Results 16 to 30 of 47
- 04-14-2005, 06:09 AM #16ETGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Ive been thinking about "selling" a 212 area code (after reading the
New York Times article about how sought after those numbers are). It
seems to me that all you would have to do is use a cellular account as
a temporary pass-through conduit: (1) Move your landline to a cellular
account, (2) transfer ownership/financial responsibility of the
cellular account to the purchaser, and (3) the purchaser can either (a)
keep using that cellular account, or (b) trasnfer the number from that
account (which they now own) to any other account, land line or
otherwise, that they own. The sellular account that you use can either
be one that is about to expire, to reduce the cost, or a new one that
is specified by the buyer: e.g. put the number on a new Nextell
account...
Its not a simple sale, but I don't think its impossible.
While the comp.dcom.telcom group may be a good place to talk about
this, I suspect the answer lies more in creative contract law than in
previously established telcom technology, policies and practices.
An interesting first step to exploring this further might be to solicit
feed back from people who have transferred cellular accounts about the
status of the transferred account. (Such transfers are actively
encouraged by Verizon and others if you call to ask about getting out
of your contract before it has expired: is there anyone that you know
who would be willing to take over this account...)
Phone Home.
› See More: can I sell my phone number?
- 04-14-2005, 06:39 AM #17David MartelGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Bubba,
Some news reader programs will allow you to exclude certain people from
being listed by the newsreader. Another words you never see things posted by
that person. This is called plonking. Outlook Express allows you to do this.
Look under "message" and click on "create rule".
Dave M.
- 04-14-2005, 08:02 AM #18AnoymousGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:56:19 -1000, "NoNoBadDog!"
<mypants_bjsledgeATpixi.com> wrote:
>Let's see if I can make it simple for you...You are paying for a service.
>Currently, that service is associated with a number...your number. Should
>you decide to cancel the service and not port the number, it goes back into
>the pool, and will eventually given to someone else. You do *NOT* own the
>service. you do *NOT* own the number. You are paying for the privilege of
>using the service. You are paying to use a certain number while you are
>paying for that service. Surely this is simple enough for even you to
>understand.
How trollific of you.
Let me guess without even looking -- Outlook Express user?
>>From: "NoNoBadDog!" <mypants_bjsledgeATpixi.com>
>>Newsgroups: misc.legal,alt.cellular,alt.cellular.cingular,alt.cellular.sprintpcs,alt.cellular.verizon
>>Subject: Re: can I sell my phone number?
>>Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:56:19 -1000
>>X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2527
>>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Yep.
Idiot.
- 04-14-2005, 08:49 AM #19FranksterGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Send me your number in email and I'll send you back a check for $1000.
-Frank
"homer simpson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Cellular phone number portability makes me, in a sense, the effective
> owner
> of my phone number. By accident, it just so happened that my number *****s
> something that could be considered very desirable by a whole lot of
> companies (I won't say what it *****s for reasons of privacy). If I had to
> guess, I'd say there are companies that would pay thousands for it.
>
> Is it possible for me to actually sell my phone number, and if so, how can
> I
> go about doing it?
- 04-14-2005, 09:08 AM #20Isaiah BeardGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
homer simpson wrote:
> Cellular phone number portability makes me, in a sense, the effective owner
> of my phone number.
Uhm, actually, it doesn't. You'll find that in many user agreements,
you don't retain any "ownership" to the number assigned to you. Even at
its most permissive interpretation, "ownership" of that phone number
doesn't transfer to you when porting a number; it just transfers to your
new telecom carrier, and ownership reverts back to the originating
company if you ever drop that line for any reason without porting again
somewhere else.
> By accident, it just so happened that my number *****s
> something that could be considered very desirable by a whole lot of
> companies (I won't say what it *****s for reasons of privacy). If I had to
> guess, I'd say there are companies that would pay thousands for it.
>
> Is it possible for me to actually sell my phone number, and if so, how can I
> go about doing it?
You might be able to entice a business to pay you to release that number
so that they can have a crack at it. Even then, there's no guarantee
that the number will end up in the useable pool again for quite some time.
Another option is to have a business pay you to transfer the liability
of your account to them (I know Sprint has a transfer of liability form
for this purpose). But, you would effectively be "selling" them your
whole account, not just your number. Assuming the carrier actually
allows this, you would have to start fresh with a new account as well as
a new number.
