Porting phone number with AT&T

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rmueller
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Joined:Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:26 pm
Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by rmueller » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:42 pm

I have AT&T home phone service and AT&T DSL.

A few days ago I installed the Ooma hub at home successfully. I am using a temporary phone number and have an official request through Ooma to transfer my landline home number to my new Ooma phone.

Question: I called AT&T and asked that my DSL be changed to a "dry loop" connection (or disassociated with my land line). She asked if I wanted to be transferred to the disconnection department. I said no, because I didn't want my landline disconnected (yet). She then said that the dry loop change could occur at the same time that I wanted to disconnect my landline. Is this correct??? Or, do I need to talk to AT&T again?

Second question: When my DSL was installed in 2001, the work order stated that the DSL had a separate phone number, different from my home number. Is this relevant??

Thanks in advance!
Ooma customer since July, 2009
Ooma original hub, DSL: AT&T, Modem: Dlink DIR-655

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scottlindner
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Location:Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by scottlindner » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:00 pm

rmueller wrote:Question: I called AT&T and asked that my DSL be changed to a "dry loop" connection (or disassociated with my land line). She asked if I wanted to be transferred to the disconnection department. I said no, because I didn't want my landline disconnected (yet). She then said that the dry loop change could occur at the same time that I wanted to disconnect my landline. Is this correct??? Or, do I need to talk to AT&T again?
Absolutely correct. DSL and phone service for the same account are inseparable. The phone companies do not see them as different.
rmueller wrote:Second question: When my DSL was installed in 2001, the work order stated that the DSL had a separate phone number, different from my home number. Is this relevant??
YES! If your DSL account has a different account number (looks just like a phone number) than your telephone, then there is nothing for you to do at all. You should verify this with AT&T first to be sure.

Scott

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scottlindner
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Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by scottlindner » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:01 pm

Welcome to Ooma by the way. Once you get things set up just the way you want it, you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.

Cheers,
Scott

dare3219
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Joined:Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:10 am

Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by dare3219 » Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:13 am

I have this same issue..because as soon as my number is ported from AT&T to Ooma, my phone service AND DSL will be cut. Resulting in no phone service from anyone.

AT&T claims they cannot disassociate the DSL from the phone service until the phone service is canceled. So I have to wait for my number to be ported, and THEN order dry loop DSL from AT&T (which will take 5 days to complete). So that is 5 days of no phone service. Is there some way around this?

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bw1
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Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by bw1 » Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:44 am

dare3219 wrote:I have this same issue..because as soon as my number is ported from AT&T to Ooma, my phone service AND DSL will be cut. Resulting in no phone service from anyone.

AT&T claims they cannot disassociate the DSL from the phone service until the phone service is canceled. So I have to wait for my number to be ported, and THEN order dry loop DSL from AT&T (which will take 5 days to complete). So that is 5 days of no phone service. Is there some way around this?
I would call them back and tell them (politely) that if they can't set up the phone service and DSL service on separate accounts, you'll have to go with some other ISP service (cable?).

Perhaps someone else has some experience with AT&T DSL service that can give some other advice.

tommies
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Location:Atlanta

Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by tommies » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:47 pm

bw1 wrote:
dare3219 wrote:I have this same issue..because as soon as my number is ported from AT&T to Ooma, my phone service AND DSL will be cut. Resulting in no phone service from anyone.

AT&T claims they cannot disassociate the DSL from the phone service until the phone service is canceled. So I have to wait for my number to be ported, and THEN order dry loop DSL from AT&T (which will take 5 days to complete). So that is 5 days of no phone service. Is there some way around this?
I would call them back and tell them (politely) that if they can't set up the phone service and DSL service on separate accounts, you'll have to go with some other ISP service (cable?).

Perhaps someone else has some experience with AT&T DSL service that can give some other advice.
I also have att phone and dsl, my experiences with att was very smooth. I called and asked to dry loop my dsl so I can port my phone number out.. I also made sure that I do want to keep the dsl service and keep the phone number until the porting is completed.

