Keeping your home phone number

Can you keep your home phone number with Starlink?

Not on Starlink itself: there is no Starlink phone service to move a number into. But Starlink can carry calls for another phone company:

• A VoIP home phone service (VoIP means “voice over internet”). The company sends a small phone adapter that plugs into your Starlink router, and your own phones plug into the adapter. Same phones, same number.
• Wi-Fi Calling on a cell phone. Your mobile carrier’s calls travel over your home Wi-Fi, which helps where the cell signal indoors is weak.

Starlink's help center covers VoIP and Wi-Fi Calling over Starlink and tells you to contact your phone carrier first when calls fail. So the phone company, not Starlink, is who you call about your calls.

The safe order: move the number first, cancel last

Your number belongs to your account with the old company. Close that account before the move is finished, and the number can be lost for good.

• The new company starts the move. To move (“port”) a number, start the port with the new phone company and give it your 10-digit number. You don’t need the old company’s permission.
• Owing money doesn’t block it. Per the FCC, once you've asked a new company for service, the old company can't refuse to port your number, even if you owe a balance or a termination fee. You still owe it, so check your current contract for early termination fees or balances before you switch.
• Timing. Simple ports must be processed in one business day, but some take longer. Plan for a few days.

Where can your number go?

Every option below keeps your number. They differ in what happens in a power cut and whether an alarm or medical alert device can still call out.

Which to pick? If the house has good cell signal and nothing dials out over the line, moving the number to a cell phone is simplest. If you want the phones you own to keep ringing, VoIP over Starlink is the usual choice. If anyone relies on an alarm or medical alert device, talk to those companies before you pick.

Step by step: keep your number while you switch

1. List everything that uses the phone line

   10 minutes

   Check every phone jack and write down what’s plugged in: phones, an alarm panel, a medical alert base unit, a fax, a satellite TV receiver, a DSL modem. Keep your latest phone bill handy: the new company will want the account number, the name as printed and the service address.

2. Call your alarm and medical alert companies

   15 minutes

   Tell them you’re changing phone service, and ask what the device needs to keep calling out. Do this early: new equipment takes time to arrive.

3. Choose the new phone service, but cancel nothing yet

   20 minutes

   Use the table above. When you sign up, say you want to keep your existing number.

4. Get Starlink working first

   a few evenings

   A VoIP phone needs working internet, so set up Starlink and test it on a few busy evenings while the old service still runs. On a DSL line this matters twice: when the number leaves, the DSL can stop too. The switch planner puts a date on each step.

5. Ask the new company to move your number

   a few days

   Give it your number and the account details from your bill. Don’t call the old company to cancel. Keep the old service running until the new company confirms the move.

6. Test calls, the 911 address and every device

   30 minutes

   Call your home number from another phone, and call out from the home phone. Check that your new account has your exact street address for 911 (more on 911), but don’t dial 911 just to test. Ask the alarm company to confirm a test signal, and press the test button on a medical alert device.

7. Cancel what’s left of the old service

   20 minutes

   Now cancel the old internet and anything else on the account. Write down the date, the rep’s name and a confirmation number, and check your next two bills. Provider steps: cancel HughesNet, cancel Viasat, end the DSL.

HughesNet Voice and Viasat Voice: port before you cancel

If your home phone comes from your satellite company, the number has to move before the satellite internet is cancelled.

HughesNet Voice

• Hughesnet sells Hughesnet Voice, a home phone add-on with its own 24-month commitment and a fee of $10 for each month left if you cancel early, up to $240.
• The catch: cancelling Hughesnet internet also cancels Hughesnet Voice, and both termination fees can apply. Cancel the internet first, and the phone line goes with it.
• To take a Hughesnet Voice number elsewhere, the new provider submits the port request. Cancel HughesNet only after your number rings on the new service, and send the Voice phone adapter back with the rest of the equipment. How to cancel HughesNet

Viasat Voice

• Viasat sells Voice, a home phone add-on, for $35 a month plus taxes and 911 fees. It runs over the Viasat satellite connection, so when Viasat service ends, the phone has nothing to run on.
• The Viasat pages we read don’t say whether cancelling the internet also ends Voice. Treat it as if it does: move the number first, then cancel. How to cancel Viasat

If your phone is on a DSL or AT&T copper line

On most DSL lines, the phone number and the internet share the same copper wires, so moving the number can end the DSL. Set up Starlink (or whatever replaces the DSL) before you start the port, never after. Replacing DSL, step by step

• Keeping the landline and dropping only the DSL may be possible if your phone company isn’t retiring the copper. It’s the only option here that keeps a corded phone working in a power cut without a battery. Ask what a phone-only line costs.
• AT&T copper customers with a retirement letter have one more option: AT&T Phone - Advanced is AT&T's replacement home phone: it runs over AT&T's cellular network (with broadband as a backup), keeps your number and supports up to six devices such as alarms and medical monitors; it needs home power, with a 24-hour battery backup supplied. AT&T’s page doesn’t show a price, so ask for it in writing. What AT&T’s copper letter means

911, alarms, medical alerts, fax and power cuts

• 911. For 911 to work, give your VoIP provider your exact street address and update it if you move. The address you register is what tells the 911 center where to send help.
• Home alarms. Many alarm panels dial the monitoring center over the phone line. Ask whether yours works over the new service or needs a cellular unit.
• Medical alert devices. A base unit plugged into a phone jack needs a working line. Ask whether it works over VoIP or should be swapped for a cellular model.
• Fax. Fax machines often fail over internet phone service. Ask the VoIP company whether it supports fax, or use an online fax service.
• Power cuts. VoIP phone service may not work in a power outage or when the internet is down, and Starlink needs power too. Keep a charged cell phone in the house.

Checking method: each price, fee and rule here links to the provider’s or regulator’s own page, dated the day we read it. No internet provider pays for a place on this site; the only income is the Starlink referral explained on our money page. Our fact-checking · How we make money · Corrections