Are you thinking about changing carriers and want to know what happens to your phone numbers? Well, the answer is pretty simple: you can keep your phone numbers, thanks to the federal government.
The Federal policy called LNP
Local Number Portability (LNP) is a federally regulated right that grants every citizen or business the ability to transfer their current phone numbers to the provider of their choice upon change of service. This includes transferring the phone numbers of traditional copper-based service to a VoIP carrier. Each user actually pays for this right monthly as an itemized price on the phone bill called LNP.
And just last month, the FCC announced that porting must be completed in a single day, rather than the previously mandated time frame of four days. Read more about the change on FierceVoIP (the original WSJ article requires a subscription).
So what’s the catch?
There really isn’t any. You might face a small porting fee from your new carrier (some throw it in for free), but you have the upper hand when you decide to move to VoIP, thanks in part to LNP. Also, a potential “hidden” benefit is that you often don’t even have to port all your numbers; you just have to switch those numbers that external callers actually dial.
Wikipedia provides more information about Local Number Portability and Full Mobile Number Portability for the inquisitive mind.
Got a question about this article or business VoIP in general? Leave your question in the comments, or email them to BandwidthU. We’ll do our best to get back to you quickly if it’s something we can answer.
Tags: bandipedia, bandwidthu, definition, VoIP, voip answers, voip questions, wiki
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