My mom just called. They took her phone number away!

[WillParkinson]

My mom had AT&T U-Verse installed in her house. She found her phone wasn't working. Called to find out why. Was told that with the installation of the new system in their house her old phone number became their property and she would get a new phone number.

So the number she's had for more than 45 years is now gone.

Bastards.

(On edit: My apologies...Time-Warner kept it. She was told that if they had the phone installed at the time they would have been able to keep the number. They also gave her some guff about the first person to have it keeps it, which makes no sense since she had it for my lifetime.)

[hobbit709]

1. Taurine metabolic byproducts.

I know several people who got U-verse and kept their old number.

[WillParkinson]

2. You are correct.

I misunderstood Mom's message. I called her back and she updated it some. It still makes no sense to me, though.

[dembotoz]

3. keep after if

Scream loud and long
number protability is a long established fact
If a person has a balance due they can hold it for ransom but the number should be hers unless she has moved and the number does not work out of that central office.
I would assume the number was originally an att number because she had it that long.
Tell
dont ask
Tell
time warner to give up the fucking number.
Att should be able to switch it out with minumum of fuss.

it is no big deal
(sorry I am in the business)

if tw refuses
start to complain
complain
complain and make sure someone at time warner has a very very bad day

[targetpractice]

4. She would need to ask AT&T to port the number from Time-Warner...

AT&T initiates the process and TIme-Warner must port the number within a certain period of time... even if money is still owed to Time-Warner.

If the Time-Warner account is cancelled before the port request... I don't know what happens, but canceling TW probably frees up the number for Time-Warner to use elsewhere.

[CBGLuthier]

5. They are breaking the law

http://www.fcc.gov/cib/consumerfacts/numbport.html


Under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) “local number portability” (LNP) rules, so long as you remain in the same geographic area, you can switch telephone service providers, including interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, and keep your existing phone number. If you are moving from one geographic area to another, however, you may not be able to take your number with you. Therefore, subscribers remaining in the same geographic area can now switch from a wireless, wireline, or VoIP provider to any other wireless, wireline, or VoIP provider and still keep their existing phone numbers.