ATT Landline ported to Comcast without authorization

AT&T doesn’t port your number out. Someone with Comcast initiated the port. And they had to have enough of your information in order to do so. 

File an FCC complaint.

What @Constructive said is spot on, to port it they had to have your account information.  Had you talked to them about phone service and if you could keep your number?

Perhaps the question you should be asking is who now has your number. Have you called it to see who answers? You’ve got to wonder if your number was specifically hijacked which would mean you were targeted. If you have any accounts that rely on that number for secondary authentication, you need to change them ASAP. The other strange thing is why is your ATT service not cancelled. Perhaps landlines are different but porting a wireless number causes that line to be cancelled on ATT. I thought landlines worked that way too.

@sandblaster No with landlines you have to call and cancel the service, just the porting of the number won't do it.  Works the same here with CenturyLink also.  Wireless on Verizon porting will cancel the service also.  It cancels the number, not the service. 

@Constructive @sandblaster @spoom2 Thank you for responding to my post. I really appreciate it. Re the good questions you’ve raised above, I can provide the following info:

Comcast has acknowledged that they did port my landline number. I have no idea why nor are they able to give me a reason. Presently, they claim they can “port” my landline number back to AT&T but only if I sign up for landline service with a new number through them. Which requires an on-site service appointment with Comcast as my existing/AT&T “landline wiring” is not compatible with their home phone service. I am not buying what they are selling. This is just their latest story. Each day it changes. It’s extremely frustrating.

I have called my (not working) landline number from my cell. A recording comes on and says this is “not a working number.” 

AT&T and Comcast both continue to tell me that they “have” my landline number. I’m not certain what exactly that means. Additionally, AT&T said they could solve the issue and told me to call and tell Comcast to “activate” the number in their system. However, my repeated calls/requests to Comcast continue to result in nothing more than going in circles.

I will stop there for now. If I can possibly provide additional, useful information to the forum please let me know.

Thank you so much.

That is crazy. It makes no sense that Comcast would port the number but not put it in service. Seriously, you need to escalate to corporate. File an FCC complaint against ATT and Comcast.

How did Comcast get the account information to authorize the port?  That's the part that has me confused.  When I've ported the porting to company needed the account information and my personal pin to provide to the porting from company before they would release the number.  Same when I've moved lines from one carrier to another for customers changing carriers. 

@spoom2  I have no idea what information Comcast has or how they acquired it. I did not authorize any changes re my AT&T account whatsoever. On the morning of Friday, 7/15 I noticed my landline said “check telephone line.” Since there is a ton of construction in our area, my husband thought this may be the cause. Later that afternoon I asked my neighbors if they were experiencing the same. None of them were. So, my husband called AT&T to report our landline outage. That’s when the possibility of Comcast porting the number came up. However, AT&T said they did not know exactly what was going on as they never received any such request from Comcast or any authorization. In fairness to AT&T they have said they can resolve this problem but ultimately end up transferring the call to another dept which in turn does the same. Today my husband spoke with 9 diff people. He was on his the phone for 3.5 hours. The last of whom stated the number had not ever been ported and was very confident that this could be fixed. However, the associated dept wasn’t available today. She suggested to call back tomorrow. Somehow this all feels like a run around. I just need to find the right contact people at AT&T. 

That’s when the possibility of Comcast porting the number came up. However, AT&T said they did not know exactly what was going on as they never received any such request from Comcast or any authorization

That makes no sense. How does a number get ported if there was never such a request and no authorization? It sure sounds like the number did not get ported and ATT just has no clue what is wrong.

I just need to find the right contact people at AT&T

Once again, file an FCC complaint. That will get you to the right people that can fix this.