r/telecom

I’m attempting to recover/port a phone number originally assigned under a legacy Southwestern Bell exchange (AT&T ILEC). The number is currently sitting dormant in AT&T’s underlying rate center block. Frontline support cannot release or reactivate the number because AT&T has completely retired/discontinued legacy copper landline service in the region. Looking for advice from telecom engineers, LNP specialists, or AT&T provisioning staff on how to bypass this brick wall.

Hello! Apologies if this isn't the right sub (grateful for directions to a more appropriate one if not).

In maybe 2013 or 2014, my family was contacted by Verizon or an associated company about putting a cell tower on our land. The area has poor cell service and we thought it would be a good bit of income, so a contract was signed. The terms are something like: "25 years lease; X amount of dollars a month, with that increasing by Y% every 5 years; covering tax increasing caused by the tower; starting when the construction project begins."

They and their associates have been radio silent on us since 2015. Our old contacts don't respond, likely cycled out of the company during the 10+ years and we only have received the info that they might finally be doing something (they were apparently waiting for fiber to reach our area) now inadvertently.

This is in Minnesota. We had assumed the lease reservation had run out as they don't seem to have acted on it for so long, but I'm not sure. Are we in a position to do some renegotiation? Is it worth contacting a law firm, or do we likely have no standing with a contract signed 10+ years ago?

Their poor contact has me worried about how difficult it's going to be to get them to pay for property tax increases, the lease in general, if we see anything go on the fritz that they ought to know about...

This happened to me a few years ago, and I’ve always been curious about it.
I received a regular phone call on my iPhone, but instead of displaying “No Caller ID” or “Unknown,” the caller’s name literally appeared as “Annoymous” in large letters.

Here’s what makes it strange:
My iPhone was set to a different language, not English.
I live in Europe
I had absolutely no contact saved under the name “Anonymous.”
There was no phone number displayed underneath the name.
It was a regular cellular call, not WhatsApp or another calling application.

I’ve received calls from hidden numbers before, but I don’t remember seeing this particular display on any other occasion.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced this or knows what could cause it.

Could it be related to caller ID information transmitted by the network, a VoIP service, or something else entirely?

I’da especially appreciate any technical explanations or documentation about why an iPhone would display the English word “Anonymous” when its system language was not English.