|
Posted by Gordon S. Hlavenka on March 2, 2008, 10:14 am
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
WRT the recent discussion about porting landline numbers to cell, and
problems that may arise because of differing rate centers etc...
Let me set up my situation:
In 1999 I was running a PC repair business, working out of my house in
Villa Park, IL. I purchased a retail business in neighboring Lombard.
So now I had my original phone number (630-832, Elmhurst CO) and the
number of the retail business (630-691, Lombard CO). These were both
business lines, served from different COs. I ordered "Alternate
Answering" and "Busy Line Transfer" on the 832 number, so that if it was
busy or not answered right away it would forward to the store. These
two services cost me about 75 cents each (plus normal usage) -- way less
than Call Forwarding.
A few years go by, and guess what? The retail thing didn't pan out.
But I had customers who only knew me by the 691 number so I didn't want
to lose it. Unfortunately, since it was served out of a different CO I
couldn't switch it to my house. I had to get Remote Call Forwarding,
and even though the line had maybe 30 minutes/month of usage the bill
was over $50. Yech.
I decided to get Vonage and port the two numbers over to VOIP. But
Vonage wouldn't allow me to port a business line to their $15/mo
residential plan. So I called AT&T to get the numbers switched to
residential. The rep explained that I'd have to request "unlisted,
non-pub" for both lines, then wait for the next directory to print.
Then they'd make the switch.
So I did that, and when the time came it turned out that AT&T couldn't
convert the 691 number! Why? Because it was an RCF line, and RCF is
strictly a business service. I couldn't have a residential line on RCF,
and if I deleted RCF I'd lose the line completely since it had no
physical termination. I've since been told that this is poppycock, that
I could in fact have a residential line with no physical presence, but
apparently this was unknown to all the AT&T reps I talked to.
So, what I ended up doing was porting both lines to cell phones. Now my
cell has the 832 number, and my son's cell has the 691 number. If he
gets a customer call, he asks them to call me direct.
I got the phones through Cingular so the lines weren't ported out of the
company, but there was absolutely no problem with the port. Calls
terminated on the landline until the moment they began terminating on
the cell. And nothing was ever said about the conversion from business
to residential. Now they are both ordinary cell accounts, so if I want
to port them someplace else I don't anticipate any trouble.
But the bottom line is, that that I don't think the two rate centers
could have been much more different (especially the 691 number; business
RCF to residential cell), and yet the move went off without a hitch.
--
Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com
Vote Ron Paul in 2008! Call 866-737-5066
|
| Similar Threads | Posted | | Verizon Bundles Cell Use With TV, and Landline | January 30, 2007, 2:12 pm |
| [Telecom] ATT GSM Landline Problem | November 13, 2007, 9:04 pm |
| Porting number from Verizon to Vonage *nightmare* [Telecom] | October 21, 2008, 1:14 am |
| Re: Porting number from Verizon to Vonage *nightmare* [Telecom] | October 21, 2008, 8:19 pm |
| What are the least expensive wallwired landline telephone services? [Telecom] | October 19, 2008, 12:15 pm |
| Cell Phone Numbers and Do Not Call List | July 12, 2007, 10:05 am |
| Re: Cell Phone Numbers and Do Not Call List | July 12, 2007, 10:13 pm |
| Re: Cell Phone Numbers and Do Not Call List | July 12, 2007, 4:00 pm |
| Re: Cell Phone Numbers and Do Not Call List | July 12, 2007, 5:23 pm |
| Re: Cell Phone Numbers and Do Not Call List | July 12, 2007, 10:26 pm |
|
|
![Porting landline numbers to cell [TELECOM]](/images/header.jpg)
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML site map