Anyone recently port over existing AT&T landline dsl?

[swedrows]

I wanted to find out if anyone out there has recently ported over their exising AT&T number to Ooma while they also had DSL connected through the landline. I have phone service and DSL through my AT&T landline on the same account.

I just put in the request to have my number ported, and got an e-mail from Ooma saying that they will send me another e-mail when they get an exact port date confirmation from AT&T, but that it should be the week of March 8th.

I am assuming I will need to call AT&T once I get an e-mail giving me the hard port date, and then tell them I want to setup a dryloop DSL line for that date also. Is this what others have done? Will I be giving AT&T enough time to setup my dryloop DSL line if I call them like a week before my port date? Typically they have been pretty speedy when I put in my service requests for changing my phone or dsl service stuff in the past, so i am not too worried about it, but my wife will be the one that is going to be giving me a hard time if we end up being without a phone and without internet for a week or two if i screw up this whole process Also, i have heard horror stories that things take a lot longer when you put in a request that you are terminating your service with your former service providers.

[amoney]

NO!

You need to seperate your services first, then begin the PORT process. Verizon seemingly does this automatically for customers, in fact there was a recent thread where the poor guy DSL connection was cancelled the following day after the PORt from ATT. He had to call to reactivate, and that takes 5 days.

Note also any cahnges being made to your account will hold up the PORT process.

Your going to have to start all over again. I suppose you can try to beat the clock and get ATT to seperate yor services.

[fonegnome]

I recently successfully ported my phone number over from an AT&T phone/DSL combo to DSL Direct only. AT&T tried to pull the same old crap we all keep hearing about when I was considering porting my number to Vonage a couple years ago- they wanted to have a tech come in and install a second line to split the phone/DSL prior to me porting the phone away (and charge me $100+). This time with Ooma I got smart:

- ~3 weeks after submitting my port request to Ooma I got an email from Ooma with an estimated port date.
- Then I went online and signed up for DSL Direct (AT&T's name for dry-loop) and chose an install date the day after my number port was scheduled to occur. I made this account under my wife's name, just to prevent any hassle (my existing phone/DSL account was under my name).
- Sure enough, the port date came, my phone and DSL went offline (in the meantime I set up forwarding to my cell in my Ooma
Premier account so I wouldn't miss any calls), and the next day AT&T installed the DSL Direct.

Everything went off without a hitch and I never had to speak to anyone in tech support from either AT&T or Ooma. No one from AT&T even had to come over to my house to install the DSL Direct. It couldn't have gone better.

[swedrows]

I recently successfully ported my phone number over from an AT&T phone/DSL combo to DSL Direct only. AT&T tried to pull the same old crap we all keep hearing about when I was considering porting my number to Vonage a couple years ago- they wanted to have a tech come in and install a second line to split the phone/DSL prior to me porting the phone away (and charge me $100+). This time with Ooma I got smart:

- ~3 weeks after submitting my port request to Ooma I got an email from Ooma with an estimated port date.
- Then I went online and signed up for DSL Direct (AT&T's name for dry-loop) and chose an install date the day after my number port was scheduled to occur. I made this account under my wife's name, just to prevent any hassle (my existing phone/DSL account was under my name).
- Sure enough, the port date came, my phone and DSL went offline (in the meantime I set up forwarding to my cell in my Ooma
Premier account so I wouldn't miss any calls), and the next day AT&T installed the DSL Direct.

Everything went off without a hitch and I never had to speak to anyone in tech support from either AT&T or Ooma. No one from AT&T even had to come over to my house to install the DSL Direct. It couldn't have gone better.

thanks, that's exactly the steps i was thinking of taking, although you did give me one good idea about signing up for the DSL Direct line using my wifes name. I am in the same situation where the phone/dsl account is under my name.

i had read a thread on here where someone did the same thing and said it was way better than trying to hassle with someone from AT&T about separating your lines before the port, which doesn't seem to be necessary since you can order the DSL Direct as a separate service.

Thanks again for your reply!

[DTMF]

I wanted to find out if anyone out there has recently ported over their exising AT&T number to Ooma while they also had DSL connected through the landline. I have phone service and DSL through my AT&T landline on the same account.

I tried to do this about 2 months ago, but AT&T ultimately dropped the ball very badly and it would have taken them a week to re-connect my DSL. I am convinced now that it can't be done within AT&T's tangled bureaucracy.

