Here is an important issue to consider when changing providers or setting up a new business.

 Recently we were moving a customer of Sparkplug, a national VoIP and data provider which subcontracts to CommPartners locally, over to Embarq our preferred local provider.  The customer had started their business years previously, and chose to try a VoIP system.  When reliability issues and price increases became apparent they contacted Affordable Communications to provide a new Panasonic KX-TDE system and port (move) their service and numbers back to Embarq. 

Half way through the process we were notified that the phone numbers that had been provided to them by CommPartners could not be ported. CommPartners, Sparkplug and many other VOIP providers, all over the U.S. do not fall under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, or the revised act of 1999. Consequently they do not have to follow those laws and regulations set forth by the Congress. In other words your phone numbers no longer belong to you.  They can refuse to give up the numbers that the customer wants to take with them when they move their services to another carrier, even though the customer may have had those telephone numbers for years.   

So, to make a long story short, be very careful when setting up a number that you would like to keep forever with a provider that is not required to allow you to port your number to another provider.  These are typically non ILEC and non CLEC providers.