Voip Blog
Choice of Numbers & Number Portability Draws Business
Friday, September 08, 2006
There are two issues concerning phone numbers: 1.Selection of number(s), 2.Line Number Portability, aka LNP. Both play important decision-making factors for potential customers, therefore they must be intensively marketed.
When signing up, VoIP providers let customers choose their own number(s), including the area code. This gives excellent opportunities to create and maintain a virtual existence, well, only as far as location is concerned. By adding numbers to an existing account one can be virtually in California, Florida and New York at the same time.
Bring your number with you wherever life takes you. This is the other phone number-related selling point of VoIP companies and marketers. Portability is perhaps even more important to customers as they like to keep their current numbers. Line transfer usually takes 2-3 weeks.
Unlike cellular and regular phone providers, FCC does not - at least currently - require VoIP service providers to comply with LNP, giving the freedom to providers to make up their own rules. Fortunately, providers do their best to please customers.