My advice would be to temporarily move your Internet service to another broadband provider on a no-contract plan, port your number away from AT&T, and THEN notify AT&T that you want to convert to dry loop. That way, you'll never be without Internet service.

[swedrows]

I tried to do this about 2 months ago, but AT&T ultimately dropped the ball very badly and it would have taken them a week to re-connect my DSL. I am convinced now that it can't be done within AT&T's tangled bureaucracy.

My advice would be to temporarily move your Internet service to another broadband provider on a no-contract plan, port your number away from AT&T, and THEN notify AT&T that you want to convert to dry loop. That way, you'll never be without Internet service.

how did you approach your situation? did you call at&t and tell them you were cancelling your phone service, and wanted to setup a dryloop, or did you go the recommended route of requesting a port, and then starting a new dsl dryloop service request WITHOUT calling customer support to tell them you were an existing customer?. from several posts, it seems like it is only a smaller number of incidents where something goes wrong or is a hassle when getting a dryloop setup through at&t. i will probably stick with the initial plan of requesting my number port with ooma (already requested), once i get an exact confirmation date for the port, i will have my wife setup drylool DSL at AT&T in her name and see if it can be scheduled to be active within a day or two of the number port. once my number port goes through, at&T will automatically close my phone and dsl account....and hopefully on same day, or within a couple of days, my wifes dryloop DSL service will kick in...seems pretty straight forward without the hassle of calling at&t and start negotiating back and forth about separating my existing phone and dsl service ahead of time. i know they would start making excuses like "well, it may take 3-4 weeks to do this"...or "well, we will need to send out a technician to setup a dedicated line, and that costs about $100"....let's face it, telephone and cable companies put you at the bottom of the priority list once you call to shut down one of their services.

it seems kind of a hassle to take an extra step to setup internet service with someone else (plus pay a month of "new" internet service), then port my number, then have AT&T install a dryloop, then cancel with the previous service provider. it simply adds up to more money being spent on the "chance" that something goes wrong with the port and dryloop in the first place. i know i am a bit worried about it, but not paranoid enough to stat spending extra money just in case i am without internet for like a week at most.

[shah123]

I am currently going through porting my number from AT&T and I had phone+DSL from AT&T before.

When I was trying to start the porting process, Ooma website told me to change the DSL to dry loop first. So I called AT&T and after forwarding a couple of times they were able to place an order to split the service into two: the dry-loop DSL and the phone account. But when the technician came over, he said that it is not possible to split the DSL from phone like that. However he told me that what he could do is to disconnect my phone line from some box (away from my home) so that I still have the phone account active but I won't have any dial-tone. Remember you need to keep the phone account active until the porting process ends or else you run the risk of losing your old number. So he did that. Now when I call my AT&T phone number it keeps on ringing but I don't get the ring at home. Because of this I was able to distribute the dial tone from Ooma hub to all over my house (by plugging the "WALL" port on the hub to one of the phone jacks) because there was no electrical signal coming in from AT&T for the phone.

Currently I am waiting for Ooma to complete the port. Here is my timeline:

2/10 - Request submitted to port number to Ooma.
2/11 - Got email from Ooma with LOA attached and asking me to sign and fax it to them. They said that my previous carrier requires a signed copy.
2/13 - Faxed it.
Present - Waiting. No email from Ooma acknowledging the fax or giving me any date or anything. Complete silence.

Today I went ahead and called Ooma. They told me that they received the fax and they have an estimated date of 3/4, but no confirm date yet. They also said that they would send an email after they get the confirmed date. I think Ooma should have sent out an email when they received the fax and then they should have sent out an email with the estimated date and finally with confirmed date.

Since obviously it takes very long time to port from AT&T, I would still suggest you do what I did. Explain AT&T about the porting issue and ask them to send over someone to just disconnect your phone line so that you don't get the dialtone, but leave the phone account active and change the DSL to dry-loop. They will give you a new account number for dry loop DSL (which looks like a phone number except it starts with a 0), and your other account (that has your AT&T phone number) would just be sitting and waiting to be disconnected by Ooma. This way when your porting order would go through, you will be left with the dry loop DSL account with AT&T and you will have your phone number ported over to Ooma. Just my 2 cents.

[DTMF]

I tried to do this about 2 months ago, but AT&T ultimately dropped the ball very badly and it would have taken them a week to re-connect my DSL. I am convinced now that it can't be done within AT&T's tangled bureaucracy.

