My father-in-law recently attempt to switch from SBC POTS to VOIP with his cable provider (Time Warner). When he called them, they said he'd have to have a new number, because the local community didn't allow number porting...
He's reluctant because he's had this phone number for ~40 years.
Anyone else heard of this?
Is it possible he could port with another third party VOIP providor (ie Vonage)?
Pretty common. If he waits 6 mos it may change.
I ported my Sprint # to Packet8 without a problem. After a year with Packet
8 I changed to SunRocket. 6 months later my # has not been ported. None of the providers appear to offer any guarantees on transferring an existing phone #.
They only guarantee p;orting CERTAIN numbers - i.e. where they have reached an agreement on the procedure with the "owner" of the numbers - i.e. the company who runs the CO where the numbers live.
ViaTalk claims to port within 20 business days, and in my case they did it in 10, from Sprint/Embarq. I had my phone number for a much shorter time, but giving it up would have been a major hassle, so I can empathize with your father-in-law. Open a ticket with their tech support to be sure.
Thanks,
Thomas See review at:
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