VoIP Numbers No Longer Hard to Port

Good news for the thousands of victims of the next big VoIP service provider crash: The Federal Communications Commission has expanded local number portability (LNP) to VoIP.

(It's come little late for those of us among the thousands caught in the death throes of SunRocket last July, but I'm not bitter. Much. Still, it's nice to know SunRocket customers' complaints may have helped push this ruling through.)

If you're not clear on the topic, LNP allows you to take your land-line phone number with you from one carrier to the next. That means, if you move from Verizon to another provider--even a digital/Internet phone like that offered by TimeWarner along with RoadRunner broadband--you can keep that number that's been in your house for 38 years.

That's what my parents did. But there wasn't a guarantee that TimeWarner's phone services had to give up the number if they switched back--or switched to a different VoIP company, like Vonage. Until today.

The best part: The FCC says VoIP providers are not allowed to hold up your switch to a new provider. Its got to happen within 48 hours of the request.

Companies can't even ask for more than four bits of info from other providers when porting, just your phone number, account number, zip code and pass code (if applicable). Major info-dump requests have been used to hold up porting in the past. No more.

This is good for VoIP companies -- they're being treated like they matter enough to have the rule apply. Like big kids! What isn't good for them may be that customers can split whenever they want and take their number with them --in some cases it may have been the only thing keeping the customer tethered to a specific provider. To which I say, boo hoo. Make the service with staying on and it won't be an issue.

Post by Eric Griffith