[arin-ppml] Legacy Space authority

[Jon Radel]

Kevin Kargel wrote:
>
> Yes, this is true.  If you move from one area code to another at least
> within the same geographic area you will be able to take the number.
>   
Of course not.  What's the point of things like overlay NPAs if everyone
has to reserve all numbers in use in the first one for people who want
to move to the other NPA.  All portability applies only to the full 10
digits.  You are, of course, free to request your favorite 7-digits
whenever you get a new number, and most phone companies will make an
attempt to accommodate you.

> People are moving from state to state and taking their cel numbers with
> them.  This is even happening across a span of more than one state.  I
> don't know what the definition of "geographical area" is, but I assume
> it has something to do with the reach ond interoperability of the telco
> switching networks.  Perhaps a more technically educated telco tech can
> fill in the gaps for us.
>
>   
The only real answer is "it depends."  If you move your service to a LEC
(Local Exchange Carrier) or wireline per the FCC document you
referenced, generally you have to have service physically delivered to
an address within the confines of the rate center.  Sometimes you have
to be even more precise (as of when I had to clean up a mess a few years
ago, Arlington and Alexandria in Va. shared a rate center, but if you
got the wrong NXX for the side of the city border, E911 wouldn't work
right) and other times entire NPAs are a single rate center (202, 212,
646, and so on).  Generally, however, if the phone number and the
service address don't match, the LEC won't even talk to you. 

VOIP has made quite a mess of this, because unlike a POTS line, where
you can't pick your phone up and move it, or a T1 to your PBX, where you
sorta could, but it'd be a big production, with VOIP you can generally
unplug your phone, take it across the country, and plug it in again. 
Suddenly you've butchered the whole concept of local vs long-distance
(which I rarely catch people getting upset about) *and* E911 does not
work, not one little bit (which freaks a fair number of people).  There
are ways of dealing with the latter, but currently they're pretty much
kludges and the real fixes aren't really quite here yet.  Very much a
moving target.

Incidentally, even if a VOIP provider isn't a LEC, somewhere in the
background there's a LEC that probably insisted on a valid service
address before the number was put in service.  Of course, I know
somebody at one provider who when he had a customer who wanted to look
big by having local numbers all over would just use the addresses of the
nearest Kinkos for all the number orders.

Wireless is very, very different, and outside my area of expertise. 
There you can generally go tripping all over the country (or world,
really, though that can get a touch expensive), and my personal
experience is that the carriers no longer fuss at you if your NPA and
billing address don't match like they did many years ago.  However, the
flexibility here has no applicability to the wireline world.  You can
port your wireline number to your wireless service, move across the
country, and all is probably going to work out fine.  You will *not* be
able to port the number back to a wireline in your new location.

--Jon Radel
Whose current employer is not featured in any of the above examples!
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