Can I keep my SimpleTalk phone number? Twilio, Vonage and porting, explained.

First, find out who owns the number

A phone number belongs to whoever holds the carrier account it was bought in, not to the software that answered it. SimpleTalk's own documentation said the phone system “must be Twilio or Vonage”, so there are three cases:

Case 1: the numbers are in your own Twilio account

This is the common case and the easy one. Centerfy connects to your Twilio account and imports the numbers, so the same number now rings the Centerfy agent. From the help centre:

1. 1

   Connect Twilio

   In Centerfy, open Settings, then Integrations. Under Phone Integration choose Twilio and enter the Account SID and Auth Token from your Twilio Console dashboard. Save; the status shows connected.

2. 2

   Import the number

   Open Phone Numbers in the sidebar, click Import Number and enter the Twilio number. Repeat for each number; they share the same Twilio connection.

3. 3

   Assign and test

   Assign the number to your AI voice agent. Make a test inbound call, a test outbound call and send a test SMS. One imported number handles both AI calls and SMS.

Case 2: the numbers are in Vonage

Centerfy connects to Twilio and Telnyx, not to Vonage. Port the number out of Vonage to one of those carriers; US local numbers usually take days to a few weeks to move. Keep the Vonage account active and paid until the port completes, because ports against closed accounts fail. In the meantime, forward the Vonage number to a Centerfy AI number so callers are answered.

Case 3: numbers you never controlled

If SimpleTalk bought the numbers in its own carrier account, those numbers are an asset of the bankruptcy estate and you cannot configure or port them. Buy new numbers now. In Centerfy, open Phone Numbers, choose an area code, check each candidate's spam reputation before buying, and assign the number to your agent. Then update every place the old number appears: website, Google Business Profile, ads, email signatures, invoices and voicemail greetings on other lines.

Protect the numbers you keep

• Keep the carrier account paid, with two-factor authentication on, and make sure the login belongs to your business rather than a former contractor.
• In the Twilio console, review Monitor and Logs: call records, and any recordings made on the Twilio side, belong to your account.
• Write down every number, which agent answers it and where it forwards if the agent is unavailable. That document is what you wished you had on September 25.