How in service does a number need to be to port out?

[jaysundahl]

I am having service issues with an ISP provided "digital voice" number I would like to port out. I understand that the number has to be "in service" and not have service canceled to retain it for porting, but does it have to be working?

Dialing in to the number currently from a Tracfone account it gives "you have reached a non-working number, announcement 14 switch 6-6." Customer service was not able to contact upper level support this weekend and decided to write a ticket an roll out a local tech Tuesday earliest. Confidence is not high in getting this fixed quickly, given the inability so far to find a central office tech to look at the switch setup.

So is this number portable in this state? I assume it would be a straight forward thing, but does the receiving service need to be able to dial into the line before porting?

I have a couple of options that could allow me to start the port process now, but I wonder if I need to wait until they can resolve this in some manner before the port can take place. From what I understand the port can take a few days anyway so I expect the number to be out of service for awhile at best.

[SteveInWA]

You're asking for big trouble, trying to port it in that condition.  I strongly advise you to wait until the "non-working number" issue can be resolved.

What carrier is this, a cable company?

[jaysundahl]

Frontier Fios is the ISP and Digital Voice provider. I had been meaning to move to a standalone VOIP for sometime, but inertia happens. This outage and the response making me wish I had done it already.

I was thinking last night that I could port it faster than waiting for them to fix it, but thought I'd ask if that was something people had experience with.

This is our primary number for incoming calls. We don't get many, but very few people have our alternate numbers. I tried to set call forwarding through their web management app, but it just error-ed out on me. I might try getting CS to set it for me, but the wait times have been terrible and the help less than stellar.

I suppose one upside is that telemarketers may be dropping us from their list of working numbers if they call.

[SteveInWA]

Ha ha about the telemarketers...

Just an "expectation-setting" tip:  when you port into or out of a landline carrier, the port may take a minimum of 24 hours, and often several days.  Part of the process involves the two carriers setting a "Firm Order Commit" or FOC date.  On that date and specific time, they switch over the call routing to the gaining carrier.

[jaysundahl]

Thanks for the heads up. I'd been reading disclaimers about transfers from Land line to VOIP providers that said check back if it hasn't happened in 4 weeks. Glad to hear that isn't SOP. Still I have been spoiled by changing between Frontier and Comcast in all their previous incarnations. The installers get it done fairly quickly, but have had days or weeks to prep the transfer. I can understand the issue with POTS at least in the old days, but moving a number from a VOIP line to a new provider ought to be similar to moving from cell phone to cell phone.
Switching new Tracfones from AT&T to Verizon was less than an hour, although I was warned it could take a business day or two. Transfer to a new cell phone with the same carrier has taken minutes.
So lowering expectations is good, I guess.

[SteveInWA]

Yeah, it's a peculiarity unique to the FCC-regulated land line number porting procedure.

[jaysundahl]

Just an update, my Frontier home service was restored Tuesday, four days after reporting it.
The tech came out checked the ONT, replaced the ONT. I said I was sure it was a CO problem, he said nope, I told him the voice mail wasn't working, he said it is now, he had seen that in the ticket and "deleted and rebuilt" my account, and had fixed that remotely before he came out. So if I had kept calling I might have gotten them to get line working enough so people calling would go to voicemail.
So the phone support hardware in the ONT failed without an internet outage. And my account got scrambled along the way.
At any rate he was talking up the Wavedivision acquisition of parts of Frontier. And that some of that happened that Saturday and was still a work in progress. He said he couldn't call ahead yet to customers for some reason. I mentioned that I was getting texts from Frontier, and he said there was an agreement for Frontier to provide customer support for 3 years as part of the deal. I guess we will see how that works out.
Now to look at where to port out to.
ETA that joke about telemarketers? It may be coincidence, but the phone has been a lot quieter lately.