I had conversation with someone who works in the Rochester Office of Metrocast, and she explained that small local phone companies are currently protected against having to "portage" their phone numbers to VOIP carriers, and in fact the cable/DSL providers in the town(s) cannot offer the service.
VOIP providers such as Vonage can offer the service, but you will notice that when you ask to "portage" the phone number they will not be able to. We were going to go with Vonage a few years ago, we would have had to choose a Wolfeboro exchange, a Laconia Exchange or other exchange. it would have meant intrastate charges for our local friends to call us, so we opted not to change.
Our Union bill averages about $30 per month, as we do very little long distance calling.
And we also have been told "the service should be available in a month or so"....
.
And everytime I get the email that says it is now available in my area, I reply that I am interested, and then get the reply that says it is not available in my area, to which I reply " Why send me the email " and they tell me it is mass mailing, which is just like the junk mail I get from Metrocast also telling me about the service being available, so I call...
