VoIP services and geographical positioning
Since the voice over protocol service is an advanced shape of telephony, the basic rules are the same for it as well. These rules include following the geographical positioning and a home address to avail the service. However, the condition of providing a home or office address does not bound the users to get the phone number only for the specific area they are living in or in case of any business, the area where they are dealing. The customers can get the phone number with the area code of any state. For example, if a user is living in Ohio and wants to get a phone number with the area code of Pennsylvania, you can get that without any trouble.
How it is beneficial?
Getting a phone number with another area code might not seem a big deal to an individual user but the businesses are getting the advantage of this service extensively. Call centers especially customer care centers of many companies are getting benefit out of it. With this service, they let their clients think that they are talking to a local service providing company. It shrinks the budget of a company by minimizing the cost of setting up different customer care centers at every other state.
How VoIP number transferability works?
Initially, the transferability of a VoIP number was bound to certain conditions that the customers could change their location at their desired place while they are shifting from one place to another but they cannot change the service providers. Because of this condition, this facility was not appreciated by the clients that is why it was not a successful move.
During the past few years, the advanced number portability version has freed the voice over internet protocol service from this restraint and now the customers can move from one place to another without the fear that they will have to lose their number or are code in case if they switch their service provider. This advancement has increased the popularity of VoIP services and the business community has welcomed it with wide arms. It has given them a chance to participate in the challenging environment of competition with other rival companies in a better way.
Rules and regulations for this service
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) understands the competition of VoIP with landline number that is why it has generated some rules and regulations for this service as well.
The first rule that the FCC has passed out in this regard states that no service provider can refuse the request of transferring a number to another service provider. The charges for this service can be negotiable but the request should be processed whenever the client wants it. Even if the client has not paid the due fee for switching the vendor, that is not an acceptable excuse to deny the service.
However, the FCC has also allowed some of the vendors not to provide the service of number portability to their customers but that is just in exceptional cases.
The FCC has also ruled that the portability of the number for an individual user should not take more than two working days. While for the business numbers, the clients might have to wait a bit longer than that.