mikeyhsd wrote:

> does not mean that they cannot delay and place road blocks.

*sigh* I guess I have to repeat myself:

The FCC requires all carriers to release a number if it's elligible for
porting and the porting request is valid.

They can't put up any roadblocks, and they can't delay. They MUST port
the number and meet their stated obligation. The rules on this are very
specific, and were written with the potential for carrier stalling in mind.

Of course, if you do something like give the wrong account number, don't
give the account password or misspell the account holder's name, then
your port will get delayed. But that's par for the course on any port,
even if you've been a model customer and are not under contract.

It helps that a lot of the porting is done automatically, and done by a
third party company that acts as a go-between among the carriers. Among
those go-betweens is Neustar ( http://www.neustar.biz/ ).

I have ported twice already, both while still under contract. In both
cases, the ports took mere minutes. Of course I paid the ETF both
times, but I wasn't required to pay it in advance before they allowed
the port. And I wasn't hassled about it, nor did anyone stall.