Verizon wireless - Transporting cell phone numbers

Author

Transporting cell phone numbers

ole

2008-03-20, 7:33 am

Hi

I was considering switching to Verizon from Unicel, however, I was told that
my phone number could not be transferred because Unicel owned the number.

I thought that a law was passed to enable the transfer of cell phone numbers
between different cell phone providers?

Thanks

Andrew Duane

2008-03-20, 12:33 pm

On Mar 20, 5:47 am, "ole" <o...@sealake.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I was considering switching to Verizon from Unicel, however, I was told that
> my phone number could not be transferred because Unicel owned the number.
>
> I thought that a law was passed to enable the transfer of cell phone numbers
> between different cell phone providers?
>
> Thanks

Yup, there was. Whoever told you that at Unicel was wrong.

Dennis Ferguson

2008-03-20, 3:33 pm

On 2008-03-20, ole <ole@sealake.com> wrote:
> I was considering switching to Verizon from Unicel, however, I was told that
> my phone number could not be transferred because Unicel owned the number.
>
> I thought that a law was passed to enable the transfer of cell phone numbers
> between different cell phone providers?

There are regulations which prohibit Unicel from preventing the number
from being ported to another operator, but there are no regulations which
say Verizon has to take the number.

For Verizon to port the number they need to have a switch serving the
number's ratecenter. You can determine for yourself whether they do or
not by going to this web page

http://www.telcodata.us/telcodata/telco

and entering the area code and first three digits of the phone number
you want to port. When you get the result from that click on the
"Ratecenter" in the result; this will give you a list of all the phone
companies which have numbers in the same ratecenter. If Verizon
Wireless isn't among them then they probably won't be able to port your
number onto their network, you'll be limited to the wireless companies
which show up on that list if you want to take your number with you.

If Verizon Wireless does have numbers in the same ratecenter, however,
you might want to ask Verizon again about why it is they can't port your
number. While I think some small, rural landline companies may still
have exemptions from the porting regulations I don't think there's
anything special about Unicel numbers.

Dennis Ferguson

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