Now that we can stick the fork in SunRocket, many of their customers are wondering, what should they do in order to keep their phone numbers working. There are many things you can do, but one thing you can’t: sit on your butt and not do anything.

As one former SunRocket employee explains, saving your phone number is not that difficult, because the numbers are not residing with SunRocket, but with one of their service provider partners such as Broadwing and Qwest. All you have to do is print out SunRocket’s statement, and tell the company you want to switch to, why you are doing it and use the statement as a proof.

Basically take your number and port it to any service you think is going to be around for a while. From Vonage to AT&T to Comcast or T-Mobile: take a pick and switch ASAP. I would stay away from independent VoIP providers – you don’t want a repeat of the SunRocket story. Let us know if we can help – any questions – we can ask our friends in the VoIP industry and get you some answers.

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More

69 thoughts on “Now That SunRocket Is Gone, What Should You Do?”

  3. Om, you understand that your suggestion to stay away from independent/small VoIP providers will harm teir business and slow progress in telephony space? Of course that is fine if you’re happy to live without telco competition.

    One other thing: for how much longer people will care about legacy phone numbers? The great promise of VoIP is not free calls but ability to use single ID for all different ways of communication – email, instant messaging/SMS, voice, video. Verizon, Telstra, Ukrtelecom and the likes (e.g. legacy telcos) don’t even think, let alone make moves in that direction.

    Reply

  5. ANNOUNCEMENT FYI FOR SUNROCKET CUSTOMERS.

    *** HOT TIP ***

    AND I JUST MAY BE THE FIRST POSTING IT.
    AFTER ADDRESSING MY SURVIVAL RECOVERY PLAN FROM SUNROCKET OUT OF DESPERATION I CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF LOGGING INTO MY SUNROCKET . COM MEMBER LOGIN ON THE WEBSITE – IF YOU CAN LOGIN THEN DO SO – I LOGGED IN AND CHANGED MY SUNROCKET NUMBERS SET TO [SIMPLE FORWARDING] AND SENT THEM TO MY CELL PHONES. AS OF NOW IT WORKED. HOPEFULLY YOU WILL RECEIVE CALLS AND THEY WILL BE FORWARDED WITHOUT LOSING INCOMING CALLS. [NOT DEPENDENT ON SUNROCKET] TRY IT AND ALSO TRY SIMRING WITH MULTIPLE NUMBERS. THAT MAY WORK ALSO. BUT SIMPLE FORWARDING WORKS. :-] **

    NOW WHO CAN POINT ME TO THE QUICKEST WAY TO PORT OUT INTO ANOTHER DIAL TONE THAT WILL LAST LONGER THAN A YEAR. HELPFUL ADVISE WELCOME.

    Reply

  6. Could someone narrow down the main voip provider choices and best course of action.
    Is Vonage one flat fee and depenable?
    List three major companies that will stay in business for the next 5 years.
    Then.
    1. sign up for service. Get a new number and equipment shipped pronto.
    2. fill out phone number transfer form pronto and submit.
    3. keep old numbers on call forwarding.
    4. hold breathe?
    How can we speed up process? and who is a good carrier?

    Reply

  8. I checked my SunRocket account online and only the latest statement is available, and it does not contain the phone number on it. Does this mean that I have lost my number? Please advice.

    Reply

  9. @Slav Pidgorny: Whatever may be the promise of VoIP, but almost all VoIP providers are married to telephone number for the very simple reason that they use ATA. And then if the users use it to connect to PSTN (especially “In” service) need to assign a PSTN number and then one is forced to confront the portability issue.

    Whatever may be your position on supporting independents, consumers should demand those rights that are legally theirs to those who subscribe to the incumbents. Since we demanded that VoIP should not be regulated, it is the consumers responsibility to protect themselves. At least they know what to ask for.

    Reply

  10. As of right now, my incoming and outgoing calls are still working. The only thing down for me is voicemail. I wonder if they are moving us over to new providers as was suggested in yesterday’s NY Times Article?

    Reply

  11. Anyone can steal someone else’s SunRocket number, now that SunRockets customer data will not be able to be used in porting numbers out.

    Reply

  12. What makes Vonage not an independent?

    Why do you think that AT&T, for instance, will stay in this game?

