[Asterisk-Users] OT: How to "own" a telephone number?

[tmassey at obscorp.com]

Hello!

We are open to the possibility of changing our business telephone number 
shortly.  This will most likely be necessary due to a physical move, 
changing providers and a few other reasons.  However, we woud like this to 
be the *last* time we need to do this.  Ever.  No matter what.  Is that 
possible?

On the Internet, you get this power with domain names.  We "own" our 
domain name, so even if we move around the world, change connections, 
change Internet providers, grow, shrink, etc. we keep the same domain 
name.  This is a wonderful thing.

Is there such a way to do this with a telephone number?  Is it possible to 
"own" a telephone number, such that even if we change telephone providers 
or move from POTS to ISDN to T1 to VoIP and back a dozen times we can keep 
the same number?

We would like to have this power with both a normal telephone number and a 
toll-free number.  According to our current provider (SBC in Michigan), 
the only way we can keep our current number is to convert it into a 
"virtual circuit" for almost $30/month (basically the same cost as a 
"real" circuit), and then forward all calls from that line to another 
number.  If the number is not local, we'd have to pay for long-distance to 
that new number.  I know that with VoIP numbers we can move and change 
Internet connections, but if we change VoIP providers, we lose the number. 
 With a combination of the two, we could buy a virtual circuit from SBC 
and forward it to a local VoIP number that might change if we changed 
providers, but that seems like a fairly expensive way of doing it.  Is 
there an alternative?  And what if we didn't want to use VoIP, but wanted 
to forward to a number that was long-distance?  Obviously, that gets 
expensive!

Also, we're currently looking into toll-free service, but the alternatives 
seem to be much the same.  At least nobody is telling us if there is a way 
to lock in a certain number even if we change providers.  They've all told 
us that the number we receive is theirs, and if we change providers we 
lose the number.  I'm sure 1-800-Flowers, et. al. are not being held 
hostage like that...

I would love to know what ideas you might have for getting a telephone 
number with the ability to stay with us even as the underlying 
infrastructure changes.  Is this even possible?

Thank you,

Tim Massey