Fongo Community Forums

We love the free service that FPL provides and users probably try to support them by buying the long distance credits. But what happens to our phone numbers (that we ported over to FPL) if they go bankrupt? Do we lose our phone number or can we get them transferred back to Bell Canada?

curt wrote:We love the free service that FPL provides and users probably try to support them by buying the long distance credits. But what happens to our phone numbers (that we ported over to FPL) if they go bankrupt? Do we lose our phone number or can we get them transferred back to Bell Canada?

This isn't something you have to worry about. Hypothetically speaking though, if something were to happen, arrangements would be made for users to be able port their numbers out, or stay with whichever company were to take over operations of FPL. The bottom line is, you would not simply lose your number.

Thanks for your quick reply! That was helpful.

Fongo has a big brother that is a CLEC, so you will be in good hands.

I have no inside knowledge, but I can see how Fongo, with their free services, still being a profitable company. It is all about vertical integration and costs. Their parent company, Fibernetics, is big enough to own exchanges. Out of these exchanges, Fibernetics can charge a premium for vanity phone numbers or repeating numbers, etc. What number Fibernetics cannot sell, they assign to Fongo. Use it or lose it, I suppose.

Fongo uses Fibernetics' infrastructure, which is already paid for by Fibernetics. Support costs are bare bones. So Fongo's costs are extremely low. Then there is the income Fongo makes.

Fongo makes fractions of a penny per minute for incoming calls. That adds up to real money with enough calls. The SIP settings and porting fees add to the bottom line also. Then there is the long distance. It all adds up.

So, though not likely, if Fibernetics/Fongo did go belly up, one would hope there is something in the regulatory framework would cover what happens to your phone number. I would guess you would have an opportunity to port it to another carrier. I never heard of a CLEC going under, so you got that going for you.

What happens if I move out of the country?

My phone number is registered to me at a Canadian address. Let's say that while I am living out of the country and Freephoneline goes bankrupt or ceases operation, then we will need to port the number to another carrier. Will the new carrier let me keep the number if I no longer live in Canada?

What if I had moved to another city within Canada, which has a different area code? Will the new carrier let me keep the number if I do not live in that area code?

I can't see why not. When I was with Telus they would let me pick a phone number in a different city to where I was.

Failing that there will always be a good handful of other voip companies that will let you port their number to them.

TBH, it is a fairly moot point as I really don't see Fibernetics going anywhere any time soon.