cell phone numbers expire ?

[Tallpine]

Never heard of such a thing 

I thought there was a federal law that said your cell # was forever as long as you wanted it, even across providers 

[HankB]

I use a prepaid cell phone . . . the minutes I buy do eventually expire. Maybe the phone number expires when the minutes do 

[Tallpine]

I use a prepaid cell phone . . . the minutes I buy do eventually expire. Maybe the phone number expires when the minutes do 

No we have a couple thousand minutes built up.

We were a couple days late renewing, but they are not sending emails or auto messages to our land line anymore :(

We don't have cell service at home.

[MillCreek]

If service is discontinued, a cell phone number can be recycled and issued to someone else in 1-6 months, depending on the carrier.   Verizon and ATT usually wait six months.

[wmenorr67]

No we have a couple thousand minutes built up.

We were a couple days late renewing, but they are not sending emails or auto messages to our land line anymore :(

We don't have cell service at home.

Could have a tower down. 

[Tallpine]

Could have a tower down. 

We live behind a mountain.  We've never had service at this location, and only use the cell phone on trips to town or out of state.

If service is discontinued, a cell phone number can be recycled and issued to someone else in 1-6 months, depending on the carrier.   Verizon and ATT usually wait six months.

We were literally only two days late in buying more minutes.  It's never been a big problem before.

[Harold Tuttle]

Virgin stopped dinging my PayPal automatically but it's my fault?

[Monkeyleg]

I kept my cell phone number, with a WI area code, even when I moved to AL. I had to keep that number to keep my toll-free number the same, as the toll-free number has to be attached to a regular number.

[Tallpine]

We've had this phone and number about 4 years.

Anyone know offhand how you file a complaint like this with the FCC 

[Hawkmoon]

Never heard of such a thing  

I thought there was a federal law that said your cell # was forever as long as you wanted it, even across providers  

I guess that's only true if you keep your account current. I have a friend from Europe who comes to the U.S. generally once a year for business. He has a pre-paid T-Mobile cell phone for use only when he's in the U.S., but it's important to him that he always has the same number. There is an expiration, even if he hasn't used all his minutes. He just asked me to go to a T-Mobile storefront and put $10 toward his account. I went a few days ago and they told me if I hadn't come in soon, the account would have been canceled.

[Jim147]

Are you sure you lost your number?

I was a few days late once buying minutes for mine. I'm in the same boat because I don't get cell service here at home.

When I bought minutes that time I had to go through the whole deal of picking area code and everything like I did when I got the phone, but my number didn't change.

This was on my Tracfone I use for work. I still have my SW Bell/Cingular/AT&T that I've had since '97 but it's on autopay.

jim

[Tallpine]

I guess that's only true if you keep your account current. I have a friend from Europe who comes to the U.S. generally once a year for business. He has a pre-paid T-Mobile cell phone for use only when he's in the U.S., but it's important to him that he always has the same number. There is an expiration, even if he hasn't used all his minutes. He just asked me to go to a T-Mobile storefront and put $10 toward his account. I went a few days ago and they told me if I hadn't come in soon, the account would have been canceled.

2-days late, and they gave us no notice whatsoever 

According to what they told Ladypine, the number "expiring" had nothing to do with the account being 2 days past due.  Apparently the number had expired some time ago, and we didn't know because we don't use the phone that much, except on trips.

[Tallpine]

Are you sure you lost your number?

I was a few days late once buying minutes for mine. I'm in the same boat because I don't get cell service here at home.

When I bought minutes that time I had to go through the whole deal of picking area code and everything like I did when I got the phone, but my number didn't change.

This was on my Tracfone I use for work. I still have my SW Bell/Cingular/AT&T that I've had since '97 but it's on autopay.

jim

If we call our own number from the land line, we get a disconnect notice.

Supposedly we have a new number, but haven't verified it yet because we don't have cell service at home. 

[mtnbkr]

Suggestion:

Get free Google voice account.  Give that number out as your "cellphone" number.  Point it to whatever phone you want, when you want.  That can be your home phone or a pay-as-you-go phone.

Chris

[Tallpine]

Suggestion:

Get free Google voice account.  Give that number out as your "cellphone" number.  Point it to whatever phone you want, when you want.  That can be your home phone or a pay-as-you-go phone.

Chris

The point is that they stole my number 

If it wasn't for sometimes taking trips out of state, I would just let the account expire and do without a cell phone.

[mtnbkr]

OK, but unless you can fix it, you're not getting anywhere.  I'm giving you an opportunity to get a number a telco can't steal.

Also, if you do manage to get it back, port it to Google Voice so it becomes carrier agnostic.  We ported our home phone number to Google Voice so we didn't have to answer yet another physical device (we use our cell phones exclusively anyway).  If you call the "home" phone we've had for the past decade, it'll go to our Google Voice inbox where you can leave a voice message.  We'll get an email and text message informing us the message is there (it'll try to translate to text and send that via email as well).  If we decided we want calls to our "home" phone to go to a physical device, we can set it to do so (making it ring on a phone).

Chris

[Tallpine]

So google has a bunch of their own phone numbers

Or can I just grab anyone's number, register it on google, and forward it to my own phone - or better yet, to the fish market or the morgue ? 

[mtnbkr]

They have their own numbers or you can port your personal numbers to their service (in much the way you can carry your phone number to various other providers).

Chris

[Tallpine]

So all phone calls go through google now 

[mtnbkr]

What are you talking about?

Chris

[Tallpine]

What are you talking about?

Chris

you can port your personal numbers to their service

[mtnbkr]

First, are you familiar with phone number portability?  That's the function that lets you take a phone number assigned to you (be it your landline number, cellphone, etc) and "take it with you" when you change carriers.  For example, if I get 555-555-1234 from Verizon, then change to Sprint, I can take my number with me to Sprint so I don't have to tell the world my number has changed.

