[Hidden-tech] Cable/telephone question

[editorial at gonomad.com]

The best thing I did recently was to buy an OBI talk box. It's on Amazon for about $69. Then I hooked it up to my router and to my Google Voice account. You can choose a number in 413 and I got one that's pretty similar. You can also port your existing number to Google voice. They send me an email every time someone calls and leaves a message and the transcript goes in the email to my iPHone. It's great because I got rid of the Comcast charge for a phone. No looking back, best investment in a long time.
 


-----Original Message-----
From: "Chris Hoogendyk" <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 5:25pm
To: "Harry Flood" <hjflood at mediaspectrum.net>
Cc: "Hidden Tech" <Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Cable/telephone question



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I don't get that. I thought it was routine to be able to transfer a number.

When we went to VoIP (maybe 10 years ago?), we had our home phone with Verizon. We switched to 
Earthlink TrueVoice and kept the same number. Earthlink subcontracted the physical connection with 
Comcast. So, we actually have a Comcast cable modem for internet, a VoIP box that was provided by 
Earthlink preconfigured, and our old fashioned land line phones that I rewired and plugged into the 
VoIP box. Comcast provides the connection and throughput, but Earthlink provides all the services.

So the situation is not exactly what you have, but it is analogous. The only thing I can make out is 
either that Comcast doesn't know what they are doing, or there was some legal requirement that 
applied to Verizon as a former monopoly that might not apply to Charter. The first of those two 
seems to me to be the most likely. The second has too much asymmetry, dispersing numbers out of 
Verizon and locking them in wherever they go from there. We will see what others chime in with.


On 1/30/14 4:59 PM, Harry Flood wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We are in the process of moving our office from Belchertown to Amherst. We have had our 
> Belchertown phone (323-xxxx) for a number of years through Charter. We will have the new service 
> with Comcast.
>
> Comcast is telling us they cannot retain our present phone number. Is this true? They did say we 
> could retain some level of service with Charter and forward calls, which seems like a kluge-y 
> option at best. I thought there was easy portability of phone numbers.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Harry
>
>
> -- 
> Harry J Flood
> Chief Financial Officer
> Mediaspectrum, Inc.
> Office phone: 413.323.7200
> Office fax: 413.323.7208
> Mobile phone: 413.626.2020
> Email: Hjflood at Mediaspectrum.net

-- 
---------------

Chris Hoogendyk

-
 O__  ---- Systems Administrator
 c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 347 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

---------------

Erdös 4

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