Joined Nov 2014
L2: Beginner
Forum Thread
Porting OLD landline number fast as not to lose it
August 2, 2025 at
06:46 PM
Hi,
My VOIP (VOIPO) phone service has just announced they are shutting doors/service down on August 6th. Very little lead time.
Anyway, I have had my phone number for around 44 years and my mother (who I setup on the VOIPO service) has had her phone number for 62 years. We do not want to lose these numbers! We plan on going with Ooma Telo. In the instructions though, I believe it said porting can take up to 3 to 5 weeks, in which you cannot end your other service.
How, and where can I get it ported to keep these numbers, then port on to Ooma Telo? Within Ooma I plan to use their extended service, and the senior extended service to block unewanted calls, and some other things.
Thanks.
My VOIP (VOIPO) phone service has just announced they are shutting doors/service down on August 6th. Very little lead time.
Anyway, I have had my phone number for around 44 years and my mother (who I setup on the VOIPO service) has had her phone number for 62 years. We do not want to lose these numbers! We plan on going with Ooma Telo. In the instructions though, I believe it said porting can take up to 3 to 5 weeks, in which you cannot end your other service.
How, and where can I get it ported to keep these numbers, then port on to Ooma Telo? Within Ooma I plan to use their extended service, and the senior extended service to block unewanted calls, and some other things.
Thanks.
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That posts says that voip.ms and voipo use some of the same underlying carriers (eg. bandwidth.com) which should make the transfer faster if your number is currently at one of the shared carriers. I understand if you have reservations about a company voipo is suggesting, but they may be your best option to save your numbers.
I haven't ported a number into ooma, but have ported several into voip.ms and the porting took about 9 calendar days (they estimate 5 business days). Voip.ms is one of the few voip providers that doesn't charge a port in fee. I have read reports of people having serious issues porting out of ooma.
Generally when porting numbers i've had it go better with correctly entered port out PINs than without, but in this instance I'm not sure I'd try to set it to something known vs leave it blank.
You can put your phone number into this site and it will tell you the underlying carrier: https://freecarrierlook
The FOC date is basically the date that the number transfer is scheduled to complete. Once you have an FOC date, I think you'll be ok and your LNP request should complete even if it's after voipo's last day (you could be without phone service for a few days).
Generate PDF invoices on the VOIPO account website while you still can that show account / phone number. Sometimes to port in they'll ask for page one of and invoice with your signature in the white space.
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Migr...to_VoIP.
https://www.reddit.com/r/VOIP/com...egathread/
It's likely faster to transfer to a carrier that uses bandwidth.com. VOIP.ms is one option and has free port in.
Callcentric also uses bandwidth.com as one of their carriers and has free number port ins. If you don't want to go voip.ms, call CallCentric would be my suggestion.
PhonePower also offers free port in and may use bandwidth.com as a carrier but is $20/mo if you don't prepay for a year.
Telnyx is a sip trunk provider that uses bandwidth and could be an option to park your number temporarily (byo PBX). Probably better off with something else.
One thing to be aware of is that the last few years and this year especially, many VOIP providers have added extra verification steps (for example requiring a scan of your drivers license) for new customers to attempt to comply with vague FCC Know Your Customer rules. Telnyx was somewhat arbitrarily hit with a huge fine over alleged KYC violations that facilitated a fairly small number of robo calls
https://www.reddit.com/r/VOIP/com...egathread/ [reddit.com]
It's likely faster to transfer to a carrier that uses bandwidth.com. VOIP.ms is one option and has free port in.
Callcentric also uses bandwidth.com as one of their carriers and has free number port ins. If you don't want to go voip.ms, call CallCentric would be my suggestion.
PhonePower also offers free port in and may use bandwidth.com as a carrier but is $20/mo if you don't prepay for a year.
Telnyx is a sip trunk provider that uses bandwidth and could be an option to park your number temporarily (byo PBX). Probably better off with something else.