    Reply

  13. Om, according to the NY Times, they are going to transfer their customers to some other company, is there any validity to that statement? I have only had them for 2 months and its not kosher for me to be out 199 for 2 lousy months. Is there anyway I can be reassured that I will be transferred to someone else or get my money back?

    Thanks,
    Amit

    Reply

  14. I highly recommend Lingo as they’re backed by the 5th largest telecom company in the world. A buddy of mine works there and they’re going to be launching a big SunRocket related promotion later today. He said something about free activation, free shipping, etc. http://www.lingo.com

    They’re backed by Primus, who’s been doing voip for like 10 years. They’re one of those big billion dollar companies..solid from what I’ve heard.

    Good luck everyone!

    Reply

  15. My SunRocket number is still working. I made many call this morning, and received one only. It seem that this may be perfect time to make many calls without cost only.

    Reply

  16. Interesting that SunRocket website still does not have any information on service shutdown. My phone for sure is dead ( I checked this morning again).

    Reply

  17. I reported yesterday that my Sunrocket number was working. This morning, it is not. No dial tone and a red blinking light on my Gizmo.

    They own me 18 months of unused service. What to do?

    Reply

  18. There are many “independent” providers of residential VoIP service out there who are quite solvient and stable. I believe that the cable co’s will continue to dominate the space in terms of overall # of subs, but I believe there is an opportunity in the marketplace for service providers to finally begin to distinguish themselves based upon user experience, as opposed to the simply having the lowest rates.

    I don’t believe that voice services can trend to zero and be subsidized with adverts and other gimmicks.

    Reply

  20. My SunRocket connection is good so far till now. Fellow SunRocket’rs where and to whom are you switching to? Can you port your numbers along?

    Reply

  21. Interesting!!! Om is still making money out of that so called dead company. Anyone see Google showing Sunrocket’s ad on this blog?

    Reply

  22. Bandwidth.com is available to help those business users looking for an alternate VoIP provider. You should be able to port your existing SunRocket number over to Bandwidth.com without loss of service.

    http://www.bandwidth.com
    800-808-5150

    Reply

  23. “Basically take your number and port it to any service you think is going to be around for a while. From Vonage to AT&T to Comcast or T-Mobile”

    Om, When you say TMobile, do you mean the HotSpot@Home service? Am I missing something here?

    Reply

  24. Dear All,

    I am in the same boat as the rest of you guys. I used Surocket for almost 2 years and always had issues with them. I cannot beleive they just “did it and ran” but this teaches you that when you talk to a complete stranger on the other line who represents a company YOU CANNOT TRUST THEM AT ALL. They are parrots saying what they are being told to say. I am desperately working on getting my number ported and I think its finally getting through!
    I used the original company who gave me the number and they were able to transport the number! It will take me about 8 days to get it, in the meanwhile I wet into my member account and forwarded all the calls to my cell phone, it works sometimes. I think its ridiculous that they can pull this kind of garbage and get away with it. I called the attorney general and he was of now help. I called the Federal Trade Comission and they were of no help. I called the better business bureau and they were of no help. Basically nobody wants your problems, you deal with it. Well all I gota say is, its a good thing its not a busy day at work or I would not have been able to be on the phone the entire morning dealing with this damn issue.

    Reply

  26. i have been sunrocket customer for last two years and i just talked on phone and boom the light is gone….i have prepaid for one year and i’ve already paid for another year…please help me out here for getting my money back…

    Thanks…

    Reply

  27. I used Sunrocket. It has been dead for the past 24 hours. I had them for over a year. I just paid $199 for a one year service. May be I will never get it back.

    I like to know if somebody officially took over their accounts and at least make a partial refund.

    Reply

  28. i agree with Murali Dharan…if someone knows that who is taking over and we can even get partial refund back…i would never go anywhere else but Vonage for VOIP…

    Reply

  29. There should be room for a VoIP service charging above market rates, promising to stay in business over the long term. For a while, that service has been Nuvio, but they’re offering a $199 per year contract too.

    If they’d asked me, I would have recommended that they offer their service for $299 per year.

    I have enjoyed covering the company’s legislative activism in the past as it fought for the rights of VoIP providers in DC.

