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Comment by bpodgursky | Hacker News Reader

Isn't the ability to migrate phone numbers a legal requirement for carriers?

Edit: yeah it is [1]

> Phone companies are required by law to port your number out when you start service with a new carrier. According to the FCC, a company can't refuse to port your number even if you have an outstanding balance or unpaid termination fees.

[1] https://telzio.com/blog/what-to-do-when-a-carrier-refuses-to...

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When porting to a new carrier, the new carrier asks for your account information and PIN for the old carrier. The new carrier provides that to the old carrier to prove that the port request came from you.

It looks like with Google you are supposed use the Google Fi app or website to obtain a “port out number” and PIN [1] to give the new carrier when they ask for account number and PIN.

If you accounts have been banned I wonder if you can still get that information?

[1] https://support.google.com/fi/answer/10888419?hl=en

Haven't had to do this with google (yet) but filing a complaint with the FCC usually gets you a very prompt response from the company the complaint is about, and I imagine this would be the best thing to do in this case https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

Yes, people have successfully sent FCC complaints to restore their Google Voice accounts (and Google Accounts as a consequence): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31070914

As it looks from LinkedIn comments, they still do.

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