When a number is disconnected, it * should * be put in an 'aging' state where it cant be reused for 90 days if its residential, or a year if it's a business. The LEC entity that the number was assigned to * should * have 'snapped' the number back to the original LEC when it disconnected if it wasnt the original block holder. Those are FCC rules, so I would think you have time to get it back. Jamie M ________________________________ From: voiceops-request@voiceops.org <voiceops-request@voiceops.org> Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2026 5:00 PM To: voiceops@voiceops.org <voiceops@voiceops.org> Subject: [EXTERNAL] VoiceOps Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1 CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Send VoiceOps mailing list submissions to voiceops@voiceops.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to voiceops-request@voiceops.org You can reach the person managing the list at voiceops-owner@voiceops.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of VoiceOps digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Recovering a number? (Carlos Alvarez) 2. Re: Recovering a number? (Aaron C. de Bruyn) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2026 10:48:23 -0700 From: Carlos Alvarez <caalvarez@gmail.com> Subject: [VoiceOps] Re: Recovering a number? To: VoiceOps <voiceops@voiceops.org> Message-ID: <CAEu0Vi09+aPiTFX+pudt5MgZVb46aUtwmVFUtGxgiFymdW68kA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000001e81e30656313bcb" I think I’d try porting it anyway and see what happens. I’ve had one success with this where the number was dropped by the customer-facing company, but it was still with Twilio, and they let it go. On Jul 9, 2026 at 10:15:25 AM, Aaron C. de Bruyn via VoiceOps < voiceops@voiceops.org> wrote:
Hey everyone,
I've run into a situation I've never dealt with before, and it's personal...
My dear old mother has had a phone number in the 509-427 prefix for about 50 years now.
It's survived all the US West, Qwest, Embarq, Century Link, Lumen, whatever changes over the decades...and finalle ended up taking a deal from her ISP (a CLEC) to bundle her phone/internet .
This all worked out pretty well until a few year or so when the ISP was sold to new management and service tanked. They've had several multi-day and even a multi-week outage.
Fast forward to a month ago, and my mom decided to sign up for Starlink and cancel her old DSL bundle. Being 80 years old, she had no idea her "home phone" was linked to her DSL service....and as luck would have it, the day after she cancelled she ended up having a minor stroke.
When I realized her home phone was disconnected, I asked her to call her former ISP and see if they could recover and just port out the number...my intent being to attach it to my existing infrastructure and simply forward calls to her cell phone.
Her ISP said "we released the number 2 weeks ago, there's no way to get it back".
I know I've seen numbers get recovered before...but since I'm not a CLEC or anything other than just a guy who helps support a handful of VoIP installs, it's beyond me if it's possible or how I could get the number back.
I also seem to recall ~8 years ago that the local switch didn't support number portability and it doesn't show up as having any numbers available if I try to acquire a number out of the "STEVENSON WA" area.
Am I out of luck?
Thanks,
-A _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list -- VoiceOps@voiceops.org https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.voiceops.org%2Fpostorius%2Flists%2Fvoiceops.voiceops.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cjamie.montgomery%40comporium.com%7C24355a06981a4db6beee08deddfd34dd%7C4c52dc5e4ed54645a209ed3c32f5ec3c%7C0%7C0%7C639192276804807600%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AxBNssphZQf2xlDcS7LLM5ou95zDityQ%2B%2BZPw%2BC48vE%3D&reserved=0<https://lists.voiceops.org/postorius/lists/voiceops.voiceops.org/> To unsubscribe send an email to voiceops-leave@voiceops.org
-------------- next part -------------- A message part incompatible with plain text digests has been removed ... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 3104 bytes Desc: not available ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:05:28 -0700 From: "Aaron C. de Bruyn" <aaron@heyaaron.com> Subject: [VoiceOps] Re: Recovering a number? To: voiceops@voiceops.org Message-ID: <CAEE+rGpOJp0wv0PndAM-Tmd5F8RBji04hr7bBuy+tO3dT95QFQ@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000001339a20656317982" Thanks everyone! Great advice. I received several off-list replies from people and domains that I know and trust. Nothing's fast in number porting, but I think I'm in pretty good hands working towards a solution. -A On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 10:15 AM Aaron C. de Bruyn <aaron@heyaaron.com> wrote:
Hey everyone,
I've run into a situation I've never dealt with before, and it's personal...
My dear old mother has had a phone number in the 509-427 prefix for about 50 years now.
It's survived all the US West, Qwest, Embarq, Century Link, Lumen, whatever changes over the decades...and finalle ended up taking a deal from her ISP (a CLEC) to bundle her phone/internet .
This all worked out pretty well until a few year or so when the ISP was sold to new management and service tanked. They've had several multi-day and even a multi-week outage.
Fast forward to a month ago, and my mom decided to sign up for Starlink and cancel her old DSL bundle. Being 80 years old, she had no idea her "home phone" was linked to her DSL service....and as luck would have it, the day after she cancelled she ended up having a minor stroke.
When I realized her home phone was disconnected, I asked her to call her former ISP and see if they could recover and just port out the number...my intent being to attach it to my existing infrastructure and simply forward calls to her cell phone.
Her ISP said "we released the number 2 weeks ago, there's no way to get it back".
I know I've seen numbers get recovered before...but since I'm not a CLEC or anything other than just a guy who helps support a handful of VoIP installs, it's beyond me if it's possible or how I could get the number back.
I also seem to recall ~8 years ago that the local switch didn't support number portability and it doesn't show up as having any numbers available if I try to acquire a number out of the "STEVENSON WA" area.
Am I out of luck?
Thanks,
-A
-------------- next part -------------- A message part incompatible with plain text digests has been removed ... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 2751 bytes Desc: not available ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list -- voiceops@voiceops.org To unsubscribe send an email to voiceops-leave@voiceops.org ------------------------------ End of VoiceOps Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1 ***************************************