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Comment by realgeniushere | Hacker News Reader

Complain to the FCC for one. This process is highly regulated.

Yes. I can’t speak for all countries but even if you fail to pay for your plan and get it cancelled you might have a chance to re-claim it within a few months.

Numbers have generally started being recycled after a shorter rest (only a few months).

When I worked with a system handling portings it should have been possible to find where your number went.

Do you still have the physical card or the papers that came with it originally?

Try to get the carrier to file a real bug report, something that reaches the developers, with your ICCID, found on the physical card or the documentation that came with it.

That goes for both carriers. Either one has an error receiving or the other has an error porting. Communication between the carriers could be near nonexistant though. I hope there is a way =\

>you might have a chance to re-claim it within a few months

Which is probably utterly useless to the OP. At this point, they probably have no real choice but to go through whatever paperwork is required to recover access to their accounts without having the phone number.

Genuinely curious why you're using the words "bug report" and "developers" here - would this actually be an implementation-specific software issue? All this squishiness sounds like a manual process simply didn't get followed correctly or something.

We had to manually investigate and handle individual screwed up number portings _all the time_. And we did so every single time we (the developers/maintainers) got a report about something having gone wrong.

The sending carrier has that number port logged, and the receiving carrier will if they received the request.

Ooooh, I see. TIL, thanks!

So, what kinds of things would actually go wrong? "Bits of proprietary software yelling at each other in non-standard-ese"? Crazy scripting fixing frequent human mistakes? Or...?

I'm very fascinated with this sort of thing given it's treated like such an impermeable brick wall.

Here’s the link: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?tic...

No it’s not. The only thing regulated is that phone companies have to make the numbers portable so they can’t hold them hostage. But you don’t own any right to your number, if there is a renumbering you are SOL.

The number can’t be gone of course, it belongs to a range operated by a provider (where it originally came from) who can see who it is being forwarded to. But no one is under any obligation to help you with that setup. All they have to do is make a credible offer to port the number if you move to another provider.

Not sure what you’re on about, but every provider is going to offer new customers a porting service to encourage you to switch. And with a few exceptions (moving from wired to wired in a new geographic area, or moving certain small rural providers), your old carrier must let the new carrier port the number.

That is the same thing. Practically the original provider has to offer a service where they forward your number to a new carrier. But that doesn’t mean the customer has some kind of ownership like claim to the number.

Not practically, legally. Not sure what the significance of metaphysical ownership or the lack thereof is. The FCC enforces these rules.

The significance is that even though you can port a number from provider 1 to provider 2 and then port it again from provider 2 to provider 3, practically the number remains at provider 1 who forwards it first to provider 2 and later to provider 3. But the number remains with provider 1 because it is part of a range serviced by that provider. That is the only ownership like claim there is.

The fact the providers provide this forwarding service doesn’t mean the costumer gets a claim to the number, which is what this article is all about. A customer angry the number was ‘taken’ from him. It was never his. The providers are required to provide the porting service but if something goes wrong and a number is somehow lost, the costumer doesn’t have a right to go and demand it back from someone. Just like when the providers renumber an area, people come and complain they have to redo their preprinted letters and the lettering on their cars. Too bad, the number is not yours.

He can go and ask to get his number back, or he can make demands and then try complaining to the FCC. But I don’t think they’ll do anything.

Good points, thanks.

>This process is highly regulated.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/wireless-local-number-portabilit...

Looks like the only time they are legally required to, ATM, is if you switch from one wireless provider to another. Introducing a VoIP providers probably means this dude isn't getting his number..

You found the wireless page so that’s all it discusses, but that’s not true. What is true is that for wired providers, you are geographically bound. But you can still take your wired number and port it to your wireless plan and then move wherever.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-ph...

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