The att rep was good, she asked me if I port my phone to Vonage, and then transfer me to a tech rep to get it done. The tech rep said she would create a dummy account to hold my phone number (to be port to ooma) and put my dsl account on another number (it's a phone number.) She told me the dry loop took 11 days to complete, and on the due date the phone went dead, but the dsl continue to work with no interruption.

The whole thing last around 20-25 minutes including waiting on hold.
tommies

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scottlindner
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Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by scottlindner » Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:31 am

It may take a number of phone calls until you learn the proper language to use for AT&T to know what you want to do. It is possible, but it might take a couple of calls to get right.

If you're interested, read my experience with QWest DSL here to get the idea of what it might take to get things done just right.
http://forums.ooma.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... tial+qwest

Cheers,
Scott

dare3219
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Joined:Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:10 am

Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by dare3219 » Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:13 pm

Thanks for the advice guys...here's is what ended up happening... :)

After talking with a couple different AT&T reps their best suggestion was to order dry-loop DSL 5 days prior to the number porting. The idea here is on the scheduled port day, my number would be ported to Ooma, my home phone and dsl would be canceled, and a tech would be out the same day to turn on the dry loop DSL. So of course my concern is...well if they hapen to turn on the dry-loop first (canceling my home phone/dsl) before the number is ported, will I lose my number?

Here is what happened...
August 20th (the scheduled day of the port), I woke up to find my AT&T home phone and DSL shut off. No dial-tone, no DSL, nothing. When I called my AT&T phone # I just hear a busy signal. At about 10:30am the AT&T tech comes by to setup the dry-loop DSL. I mentioned to him that I was porting my line and was concerning about potentially losing my number if my phone service is canceled before the number is ported successfully. He said it shouldn't be a problem and I shouldn't worry. He turned on the dry-loop in about 30 min and the DSL was back to normal however my AT&T number wasn't ported. 5pm rolls around and start to freak out thinking that my phone number is now lost in AT&T oblivion because I couldn't schedule the dry-loop DSL to be installed on the day after the port. THANKFULLY I received an e-mail from Ooma at 6:30pm telling me that the port was successful.

So for anyone else out there moving from AT&T phone/dsl combo to AT&T dry loop dsl with Ooma...just schedule your dry-loop order for the same day as your number port, and you should be good to go :)

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scottlindner
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Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by scottlindner » Fri Aug 21, 2009 2:44 pm

Glad it all worked out

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OomaZooma
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Re: Porting phone number with AT&T

Post by OomaZooma » Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:41 am

I recently installed Ooma and went through the challenging process of getting my DSL dry looped and dummy account created to hold my landline number until ported. The process took 2 attempts to get this completed successfully.

The first AT&T CSR I spoke with said that there is no way to create a dummy account to hold my landline phone number until it's ported over. She also said that she can only dry loop my DSL line when I give her the port date of my landline number. What? I try to explain to her that, based on previous AT&T DSL/Landline customers experiences, this was the preferred method to request this change. She kept asking me for the port date. Sigh! I politely said I will call her back when I get the port date.

I decided to give it another try and called AT&T again later that day and this time a different CSR answered the phone and knew exactly what I was talking about and she said no problem. I explained to her what I went through with the previous CSR and she said that is the older method and no longer the preferred method. She created the dummy account to hold my landline number and she said my DSL will be dry looped within the next couple of days. She also mentioned that my DSL costs wll increase by $5.00 per month to $42.95 which is what I expected. This was easily done in about 20 minutes with minimal hold time!

I'm sorry to be so wordy in my post but I just wanted to let DSL customers know that if you are not happy with the CSR's response, then call back again until you get a person who is familiar with the procedure.

By the way, both AT&T CSR's asked me who my new VOIP carrier is and I told them Ooma. Both CSR's said they never heard of Ooma. I explained the features, hardware costs, and no more phone bills (Basic Service) and they were shocked. They started asking me additional questions like they were interested in purchasing the product. LOL!

Gary

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