain how local number porting works. That is, when my PSTN phone company ports my number to my VOIP provider, what happens physically to make that work>

You may combine the voip and your pstn EXTERNALLY with an automatic voip/pstn switch..

Maybe my question wasn't well stated. I'm curious as to how the physical connection works when my local number is ported to a VOIP provider 2 thousand miles away. For example, when someone calls my number from their PSTN phone, where is that call routed (to my former regional Bell company?) and how is it then redirected to my VOIP provider? Is the call somehow sent directly to the VOIP provider? Who maintains the system that keeps track of this? Who is responsible for porting the number to the next provider if I make a switch?

Your question was stated fine. Marc Popek only posts to spam about his ebay auctions for VoIP/PSTN switches, and that's how he answers every question no matter what it's about. Except that he forgot to include the ebay link this time.

You can get an overview of local number portability in the USA and Canada here:

and the terms on that page should give you some good fodder for further googling.

miguel

Thanks!

You right I did forget the link in my sig line!