How do I keep my old land line phone number?

[Ron3rd]

I know this is not RV related, but maybe someone will know the answer. We have sold our house and will be moving out of the area. We have Time Warner Cable for TV, Internet, and phone. Time Warner is not available in the area we are moving to. I would like to keep our original telephone number that we have had for 30 years. I’ve seen ads for Magic Jack and other devices that claim you can keep your phone number but I don’t know how this works. Anyone have advice?

[valhalla360]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

If you are going to be getting a new landline in your new location, you should be able to port to that also.....

I've been away from it for a while but am pretty sure that is NOT an available option.....and never was.....at least not for a "real" physical telephone line.

We sold the house back in 2007 and have been traveling ever since. Still have the same number as the old land line (and yes, it was a standard land line not voip or other technology)

At one time land lines and cell lines were treated different but it's been a while since that has been an issue.

Now if you have a land line and a cell line and you want to keep both...you likely will have to keep an extra phone on your plan for that.

Reality is most people can't remember your phone number anymore. There is a problem with kids and old folks when they get lost or in trouble...they don't know a phone number to tell the people they are helping because they dial by name. It's only an artifact of the system that you still have a 10 digit number. What you might consider doing is a 3 month transition. Set your land line to forward calls to your cell phone and then every time you get a forwarded call, remind them of your new number. After 3 months drop the old number as almost no one will be using it anymore.

[JimBollman]

We have had the Verizon Home Phone with a number we have had for 45 years and have used it for travel and now a move to a completely different state. Most people don't bat an eye when we give them a strange number with all the cellphones from all over.

I didn't think about some of the people in our new location having to pay long distance fees to call us. In this day and age how many people still have phone plans that still charge long distance fees?

[Gene_Ginny]

bob_nestor wrote:

Vulcan Rider wrote:

W5CI wrote:
I had my home number ported to a Straight Talk home phone,anytime we go camping we just take it with us. We have our home number with us anywhere we go. $15 per month plus tax, unlimited talk anywhere in US

This post is potentially misleading.
For that to work, you MUST have some kind of Internet connection.....as the "phone" service really is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal).
That is true of a LOT of the "alternative" phone services (all ??).

Huh? Isn't Straight Talk an MVNO utilizing the cell services of all the major providers?
MVNO Operators

bob_nestor is totaly correct. Straight Talk, AT&T, and Verizon home phone systems are based on cell phone service. Think cell phone with an RJ11 jack to plug in your home phone. The voice IS delivered using data packets but not Voice Over Internet Protocoll.

[FlatBroke]

I have the same number for over 50 years and did not want to lose it. Also didn't want to pay for a land line. I have got Tracfone. One call and I got my old number put on my cell. No charge.

[bob_nestor]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

W5CI wrote:
I had my home number ported to a Straight Talk home phone,anytime we go camping we just take it with us. We have our home number with us anywhere we go. $15 per month plus tax, unlimited talk anywhere in US

This post is potentially misleading.
For that to work, you MUST have some kind of Internet connection.....as the "phone" service really is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal).
That is true of a LOT of the "alternative" phone services (all ??).

Huh? Isn't Straight Talk an MVNO utilizing the cell services of all the major providers?

MVNO Operators

[accsys]

strollin wrote:
We got a device called "Home Phone Connect" from Verizon to replace our landline and then had our landline number transferred to it. It's actually a cellular device that you can plug a regular landline phone into. People that call can't tell that it's not our old landline.

We recently moved to a completely different area code and just moved the device with us. Plugged it in at the new place and it worked without needing to do a thing.

We also did this about four years ago when we ported our home phone number we had since 1979 to Verizon's Home Phone Connect and it has worked great. It stays in our S&B about 5 months a year and in our coach the rest of the time touring the country. Absolutely no complaints with the service.

[2oldman]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

2oldman wrote:
I would think after a few years of many people doing that it would become a nightmare of numbers.

It's not quite as complex as you might think.But the network of computers that keeps it all straight IS kind of impressive.

I'm sure computers can do this quite well...but a person's previous phone number would be locked up and not reusable.

valhalla360 wrote:
Kind of makes me wonder when they will give up on phone numbers and just use your name or other identifer.

I like this idea. Your phone 'number' is Valhalla360.. or whatever you want! 10-digit numbers with area code are old technology.

[Vulcan_Rider]

valhalla360 wrote:

If you are going to be getting a new landline in your new location, you should be able to port to that also.....

I've been away from it for a while but am pretty sure that is NOT an available option.....and never was.....at least not for a "real" physical telephone line.

[Vulcan_Rider]

2oldman wrote:
I would think after a few years of many people doing that it would become a nightmare of numbers.

It's not quite as complex as you might think.
But the network of computers that keeps it all straight IS kind of impressive.

[Vulcan_Rider]

W5CI wrote:
I had my home number ported to a Straight Talk home phone,anytime we go camping we just take it with us. We have our home number with us anywhere we go. $15 per month plus tax, unlimited talk anywhere in US

This post is potentially misleading.
For that to work, you MUST have some kind of Internet connection.....as the "phone" service really is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal).
That is true of a LOT of the "alternative" phone services (all ??).

[bucky]

Some newer smart phones have multiple number capability just FYI.

[valhalla360]

Kind of makes me wonder when they will give up on phone numbers and just use your name or other identifer.

Back in the pre-computer days, they needed a way to route the call and saying call aunt jinny, wouldn't help if the operator didn't know who aunt jinny was.

In the modern world, it's really not that hard for the phone to remember who aunt jimmy is and handle the routing without you ever needing to know a number (first time you call, you may need to provide her full name and maybe a home city)

[valhalla360]

Simplest is to port the number to your cell phone (unless you already have a cell number that you also don't want to lose).

Any cell provider will do it and they don't care where you live.

If you are going to be getting a new landline in your new location, you should be able to port to that also but in the modern world, I just don't see much point in having a land line unless you are in an area with no cell coverage.

[dapperdan]

What about signing up for Ooma? Similar to Vonnage but MUCH cheaper. Ooma lets you "port" any number you want.

Dan