Then there other complications. If it's Sprint PCS number, the
business might want to port it to a landline (unless they want to run
their whole business off one cell phone). Unfortunately, porting regs
are more restrictive when it comes to porting a cell number to a
landline than it is to go the other way around. The cell number must be
served out of the same local calling area (sometimes even the same
building) as an existing number, or else the port won't go through.
And of course, the carrier might not allow the transfer of a personal
account to a business entity, and would certainly put the kibosh on the
deal if they knew you were getting paid for it.
Lastly, if ANYTHING happens to that number... say, an area code split
occurs, or an exchange has to be reassigned, requiring the business to
change its phone number through no fault or action of its own... you can
bet the company will probably attempt to sue you for misrepresenting
your ownership of that phone number. Phone number assignments are
ultimately at the discretion of the phone company serving the number,
and they can generally change your number, whether you want the change
or not, anytime they please. They just don't normally do this unless
its necesary for some technical reason, because that would anger a lot
of people and would be a headache for them to adminster those changes
anyway. However, in claiming ownership of that number and "selling"
that ownership to the company, you're making a (false) representation
that you - and by extension, the business you "sell" it to - have the
right to keep that number indefinitely.... when in truth, neither of you
really do have that right.
Porting is a convenience service offered by the phone companies, but it
does not guarantee that a number will stay with you forever. If a
public utilities commission decides that your area code needs to change,
or if NANPA decides that exchanges need to be juggled around, then those
changes will occur whether your number is ported or not.
--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
- 04-14-2005, 09:21 AM #21Isaiah BeardGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
homer simpson wrote:
> Who does it belong to? My service provider?
In the strictest sense, the number doesn't even belong to te service
provider. It is essentially public property, and assignment is
administered by the North American Numbering Plan Administration
(http://www.nanpa.com). They assign blocks of numbers to carriers on
request, issue new area codes, and make decisions on the allocation of
North America's (dwindling) pool of phone numbers.
From NANPA.com:
"NANPA holds overall responsibility for the neutral administration of
NANP numbering resources, subject to directives from regulatory
authorities in the countries that share the NANP. NANPA's
responsibilities include assignment of NANP resources, and, in the U.S.
and its territories, coordination of area code relief planning and
collection of utilization and forecast data."
> What if I port it to another
> service provider? If the number is the property of the original service
> provider, how come I can easily deprive them of their property without
> their concent?
Because the FCC and NANPA has told them they MUST release that number,
IF it meets certain requirements.
> Isn't the situation similar to Internet domain names? They definitely get
> bought and sold.
This is an apples to oranges comparison. Domain names get bought and
sold because they are a bit more complex. Many of them have content
related to trademarked names and phrases.... at the moment, you can't
really trademark a number and have it stick.
And most importantly, domain names only mask the underlying IP address,
which is more equivalent to a phone number. Those most certainly can't
be bought and sold so easily.
--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
- 04-14-2005, 09:24 AM #22Isaiah BeardGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
homer simpson wrote:
> "NoNoBadDog!" <mypants_bjsledgeATpixi.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Surely this is simple enough for even you to
>>understand.
>
>
> Get a life, creep. Insulting strangers on USENET under the pretense of
> answering questions, while hiding behind your monitor, does not count as
> one. PLONK
Just because he's providing you with an answer that disagrees with what
you want to hear does NOT mean that he's insulting you.
--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
- 04-14-2005, 09:25 AM #23Isaiah BeardGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Anoymous wrote:
> How trollific of you.
Funny that, an anonymous troll calling someone else a troll.
--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
- 04-14-2005, 09:55 AM #24FranksterGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
> Just because he's providing you with an answer that disagrees with what
> you want to hear does NOT mean that he's insulting you.
And what do you think THIS quote from his message was meant to convey?
"Surely this is simple enough for even you to understand."
-Frank
- 04-14-2005, 11:28 AM #25McGyverGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
"homer simpson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Cellular phone number portability makes me, in a sense, the effective
> owner
> of my phone number. By accident, it just so happened that my number *****s
> something that could be considered very desirable by a whole lot of
> companies (I won't say what it *****s for reasons of privacy). If I had to
> guess, I'd say there are companies that would pay thousands for it.
