I got my old phone number back (and it wasn't easy)

[SUnset2]

I have my childhood number too, though I didn't have nearly as much difficulty with customer service.  When my parents had to move into assisted living, it was in a different rate center, area code and telephone company, so I had the number ported to cell phone service.  When my father's health deteriorated further, I took it over as my cell phone so I could take calls for him.  So now I have the same number I had when I was a baby in 1958.  Though the area code has been split several times, this number is still in the original area code.

[Protel8000]

I wonder how much of a headache number portability is for phone companies? I guess with switching being digital it isn't a technical issue. But I have a cell phone number that I've had since I lived in a different area code. If someone in my current town calls my cell phone from a local land line, does that call have to reach all the way back over to somewhere in the old area code, then get routed back to me at my current location? Or are the phone switches smart enough to know where I am and send it through the closest path from the local phone company to the closest switches for my cell phone company?

[MaximRecoil]

I wonder how much of a headache number portability is for phone companies? I guess with switching being digital it isn't a technical issue.

My guess is that it's just a matter of changing an entry in some software program. They said they would charge me $30 to change my number (and they still haven't even given me the promised call-back to confirm that they did it; imagine if I'd just wanted to change my number without specifying any particular new number; I'd have no idea what my phone number is right now), even though I doubt highly there was any real effort involved in changing the number. If you go back far enough in time, I'm guessing that they would have had to make physical wiring changes at the central office in order to change someone's phone number, which would have justified charging a fee.

But I have a cell phone number that I've had since I lived in a different area code. If someone in my current town calls my cell phone from a local land line, does that call have to reach all the way back over to somewhere in the old area code, then get routed back to me at my current location? Or are the phone switches smart enough to know where I am and send it through the closest path from the local phone company to the closest switches for my cell phone company?

I'd like to know how that all works, too.