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nuvio+site%3Afcc.gov

    Reply

  30. Wow – I’m shocked. Not at the fact that SunRocket finally kicked the bucket, but at Om’s reaction.

    Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I do work for an “Independent VoIP” provider. This is why I find the cry to “Stay Away from Independent VoIP Providers” a little shocking.

    The problem isn’t that SunRocket was an Independent VoIP Provider, the problem was a losing business model.

    Because SunRocket required users to have SunRocket hardware to access their network, it added a significant amount of overhead to their operations (hardware support, warehousing, pre-purchasing, customizing). Add in carrier fees such as DID number reservations as well as the normal business expenses and the margin is already very low.

    Then we get to the whole “unlimited minutes” issue, which was the nail in the coffin. Bluntly, unless you have a sufficient number of customers so you can do real capacity analysis, the flat rate model is risky at best as the upstream carriers who handle the PSTN -> SIP gateways are charging per minute. If you’re off on your estimation of how much people will use the service, you can end up not just losing a little money, but bleeding dollars.

    I would assume that SunRocket made some bad assumptions and ended up paying the price. Then again, the users who went to SunRocket were looking for that “Unbelievably Good deal” and you know what they say – if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

    Now, this isn’t to say that it’s impossible or even marginally difficult to build a sustainable business plan as a VoIP provider. Requiring specific hardware? Not a good idea – sure it’s easier for the client to set up, but a good instruction sheet and a list of supported (or just recommended) SIP Phones/Softphones reduces the overall overhead for the provider. Shifting from “unlimited” minutes to reasonable per-minute rates with bulk pre-purchasing discounts so you can truly understand your costs is critical as well.

    Will it be as sexy of a service? No. It won’t get the sort of press that an unlimited service can provide. But it will create sustainable revenue and a path towards becoming cash positive. Then, instead of focusing on undercutting the competition by a dollar a month, focus on building innovative services and applications for your users.

    A profitable VoIP provider with a robust set of apps? Call me crazy – but that’s the sort of sexy vendor that this industry needs.

    Reply

  31. Om, please don’t write off independent VoIP yet… they are the only thing that keeps the big phone and cable conglomerates from raping us the way they used to in the old days – I can remember when a call within my own state was as much as 45 cents per minute and therefore we only called relatives at Christmas and on other really special occasions. I, for one, REALLY don’t want to have to deal with some huge, cold, impersonal corporation that believes in adding on every tax and fee they can possibly cram into my bill, while pretending that such taxes and fees are all government mandated. When I deal with those big companies, I always somehow feel like I’m dealing with a bunch of extortionists, or high-class thugs. And I know that if they should make a billing error, they are going to assume I’m in the wrong, and make me move heaven and earth (just about) before they will admit their error. I really hate dealing with those big companies.

    Two of the VoIP companies that I have reason to think will be around for a while are Voicepulse and Viatalk. Voicepulse because it has never succumbed to ridiculous promotions and has chosen instead to offer top-quality service with slow, manageable growth, an Viatalk because they are well-funded by their parent hosting company and seem to know what they are doing. Both companies give excellent customer service, and if I were a Sunrocket refugee I’d carefully consider both of those (note, however, that if you call Canada very often, you’ll probably want to go with Viatalk, because Voicepulse doesn’t include Canada in their unlimited calling area).

    Reply

  32. Om,
    I am surprised at your remarks – “I would stay away from independent VoIP providers – you don’t want a repeat of the SunRocket story.”

    That is a big generalization. I think like any purchase the consumer should investigate before the purchase and make an educated decision. It was obvious from the beginning that the Sunrocket offer was questionable. Offers like free phones that you got to keep, even if you canceled, a 2nd year free, over and beyond the below market price, all of these should have lit a red light. If after all that a person went and signed up for a year at 199 and got a 2nd year free, Why is he surprised when they aren’t around when the 2nd year came around??
    Sorry to say, but if you bought an offer like that, you don’t have anyone to blame except yourself.
    There are still plenty of providers out there, who have been around for a few years already and provide reliable service. You can go to dslreports.com and read up on them, and them make an educated decision 🙂

    Reply

  33. Everyone who used SunRocket should try magicJack (www.magicjack.com). They have the best voice quality of any provider I have tried. It is also the cheapest. Take that together with the simplicity of activating your service and magicJack comes out as a winner in my book.

