Can I take an old pager number to a new cell phone?

Phones and Phone Plans
1

It is sad, but after more than 20 years of using a pager, my carrier has taken down many transmitters and it no longer works reliably. It has become useless.

Yet many of my patients have the beeper number, which starts with 404-646-XXXX. Looks like I have no other choice than to get a cell phone, however much I hate them.

My question is, once I close my account with SPOK, my beeper provider, can I transfer the number to a cell phone? I am not sure what kind of cheap phone and service I will buy, but I need it to read QR codes overseas while I am on trips, as well as possibly function as a GPS.

3

What Ratbert said…

4

No, I wish there were more flexibility with phone numbers
Pager numbers are not covered under the FCC number portability rules.

5

I do not know for sure but can you just request the old number from a company like Magic Jack? You would then have the number which you could use with their app to get your pages/texts messages on whatever phone and carrier you decide on. That would allow you the base phone number as one line and the pager number as a second line on a single device. (Just thinking outside the box and not sure if it would work or not.)