Second, Google Voice allows you to get a phone number that anyone can call.  You can have that number ring through to any other phone.  For example, I sign up with Google Voice and get 555-123-4567 as my "google voice" number.  I configure my Google Voice account to forward any call to that number to my personal cellphone (555-123-4567).  Or, I can have it dump the call directly to voicemail without ringing another phone anywhere.  In addition, I can have it send me an email telling me someone called and left a voice mail.  That way, I don't have to deal with another phone.  Also, Google Voice can translate the voice mail to text and send that to me as an email.

Clear so far?

What I did was a combination of that.  I had my landline phone and a Google Voice account.  I decided I didn't want the landline phone and its related expenses.  So, I told Google to "port" my landline number to the Google Voice account.  Now, when you call my landline number, it actually rings directly to my Google Voice account.  Or, I can configure my Google Voice account to forward calls to my old landline number (now on Google Voice) to my cellphone. 

What I was suggesting to you is:
1.  Apply for a Google Voice account.
2.  Select a phone number there.
3.  When you get a new cellphone, configure Google Voice to forward all calls to that new number to your current cellphone.
4.  Give out the Google Voice number as your "cellphone".
5.  If you change cellphone numbers (actual not Google Voice), simply point your Google Voice number to the new cellphone.

The result is you never have to change your Google Voice number and it doesn't care which number you forward it to.  You could even forward it to your house phone so people calling your "cellphone" (remember, you gave out your Google Voice number as your "cellphone") ring through to your house.  No more waiting till you get into town where there is cell service.

Chris

[Hawkmoon]

First, are you familiar with phone number portability?  That's the function that lets you take a phone number assigned to you (be it your landline number, cellphone, etc) and "take it with you" when you change carriers.  For example, if I get 555-555-1234 from Verizon, then change to Sprint, I can take my number with me to Sprint so I don't have to tell the world my number has changed.

Second, Google Voice allows you to get a phone number that anyone can call.  You can have that number ring through to any other phone.  For example, I sign up with Google Voice and get 555-123-4567 as my "google voice" number.  I configure my Google Voice account to forward any call to that number to my personal cellphone (555-123-4567).  Or, I can have it dump the call directly to voicemail without ringing another phone anywhere.  In addition, I can have it send me an email telling me someone called and left a voice mail.  That way, I don't have to deal with another phone.  Also, Google Voice can translate the voice mail to text and send that to me as an email.

Clear so far?

What I did was a combination of that.  I had my landline phone and a Google Voice account.  I decided I didn't want the landline phone and its related expenses.  So, I told Google to "port" my landline number to the Google Voice account.  Now, when you call my landline number, it actually rings directly to my Google Voice account.  Or, I can configure my Google Voice account to forward calls to my old landline number (now on Google Voice) to my cellphone. 

What I was suggesting to you is:
1.  Apply for a Google Voice account.
2.  Select a phone number there.
3.  When you get a new cellphone, configure Google Voice to forward all calls to that new number to your current cellphone.
4.  Give out the Google Voice number as your "cellphone".
5.  If you change cellphone numbers (actual not Google Voice), simply point your Google Voice number to the new cellphone.

The result is you never have to change your Google Voice number and it doesn't care which number you forward it to.  You could even forward it to your house phone so people calling your "cellphone" (remember, you gave out your Google Voice number as your "cellphone") ring through to your house.  No more waiting till you get into town where there is cell service.

Chris

But, Chris -- you're missing the point, I think. What good is taking his OLD cell number and converting it to a Google Voice number if he doesn't have a current, valid cell phone number to point it at? Unlike the "connected" generation, Tall and Mrs. Pine only use a cell phone when away from home turf. If the cell number expires -- for whatever reason -- while they're not looking, then a Google Voice number that was pointed at it will be pointed at ... nothing.

How does that help? He'll still be carrying a cell phone with no number. The only difference is that the people trying to call him will be calling an intermediate number that doesn't work, instead of directly calling the cell phone that doesn't work. And they still won't be able to make calls.

[Tallpine]

But, Chris -- you're missing the point, I think. What good is taking his OLD cell number and converting it to a Google Voice number if he doesn't have a current, valid cell phone number to point it at? Unlike the "connected" generation, Tall and Mrs. Pine only use a cell phone when away from home turf. If the cell number expires -- for whatever reason -- while they're not looking, then a Google Voice number that was pointed at it will be pointed at ... nothing.

How does that help? He'll still be carrying a cell phone with no number. The only difference is that the people trying to call him will be calling an intermediate number that doesn't work, instead of directly calling the cell phone that doesn't work. And they still won't be able to make calls.

Yeah, that and my cell number has "expired" so how can I port that number since it is no longer my number ?


If I didn't have a couple thousand minutes built up, and Ladypine wasn't about to take a trip, I would tell Net 10 (or Verizon or whoever the hell owns them now) to take the phone and shove it. 


Oh yeah, and what keeps the google phone number from just "expiring"   

[mtnbkr]

I'm saying do one of the following:

Get the old number reinstated and immediately port it to Google Voice to prevent this from happening again (after getting a replacement phone with its own number).  This way, no matter what carrier he has, people will still call the same number.

Or

Get a new number from Google Voice and have it forward calls to whatever cellphone he happens to have.  That way, if the true cellphone number changes, it won't change the number people actually dial.

The point is to isolate the number people call from the fickle nature of the carrier he's using AND to have a number that can be pointed to any other number, giving him greater access (not going to town for a long time because the roads are flooded out, have that number ring the house phone instead of the cell).

Chris