My advice would be to temporarily move your Internet service to another broadband provider on a no-contract plan, port your number away from AT&T, and THEN notify AT&T that you want to convert to dry loop. That way, you'll never be without Internet service.

how did you approach your situation? did you call at&t and tell them you were cancelling your phone service, and wanted to setup a dryloop, or did you go the recommended route of requesting a port, and then starting a new dsl dryloop service request WITHOUT calling customer support to tell them you were an existing customer?.

I spent a whole HOUR on the phone with a rep, who painstakingly set up 3 discrete steps intended to make sure that I wouldn't lose broadband when the port went through. When the replacement phone number order came up, another AT&T rep called me for an explanation because she was confused that I was ordering a second phone number. I explained to her that I was porting the primary number away as soon as the new number was added, so the new number was intended to be a placeholder to which the DSL service and a measured-rate line for my alarm system would be attached. She said "we can't do it that way" and told me I had to do the port first and they'd put the order for the new number on hold for immediate action after the port went through. So I did the port to Ooma and my broadband was disconnected w/o warning a few days later, without them putting the order for the new number into effect. I called immediately to let them know of their error and to see what it would take to get broadband back. I was told it would take an entire week to reconnect the broadband. As soon as I hung up, I called my cable provider, ordered a self-install cable modem and had broadband back 2 hours later

A week later, AT&T tried to reconnect the broadband. I told them to cancel everything. 6 weeks later, I received a past due bill for phone service on the NEW number that was never connected and broadband associated with that number. The billing department never got word I had cancelled the order. I called and was reassured that everything had been cancelled and I wouldn't have to pay. This week, I received ANOTHER bill from AT&T, reminding me of the past due amount.

I believe that you're better off assuming AT&T will screw up and placing your orders with that in mind than you are assuming that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing there. That's why I recommended the approach that I did. I was as proactive as I could possibly have been with them and they failed miserably to provide me with continuous service. Now I'm having a terrible time trying to extricate myself from them. IMO, It's truly a wonder that our nation had phone service for all of those decades when they were the only game in most towns.

[swedrows]

I believe that you're better off assuming AT&T will screw up and placing your orders with that in mind than you are assuming that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing there. That's why I recommended the approach that I did. I was as proactive as I could possibly have been with them and they failed miserably to provide me with continuous service. Now I'm having a terrible time trying to extricate myself from them. IMO, It's truly a wonder that our nation had phone service for all of those decades when they were the only game in most towns.

i understand what you are saying that there is more of a chance something will go wrong, but if i go through the steps you did, you still had a bunch of hassles from trying to set something up ahead of time and trying to have your services switched over.

it seems that the people that did not have much trouble are the ones that simply waited til they got the exact port date confirmation, and then ordered a dsl dryloop as a new account. when ooma ports your number over, your old at&t account that had your phone line and dsl service on it simply dies....seems like a lot less hassle than trying to call at&t and explain to them to try and setup a new service to overlap your old service while you port your number.

i'm going to still go my original route. i'll report back in a couple of weeks how things went. my exact steps will be:
1. request number port (done 2/19)
2. wait for Ooma e-mail that they sent my port request to at&t and give me an estimated date for the port (done 2/22)
3. wait for Ooma e-mail with exact port date confirmation
4. setup new dryloop service account with AT&T using my wife as primary account holder
5. wait for port date
6. wait for dryloop dsl service activation
7. enjoy Ooma service without the hassle of overpriced monthy bills filled with taxes and fess and more taxes and fees

[tommies]

My experience with ATT was much smoother, but it was in Mar last year; I'm not sure about it now. I was on phone for about 20min. wth ATT CR (including time on hold) and the dry loop completed in 11 days, and the port completed in 30 days.

The devil is the detail of how you tell them what you want to get done. This is what I did

• tell ATT that I want to port my number out to another carrier (voip) to save some $$.
• I want to keep ATT DSL service, and I even ask for a faster service (I have 1.5M down/256k up) and comment on the quality of ATT DSL, which is execlent since I signed up.

I was then transfered to a tech. rep, who would

• create a dummy account to hold my current number to be ported, untill it ported.
• assign a new account number(it a phone number) to my dried loop DSL

There was no technician to come out to my house, nor interruption in DSL service. My phone stop the day dry loop completed and its account closed the day the port completed.

If the rep does not appear to know what your are talking about, just hang up and call again. I was lucky to meet a knowledgeble folk the first try.


Do not forget to call back after to settle the final bill for your old number and sort out any issue arrised with your DSL service.

PS.
I'm in Atlanta where Comcast and ATT are compete for the worst CS reputation.