    Reply

  34. I just want a freakin communication from SOMEONE telling me whether I’m going to be transferred to another carrier or if I need to do that (and pay for that) on my own.

    Reply

  36. Quick note:
    I agree on comment part of the problem was business model the other part was a knockoff of Enron. We will learn more and the truth will come about. I think a good advice would be if I was part of that SunRocket board I would be in another country by now.
    Part of giving away free phones and stretching the offerings to keep income dug em in.
    My prediction is this. Just like all tech trends. The major players will devour the upcomers. There will always be 1 or 2 independents but for the most part…
    Vonage has been a Major independent player who dug in early, therefore timing has been on their side. I predict that the SOURCE of VOIP will determine its outcome and that will be the major phone companies again and major broadband players. It’s no different.
    SO. Vonage already has 50% marketshare. [you watch might get bought up by another company] 🙂 Then who else. 🙂 WELL. We got SBC who has been bought up by AT&T folks. Major Broadband player. A little late guys but yes reSOURCES. THEN who else?? Well. VERIZON. AND who else?? Yes. AOL / TIME WARNER. cable COMPanies. RESOURCES.
    Um. Tip. If you already provide cable broadband its not hard to throw VOIP on top of that charge extra and call it a package. How much does that cost over per user operating costs. Good profit margin.
    The major companies wont leave you with a dead box BUT they might SELL out to another company for sure.
    BUT —
    BACK TO THE ISSUE AT HAND.
    WHAT IS THE BEST FASTEST AND MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO PORT OUT PRONTO INTO ANOTHER DIAL TONE?? AND POSSIBLY KEEP YOUR NUMBER?? AND AGAIN WITH WHAT CARRIER?
    ALSO CAN SOMEONE PROVIDE PROCEEDURE AND COMPANY CONTACT AND OWNERSHIP INFORMATION OF CURRENT THIRD PARTY COMPANY THAT HOLDS THE SUN ROCKET NUMBERS? ONE CHOICE or QWEST or something?? WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO SPEED PROCESS AND ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ANY OF THE DIEING SUNROCKET CUSTOMERS PLEASE POST OR PROVIDE REAL TRUE VALUABLE INFORMATION. THIS IS LIKE HURRICANE KATRINA. NO ELECTRICITY AND NO DIAL TONE. GET INVOLVED AND HELP OTHER SUNROCKET CUSTOMERS FIND REFUGE.

    Reply

  39. I still can make phone calls and receive phone calls on my SR number. Although I feel the service is dying down as the quality has degraded a lot.

    Now that we know how to login to our Gizmo, does anyone over here know how we can reprogram it so that we can use it with Skype?

    Reply

  40. Try the following out:-

    1. Vonage – Ignore Om’s luddite comments 😉

    2. Lingo.com

    3. Comcast.
      All of the services can save you money over POTS, so don’t sweat the fac that it may go under. If you want total and utter certainty then go with the Bells and get ready for that wonderful bill with all those “unexplainable” charges.
      Either way you have your number and its yours and you can move it wherever you chose. Just please don’t pass it back to the dinosaurs bells. With the savings that can be harnessed its worth the disruption.

    Reply

  42. I’ve been using ViaTalk (and no, I don’t work for them or any of their affiliates) for my home residential services for over a year and a half now and have been extremely happy with their service (though I do spend an extra $1.95 a month for priority ticket handling). They support BYOD (bring your own device), forwarding to any SIP address, E-911 and network failover routing (in case your power is out, you can redirect to your mobile phone for example).

    And just to pimp my current employer, if there are any SunRocket business accounts that are still in refugee mode – take a look at Junction Networks (www.junctionnetworks.com).

    Reply

  43. Simon’s post above is correct. I also thought of the same thing and it does work. Access your account on the SunRocket website and use the Simple Forwarding option to send the call to your cell phone or another number. It REALLY DOES work…at least for now. The Sim Ring feature did not, however.

    Good luck to all 200,000 of us. I’m thinking Lingo at this point, but still not sure.

    Reply

  44. T – Sorry to say, but that SunRocket “Gizmo” won’t ever work with Skype. That box, which seems to be a Linksys/Sipura ATA based on the pictures online, will only work with SIP providers who support BYOD. Skype uses a proprietary protocol.

