Transfer our own number from the phone company?

How do we get the phone company to release our phone number to us if we are using asterisk and not a VOIP company? For example, if we are using asterisk then we are running our own service. How do we get our previous providor to release the number to us since we are not a VOIP company.

I am not sure I get it. you are going to drop the provider, and want to keep the number but not port it to another provider? if you have the number and do not conect to the rest of the world what good does it do to have the number, if you cannot call anyone and they cant call you?

I want people to call me and I want to call them. But I want to transfer my old number instead of getting a new one. But I want to transfer the number to myself instead of to a VOIP company. You see?

I found out that the telephone company won’t release the number unless I have a level 3 switch. And they are expensive. Broadsoft swtiches are 100K. But there must be some sort of free software level 3 out there.

But if we can just run our own VOIP with our own software, then why should we pay another VOIP company when we can do it ourself? But I would like to manage my own phone number instead of wondering if the VOIP company is going to go out of business and lose my number.

what is the point of having the number, you will not have any way to call out or receive calls on it…You have to be terminated somewhere to the PSTN…
thats like me saying I own 555-555-1212, if I own it, it doesnt matter because I am not connected to the PSTN and there is no way to talk to anyone. That is the reason the phone company wants a level 3, then you have PRI’s or T1’s and can resell the line to someone else…

Yeah, you can’t just throw a VoIP device on the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The entire system is still based on switching protocols and not VOIP. All the VoIP providers out there have PSTN–>VoIP interfaces. I believe some of the big carriers are doing inter-network routing using SIP, but it’s definitely not the standard.

If you want to provide numbers even for yourself - you must become provider. In different countries it will cost different money, but will not be cheap.
In Bulgaria, you can become subprovider. Somebody has lot of numbers, and sells to you part of them, then you resell.
Problem is interconnect. You have to connect your net to net of other providers. To notify them where to forward calls.
I prefer to bye few VoIP numbers from one company, and if I dont like their prices for outgoing calls - then find other company for outgoing calls.