Recently, I decided I would drop Vonage in favor of a triple play offering from Charter, which would give me cable TV, high-speed Internet, and "voice over cable" - all at a very reasonable price. My wife and I encountered too many network or Vonage QoS issues which affected our phone service. It was time to port the number to Charter, which advertised that they could port customer's numbers in a mailer we received. When I called to order, they said they could not port my Vonage number since "That Norwalk number (203-854-XXXX) is not in your rate area" I was told.
Also check out my Number Portability Redux article. Well, I thought for sure, 5 years later that it would be no problem porting my number from Charter to magicJack, a VoIP service provider. After all, even Google Voice offers number porting. Alas, magicJack wasn't able to port my number explaining, "The problem is we don’t have service in that specific LATA." Same ole' same ole'. [sigh]
Next, I tried a workaround. I tried porting my home number to my Google Voice account and then was planning on forwarding calls to Google Voice to my new magicJack phone number. But Google Voice is even more limited, only supporting the porting of wireless / mobile phone numbers.
I'd even be willing to pay a few bucks each month to keep my existing number, but it is just not to be. The good news is that I cut my cable TV & phone bill by $1,331 per year!
Before:
Charter TV: $105.99
Charter Phone: $39.99
Charter Internet: $44.99
Taxes: $27.62
Total: $223.58/month
After:
DirecTV: $85.99
Phone-MagicJack Plus VoIP : $19.95/year or $1.66/month
AT&T Naked DSL: $24.95
Taxes: (not sure yet since no bills)
Total: $112.60/month.
Yearly savings: $1331!
Mind you the DirecTV service comes with more regular channels and more HD channels. So it's a win-win financially. Just wish the FCC would step in and make number porting universal, even if it has a nominal fee so the carriers or service providers don't lose money for any number porting infrastructure.
The preceding article was brought to you by Journey's After All These Years and Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years: