About VoIP:
So if you haven’t heard about it yet then there is a new technology in the market today that lets you make calls free of costs or very cheaply and you don’t have to pay the normal amount that you’d normally be charged by your service providers. Yes, there is something that nullifies or lessens the call rate per min totally for you users, this is the VoIP. VoIP essentially is Voice over Internet protocol network that allows the transferring of voice information, digitising of signal, transmitting and receiving or signal by IP networks or simply Internet. Basically VoIP allows the users to make calls through internet. The transmitting, encoding, digitizing, of the signal is pretty much the same as ordinary public switched telephone network with the only difference being in the way the data or information is carried. With VoIP voice information or data is carried in the forms of packets sent by the internet. VoIP networks and VoIP phone number have gained immense popularity thanks to the fact that VoIP enabled phone numbers don’t have to pay (or pay very less in comparison) their network providers and carriers money to make phone calls or to send messages. The question that may be lurking in your mind is what about the portability.
VoIP Number Portability:
Checking whether the portability of your VoIP number is a crucial before you really take the leap of faith and port from your old telephone system which works on PSTN to VoIP or if you’re porting from one VoIP service provider to another. Asking you VoIP network provider about the portability of your number is important because there have been instances where people missed this step and therefore lost their numbers. So it is recommended that you check with your VoIP provider if the number is portable. In general porting your number from your old POTS or PSTN network to VoIP doesn’t incur any problems as such and the transfer should be seamless just like porting to any other network. As per the laws and rules you have the full right over the number that you use and own and you’re allowed to port to a different network operator. Thus porting from your old network to a VoIP network provider shouldn’t present any hiccups during the porting process. However keep in mind that if you move to a place that does not come under the covered area of your Network provider, because the location does not come under the network provider, you cannot port your number to a VoIP service area so remember that when you plan to port to a VoIP network provider.
Cases when Porting is not Possible:
Though porting from your network provider to a VoIP Network provider shouldn’t cause any problems, porting from one VoIP provider to another is simply not possible. Unlike normal POTS or PSTN or ISDN numbers, VoIP numbers are only given to you on lease and or not your property they’re still owned by the service providers. Simply put you don’t own a VoIP number you’re only using it on a lease whereas normal numbers are sold to you.