appleinsider.com — Some iPhone customers trying to port their mobile numbers from carriers such as Verizon are being told by iTunes that their current mobile number 'cannot be transfered,' etc. Fortunately, we've figured out a workaround to this nonsense.
Jun 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
johngalt01Jul 1, 2007
The number port is for all 10 digits.
jxselfJul 1, 2007
"Unless you are moving across geographic areas, their local number portability (LNP) rules apply."That's exactly why this person is having problems porting their number: They've moved to another region (in their example, from Cupertino to Los Angeles.) They're not supposed to be able to keep their number in that case.The author's statements that other carriers have alllowed the porting to happen doesn't mean it's supposed to be done. They're just not following the rules.In the example given, by entering an address in Cupertino, the author is misrepresenting their PPU (Primary Place of Use or Place of Primary Use; depending on who you ask.) Misrepresenting your PPU is unethical (and possibly illegal as well, depending on the specifics of the circumstances.)If you've moved to another city (such as a change from Cupertino to Los Angeles, or some such other move), you're supposed to get a new phone number. Local Number Portability (or LNP for short) wasn't intended to let people move around wherever they wanted to & keep their same phone number for life. Rather, LNP was intended to let people stay in the same market and switch carriers. If you move to another market, you're supposed to get a new phone number (local to the place you've moved to) just like always. (That's why it's called local number portability.)For people who are getting the message that their number can't be ported, AT&T is actually handling the issue correctly. (I am sure I'll be dugg down for saying this, even though it is true.)
jxselfJul 1, 2007
Not if you no longer live in the same area that the phone number was issued for.
bloodredxxxJul 1, 2007
this is great! very helpful...<a class="user" href="http://webfindr.com/cat/technology/">http://webfindr.com/cat/technology/</a>
tmacmanJul 1, 2007
I couldn't port my old cell phone number. My old provider has service where there is no service from AT&T. I no longer live there, but when I put this old address in the field like the article suggests, I got an error message from AT&T saying it had no service in the area. If I put another address in there, it said it couldn't verify the address. So I had to activate the iPhone with a new number. It would have been easier for me to keep my old number, oh well. At least I got it working in a couple of hours. And it's a great phone.
karnJul 1, 2007
I ran into this problem switching from sprint to verizon. I ended up having to temporarily change my physical address with my credit card company to an old address in order to get verizon to allow me to keep my old number. They based it on your billing address, and verified with the CC company that it was correct. That s**t was a hassle, took me a good day or two from dealing with the database updates.
wickedphantomJul 3, 2007
Ahhhh. Got it. I missed that somewhere in reading this article.