>
> Is it possible for me to actually sell my phone number, and if so, how can
> I
> go about doing it?
I am involved in the buying and selling of businesses. It is common for the
transaction to include transfer of telephone numbers (and Yellow Pages ads,
premises leases, equipment leases, employee contracts, and other rights
pertaining to assets that the seller doesn't actually own). The buyer
doesn't own the number just as the seller doesn't. But the seller transfers
to the buyer whatever rights to use the number that seller has. As part
performance of the contract, the seller cooperates with the buyer in getting
the account transferred. The telephone companies are very cooperative about
this. Happens every day. Some assets of this sort are sold subject to the
rights of others to approve the transfer. But in my experience, the company
having the right to approve or disapprove will almost always cooperate.
There should be no problem with transferring a personal account to a
business. (Transferring the other way around could be a problem, but that's
another discussion). In most cases the telephone company doesn't know what
use the customer will make of the phone number. People sign up for cell
phone accounts to use personally, or to use in their business, without the
telephone company knowing or caring. When someone buys a business,
including the phone numbers, everyone should understand that the number
might be lost in the future, just as the seller could have lost it.
There are limits to the value of the product you are selling. Since your
number is not an 800 number, the buyer company will have to advertise the
number with the area code included. Callers from outside the local calling
area will be paying higher rates and therefore won't call. So the company
doesn't get a nationwide benefit from buying your rights in the number.
Still, if you can find a buyer, go for it.
McGyver
(misc.legal)
- 04-14-2005, 12:49 PM #26Isaiah BeardGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Frankster wrote:
>>Just because he's providing you with an answer that disagrees with what
>>you want to hear does NOT mean that he's insulting you.
>
>
> And what do you think THIS quote from his message was meant to convey?
That quote wasn't his whole message. Read the original again:
http://tinyurl.com/3utlc
Context is everything. It's a shame that some of us on here are so
easily swayed when someone spins the context to suit them.
--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
- 04-14-2005, 01:43 PM #27FranksterGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
> That quote wasn't his whole message. Read the original again:
Yep, it's still there. "Surely this is simple enough for even you to
understand."
You know, just because someone types a few helpful sentences doesn't give
them the right to then insult the OP. Period.
I suppose folks like yourself believe you have helped so many people that
you have a ton of ass-hole credits stored up to be used whenever you like.
Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
-Frank
- 04-14-2005, 02:49 PM #28EGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Ha, that's funny. I think there was a big stink not to long ago about this
topic. Someone had 867-5312 from the song and tried to sell it on ebay. I
think it was taken down because they did not have authority to sell the
number.
"Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> homer simpson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Cellular phone number portability makes me, in a sense, the effective
owner
> > of my phone number. By accident, it just so happened that my number
*****s
> > something that could be considered very desirable by a whole lot of
> > companies (I won't say what it *****s for reasons of privacy). If I had
to
> > guess, I'd say there are companies that would pay thousands for it.
> >
> > Is it possible for me to actually sell my phone number, and if so, how
can I
> > go about doing it?
>
>
>
> Try eBay.
- 04-14-2005, 03:19 PM #29ChrisGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Don't you mean 8675309 ???
E wrote:
>Ha, that's funny. I think there was a big stink not to long ago about this
>topic. Someone had 867-5312 from the song and tried to sell it on ebay. I
>think it was taken down because they did not have authority to sell the
>number.
>
>"Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>
>
>>In article <[email protected]>,
>> homer simpson <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Cellular phone number portability makes me, in a sense, the effective
>>>
>>>
>owner
>
>
>>>of my phone number. By accident, it just so happened that my number
>>>
>>>
>*****s
>
>
>>>something that could be considered very desirable by a whole lot of
>>>companies (I won't say what it *****s for reasons of privacy). If I had
>>>
>>>
>to
>
>
>>>guess, I'd say there are companies that would pay thousands for it.
>>>
>>>Is it possible for me to actually sell my phone number, and if so, how
>>>
>>>
>can I
>
>
>>>go about doing it?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Try eBay.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
- 04-14-2005, 03:24 PM #30NotanGuest
Re: can I sell my phone number?
Chris wrote:
>
> Don't you mean 8675309 ???
I was thinking the same thing, but couldn't remember the number.
Thanks!
Notan
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