atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Local Providers

I can't seem to find it but I thought I had a web site that I can type in a phone number and it would tell me the local carrier (provider). I have a customer that wants a specific number and the main carriers say that number is not theirs and they don't know who's it is. Any suggestions on finding out who owns this number? (remember we dont have it yet so I can't test from it)

Are you talking Toll Free? Or are you talking a specific number in an NXX?

Sorry, I see you said local provider. So is this a CLEC? If so they buy blocks of numbers from the ILEC.

specific number in a nxx exact number is
414-570-XXXX (Info it spells) the customer would just like to have that specific number

If the area code and NXX are valid, what's the problem? I show that area code and nxx out of milwaukee. So the last 4 have to be owned by someone, provided it's in the CO's block of numbers.

I did some messing around in AnyWho's reverse look up and can't get a hit over the 3XXX numbers. You could mess around somemore if you'd like.

problem is nobody is claiming ownership of that number (at&t, tds, choice one, etc...)

pm sent

The CO lookup on sandman's web site shows the CO to be located in Milwaukee and belongs to Ameritech Wisconsin.

Bill

The problem is that with number portability, the incumbent "owner" of the exchange might show up, but it could have been ported to any carrier's network. Even to a cell phone! To make matters worse, since the rules were loosened to conserve numbers, carriers are now permitted to buy numbers in smaller blocks.

Verizon Wireless, for example, is doing this widespread. Instead of owning entire exchanges, they are now buying smaller blocks in each community CO to "blend in" and it is working. I would never want to have a number on my cell that's also a landline exchange because of the potential for wrong number calls for the previous owner. Even my brand-new, never-assigned cell phone number with Verizon shows up as being owned by Cingular (I'm sorry, "The New at&t").

Number portability is going to cause a lot of confusion and sadly, gone will be the days of "485" meaning "HUdson 5". So far, Verizon is the only LEC that will only port a customer's main number(s) if they switch back to them. They make them change any hunted numbers back to their dominant local exchange and hand back the other numbers to the former CLEC. I like their way of thinking. It keeps the soup from becoming so watered-down that it has no taste. (Quick, get a camera: Ed actually agrees with something that Verizon is doing.)

This is really starting to rear it's ugly head, especially since you can get VOIP services, like Vonage to give you a number from anywhere in the country. Moving from LA to Chicago? No problem, you can keep your LA number. Yeah, OK. Until you need emergency assistance from 911 where you end up connected to a dispatch center in Encino.

I don't think this is due to any desire to keep the number pools clean, they don't want to pay the port costs to bring over a bunch of extra numbers that no one cares about. CLEC's can pay up to $50 per number to get them ported, the ILEC's wouldn't pay that much but it certainly isn't free.