How to keep your landline number when you switch to internet phone service

You can usually keep it

Your home number belongs to you, not to the phone company. In most cases it can move to internet phone service in your area, and the move doesn’t interrupt your calls: the old line keeps working until the number arrives.

The quickest way to be sure is to check the number with the new provider before you sign up.

What changes, and what doesn’t

What stays the same

• Your phone number.
• The phones in the house, through a phone adapter.
• How you dial and answer.

What changes

• The phone works through your internet connection, so it needs power and internet.
• You give your address for 911, and update it if you move.
• You get things a copper line couldn’t do: your cell rings with the house number, voicemail can be read, and spam can be screened before it rings.

Before you start: a checklist

• A recent bill from your current phone company, or their online account.
• The account number and any PIN or passcode.
• The name and address on the account, exactly as they appear on the bill.
• A list of anything else using the phone line: alarm system, medical alert, fax machine.
• Where your internet router is, since the phone adapter sits beside it.

Step by step

1. Check the number with your new provider.
2. Choose a plan and whether you’ll keep your phones (with an adapter) or get new ones.
3. Give your old account’s details and sign the authorization to move the number.
4. Keep your old service. Don’t cancel anything yourself.
5. Set up the adapter when it arrives: phone into the adapter, adapter into the router.
6. On the move day, make a test call in and out, then record your voicemail greeting.

Cancelling the old service before the move is done can lose the number. Let the move close the old line for you.

Helping a parent switch

Plenty of people make this move for someone else. A few things make it smoother:

• Do it together, with the bill on the table. The account details have to match exactly.
• Keep their phones. A familiar handset matters more than any feature.
• Turn on call screening. Unknown callers have to press 1 or say their name before the phone rings, which robocalls usually can’t do.
• Show them the app on their own cell, if they’d like the house number to ring there too.
• Make a test call from your cell once the move is done, and check their 911 address.

The first week after the move

• Call the house from your cell, and call your cell from the house.
• Record a voicemail greeting, and try reading a message in the app or email.
• Check that the 911 address is the address where the phone is.
• Decide how strict call screening should be.
• If an alarm or medical alert device uses the line, ask its company to run a test.