Earlier I wrote about our decision to drop VoIP and go back to landline. We wanted to keep our same phone number naturally.

Yeah, right. First, we thought we might give Vonage a shot with the VoIP. Not available in our area (the middle of a city of 50,000.)

For simplicity’s sake (that’s always a curse) I thought I’d sign up with ATT/BellSouth/Cingular/Freds. I could imagine the drool falling from the guys mouth when he found out we weren’t presently a customer. So gave them all the crap they needed. Our service would be changed in two days and we would get a call confirming everything.

What we got was a voice mail saying they couldn’t “port” our existing number.” Which in tech speak means we would have to change numbers. Yuk. Decided we would explore other alternatives.

We were with Momentum land line for local and long distance before VoIP, so we gave them a call. Sure, they would be glad to have us back. Took all the billing crap etc. and asked for our current provider. They can’t port numbers from VoIP.

BTW: both Momentum and ABC/Freds both confirmed our order in writing.

So here we are, still on VoIP because apparently the landline phone companies are extracting their revenge.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.