    Reply

  46. Check your credit card statements, SR has been double-billing recently, and billing for the next year’s service even though not due yet. Comcast told me that because SR is not answering the phone, it will take 10 days to force a release of the phone number. But the good news, since I already have Comcast service, my monthly bill for all digital will actually be less than when I was using SR. The forwarding option discussed does not work, SR shut off their switch.

    Reply

  47. THIS IS HORRIBLE. And now, I noticed I’m having trouble on their web-site (I’m trying to forward number and delete my contacts) and I keep getting this error:

    There was an error deleting the contact. Reason: original cause: class com.sylantro.wmi.ejb.WmiAppException: WmiAppException : module : [DIR] exception : [-6] message : [f31ebc14-1dd1-11b2-8fcb-b03162323164]

    I wonder how long that site will be up yet . . .

    Reply

  50. Special announcement for Sun Rocket refugees

    Aptela (www.aptela.com), the leader in VOIP and hosted pbx for businesses is ready to help any and all businesses that are former clients of Sun Rocket. I have already “saved” 5 clients today and am more than able to help the rest.

    I can be reached at the information below and look forward to speaking with any one of you.
    800.979.4638 x9425

    Reply

  52. Folks, not sure what everyone else’s experience is. but i’ve been using Sunrocket for 6months and it’s worked flawlessly and was still operating as of this morning NY time. i made a bunch of calls on it before coming into work…

    Reply

  53. I have pre-pay for one year $299 plan and I have only use SR for 4 months. Does any one know how to get my rest of money back?

    Thank you

    Reply

  55. Here’s what I did:

    Purchase T-Mobile To Go phone (e.g., Nokia 6030) for $40 (and a refill card too–$25 for 130 minutes) from Target or a T-Mobile store.

    Log into sunrocket.com’s member area: https://www.sunrocket.com/members/login/logout.do

    and get your account info

    After activating your new cell phone, call T-Mobile (611) and transfer your old number. They’ll need your account number, your address, and your old number.

    Done! Within 24 hours your old number will go to the cell phone, and in the mean-time all the calls will get forwarded to the cell phone.

    Not perfect–but it keeps service going.

    Reply

  57. Ok so I sign up with viatalk
    got confirmation but can not get throught the phone line….
    I know there are alot of people trying to fall on there feet
    As anyone here is successfull at switching???

    Reply

  59. I’ve already done something. I simply use the cheapest measured rate landline service I can get (about $10 per month, including silly taxes and fees) so I have a stable number and then use PhoneGnome to get VoIP calling, cheap VOIP rates, free calling, SIP calling, etc. and VoIP-enabled features. It’s not that hard.

    Reply

  60. BEWARE of Vonage: The Scoop on Vonage

    WARNING #1: A number of my friends signed up with Vonage and soon after cancelled their servcie becasue of horrible customer service and/or no servcie at all. Now my friends can no longer receive phonecalls from other Vonage customers! Apparently Vonage blocks receiving calls from other Vonage customers. This has happened to toooo many friends — BEWARE!!

    WARNING #2: Besides the above info, be warned that Vonage has to pay a $58 million to Verizon for infringing on 3 patents for Internet telephone technology (PLUS 5.5% of the money the company makes from technology associated with the infringed patents)! That alone should have you running in the opposite direction of Vonage!

    Reply

  62. Port while you still can, thats what I say.. im switching to inphonex (www.inphonex.com) service, they can port sunrocket numbers and have a trade in program where you can give your gizmo and get back an adaptor, for me thats perfect

    Good luck everyone and im really sad about the respect that sunrocket had to tell us that they were gone, that means, no respect at all.

    Reply

  64. OMG!!!!WEIRD no service for 3 days and now back on .
    why???where they forced to turn it on until we get else were….
    anyone knows??

    Reply

  68. i hacked my gizmo and deactivated the autoconfiguration ability of teleblend. my service is currently “disconnected” by sunrocket.

    i can still make outgoing calls, no problem. I’m trying to find a hack to get incoming calls. everytime i call my number, i get disconnected immediately.

    if someone is in a similar situation, or can offer ideas, please let me know.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.