PortingAT&T, what is recommended method

[shastastan]

Hi. I'm the guy who elected not to port but to discontinue the voice landline and keep the DSL. Supposedly, this all took place on August 4th. No down time that we noticed. Got a thick envelope in the mail yesterday. Telling me how to register and that the monthly rate is $48 per month. I was paying $35 and the rep I previously spoke to said that I could have the upgrade for $24.95 per month for a year. The confirm letter does not show that I have the elite service, but the Chat rep says that we do. The fine print says that they issue credits for reduced plan rates after 3 months. I hope this is true. Oh yeah, after I put the cd in the drive, I got a trojan virus message. Then it didn't want to let me use Firefox. Then I couldn't log in because I couldn't find some password from 4 years ago. Yes, I've got it now. Then I found out via chat that I don't have to register again. Oh well .......

So why am I posting here about this? Just to let my fellow Ooma users know to be very careful with AT&T.

[tivoboy]

turns out my PORT date, which was 8/12/2011 was exactly my AT&T billing date, which means I have a ZERO balance, no pro-rating junk or things to figure out. couldn't have ultimately worked out any better. I wonder if OOMA was able to check out my bill and figured they'd get it done on the bill date, in order to have no bill hassles?

[Charles R]

I wonder if OOMA was able to check out my bill and figured they'd get it done on the bill date, in order to have no bill hassles?

Nope. They ported my line regardless of the billing date. Were you within a 12-month promotion when you ported the number? I'm wondering if they are going to try and charge me a termination fee even though I switched to a Dry Loop (to be sure to avoid it).

[tivoboy]

I wonder if OOMA was able to check out my bill and figured they'd get it done on the bill date, in order to have no bill hassles?

Nope. They ported my line regardless of the billing date. Were you within a 12-month promotion when you ported the number? I'm wondering if they are going to try and charge me a termination fee even though I switched to a Dry Loop (to be sure to avoid it).

nah, I had been on this line with AT&T for about four years now. finally had enough of oh bout 46$ a month in POTS fees for no reason. I'm the DUMB one for not doing it earlier, but the GF sort of thought it would be an issue not having a REAL phone.

[lbmofo]

GF sort of thought it would be an issue not having a REAL phone.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

turns out my PORT date, which was 8/12/2011 was exactly my AT&T billing date, which means I have a ZERO balance, no pro-rating junk or things to figure out. couldn't have ultimately worked out any better. I wonder if OOMA was able to check out my bill and figured they'd get it done on the bill date, in order to have no bill hassles?

Most likely, the final completion date was proposed by AT&T which Ooma agreed to.

[Krieg]

Good info, thanks everyone. I submitted my port request last night, now just have to call ATT and change my account.

[skhull]

The method that worked well for me was:
- sign up for dry-loop DSL
- AT&T provides you with a new account number for the dry-loop DSL
- cancel DSL on the old/existing account that includes the phone number
- call AT&T to verify that they are cancelling ONLY the DSL on the old/existing account
- AT&T technician will need to install a new phone jack in the house or modify an existing jack that will be DSL only.
- once the dry-loop DSL is installed, I had to create a new login & password for the new account
- enter this information into either the router or the DSL modem depending on your particular setup
- begin the number porting process
Really not too complicated except for the fact that you get a new account number & login credentials for DSL.