I had something similar happen with my own number several years back.
Comcast was supposed to port it to my new carrier but the port didn't go
through. They temporarily routed my TN to another phone number they had,
but as soon as I returned my equipment, my phone number ended up in
Never Never Land. I'd ported my number to Comcast, so they claimed they
gave it back to the originating carrier. Thank goodness I had access to
NPAC so I could look it up and tell them it was still associated with
their LRN in NPAC.
I'd look up the TN in NPAC to find out what SPID is associated with the
LRN for that number. That will tell you who has it in their inventory.
Then you can go to that carrier and get them to port it to your carrier.
I had to escalate my issue up the ladder to make it happen, so most
likely you'll have to escalate as well. The regular customer service
people don't usually know enough to put you in contact with the correct
person. You can also look up the LNP contact for that company in NPAC.
MARY LOU CAREY
BackUP Telecom Consulting
Office: 615-791-9969
Cell: 615-796-1111
On 2026-07-09 09:27 PM, Jamie Montgomery via VoiceOps wrote:
> 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: [email protected] <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2026 5:00 PM
> To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] VoiceOps Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1
>
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click
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> 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 <[email protected]>
> Subject: [VoiceOps] Re: Recovering a number?
> To: VoiceOps <[email protected]>
> Message-ID:
> <caeu0vi09+apitfx+pudt5mgzvb46autwmvfutgxgifymdw6...@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 <
> [email protected]> 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 -- [email protected]
>> 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
>> [1]
>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
>>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:05:28 -0700
> From: "Aaron C. de Bruyn" <[email protected]>
> Subject: [VoiceOps] Re: Recovering a number?
> To: [email protected]
> Message-ID:
> <caee+rgpojp0wv0pndam-tmd5f8rbji04hr7bbuy+to3dt95...@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 <[email protected]>
> 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 --------------
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>
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>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> _______________________________________________
> VoiceOps mailing list -- [email protected]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of VoiceOps Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1
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Links:
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