One thing to be aware of is that the last few years and this year especially, many VOIP providers have added extra verification steps (for example requiring a scan of your drivers license) for new customers to attempt to comply with vague FCC Know Your Customer rules. Telnyx was somewhat arbitrarily hit with a huge fine over alleged KYC violations that facilitated a fairly small number of robo calls
https://www.reddit.com/r/VOIP/com...egathread/ [reddit.com]
It's likely faster to transfer to a carrier that uses bandwidth.com. VOIP.ms is one option and has free port in.
Callcentric also uses bandwidth.com as one of their carriers and has free number port ins. If you don't want to go voip.ms, call CallCentric would be my suggestion.
PhonePower also offers free port in and may use bandwidth.com as a carrier but is $20/mo if you don't prepay for a year.
Telnyx is a sip trunk provider that uses bandwidth and could be an option to park your number temporarily (byo PBX). Probably better off with something else.
One thing to be aware of is that the last few years and this year especially, many VOIP providers have added extra verification steps (for example requiring a scan of your drivers license) for new customers to attempt to comply with vague FCC Know Your Customer rules. Telnyx was somewhat arbitrarily hit with a huge fine over alleged KYC violations that facilitated a fairly small number of robo calls
Yes, I was overcharged $925, in addition to losing out on an authorized charge. They have me out until 2035.
Yes, I was overcharged $925, in addition to losing out on an authorized charge. They have me out until 2035.
Take a look at the VOIP.ms wiki page for customers transferring from voipo that I linked above. When you transfer your number to Voip.ms you will have to upload a PDF of a VOIPO invoice. The wiki article has an example of printing in invoice to a pdf in google chrome.
CallCentric is also a good and would likely be almost as quick. I've been reasonably content with Voip.ms for several years. Neither of these companies has a support number you can call. Issues are handled through chat, email, and or trouble tickets.
Take a look at the VOIP.ms wiki page for customers transferring from voipo that I linked above. When you transfer your number to Voip.ms you will have to upload a PDF of a VOIPO invoice. The wiki article has an example of printing in invoice to a pdf in google chrome.
CallCentric is also a good and would likely be almost as quick. I've been reasonably content with Voip.ms for several years. Neither of these companies has a support number you can call. Issues are handled through chat, email, and or trouble tickets.
I've already put the prepaid in for me and my mothers account. She has had her number for a lifetime, and it'd be terrible to lose it.
I've already put the prepaid in for me and my mothers account. She has had her number for a lifetime, and it'd be terrible to lose it.
I didn't see a reference to signing the invoice on the wiki page I mentioned, but the DID portability page probably still says to sign. Given the volume of number transfers right now IDK how likely it is anyone looks to see if signed. Safer to sign than not given the time crunch. Interestingly, the FCC requires phone carriers to give more notice than this to shut down, so some FCC action of some kind might occur.
There are ways you could "sign" the PDF relatively easily using your mouse, finger, or even a photo of your signature:
https://gosignpdf.com/
https://tools.pdf24.org/en/sign-pdf/
https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/onl...n-pdf.html
you could also do this in GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP.org) import the pdf 300dpi, add a layer, pick a brush sign, flatten layers, export pdf
If you have a mac or iPad or iPhone you can also sign PDFs with Preview or the system ios pdf viewer.
If you printed it and signed it with pen, there are various 'scanner' apps for your cell phone. Even just a plain photo would probably work.
Just use one of the websites above and scribble something with your mouse to sign.
For simplicity I'd probably port your number and your mothers into the same voip.ms account.
Each number would be a different DID Portability request, unless they're in the same voipo account.
Once the numbers are transferred in you can send calls to an ATA, voicemail box, forward to a cell phone, etc.
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see wiki under How to Port Your VoIPo Number(s) to VoIP.ms #10.
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Migr...to_VoIP.
I'd recommend saving your call history with VOIPO. It could be very useful in setting up a phonebook to whitelist callers.