"It does not matter if a customer transfers an existing phone number to us, or we assign a telephone number to the customer. If and when they leave, they take their phone number with them. In 2003, a federal law mandated customers of cellular telephone service be allowed to keep their phone number if they decided to switch carriers. Internet phone companies were not covered by the law."
VoIP2Save.com surveyed many other internet phone companies, including Vonage®, Packet8®, Voice Glo®, Lingo® and I-Connect® It found that none of the companies allowed customers to keep a phone number the company assigned to them, if the customer decided to switch to another phone company.

Blanchard accused the companies of "holding a customer hostage, forcing a customer to stay with a telephone company or face the hassle of getting a brand new phone number with another phone company. It's just like the bad old days of cellular," he concluded. Blanchard urged his competitors to "make it very clear to customers, either on the main page of their web site, or during the sign-up process, that if they decide to switch to another phone company they cannot take their newly assigned phone numbers with them. Right now the companies either bury that information in the middle of their legal disclosure pages, or simply don't reveal it at all," Blanchard said. "Make it very clear to customers. If we give you a phone number, we own it, not you. Phone number portability is something consumers demand. I think many will be very unhappy to learn their internet telephone number cannot be transferred to another company" he concluded.

All of the companies surveyed did have a set of conditions which, if met, would let customers keep their phone number, if they previously established that phone number at another phone company. But none of the companies surveyed allowed portability for phone numbers it assigns.
VoIP2Save.com can offer full number portability for all phone numbers because "VoIP2Save.com" is associated with RNK Telecom®, a fully regulated and taxed telephone company. (CLEC) RNK® has invested millions of dollars in special equipment to handle internet telephone traffic. RNK® owns all the phone numbers it provides and therefore provides full number portability.

Blanchard said, "some internet phone companies lease blocks of phone numbers from other phone companies. As a result they cannot offer ownership of telephone numbers to customers because the companies don't own the numbers to begin with. There is a possibility that if suddenly an internet phone company goes out of business and it is not backed by a regulated phone company, consumers would be left with no dial tone or no way to quickly transfer their numbers to maintain phone service," he warned.