Check a NJ number

What to do › Home phone or medical alert

A home phone or medical alert on a copper line

A home phone on copper keeps working until the line is moved. These steps help you move it on your own terms, before the date in Verizon's notice.

First: is the line on copper?

  • Ask your phone company: “Is this line on copper or on fiber?” They can see it on the account.
  • A corded phone that kept working through a power outage, with no battery backup, usually runs over copper.
  • If the phone line plugs into a Verizon Fios box (an optical network terminal) on a wall or in the basement, the line already runs over fiber, and a copper notice may not apply to it.
  • Lines from a cable company or a mobile company don't run over Verizon's copper.

The plan

  1. Decide what the new line must do

    Most homes need a phone that can make and take calls, and 911. Decide whether you need to keep the same number. Many people do, because family, doctors and pharmacies have it.

  2. To keep the number

    Ask your phone company to move the number to its replacement before the copper goes: internet phone service, or a home phone base that works over the cellular network. Verizon's notice names VoIP from Verizon or a cable company, and fixed or mobile wireless service.

  3. If a new number is fine

    A mobile line is the simplest replacement. It keeps working in a power outage as long as the phone is charged and the local cell network is up, and it can call 911. Emergency services see an approximate location, so say your address.

  4. A medical alert device

    Call the medical alert company. Ask whether your unit works over the phone line, and if it does, ask for its cellular model and how long its battery lasts in a power outage.

Each office's page shows the date in Verizon's notice. Verizon says it may ask customers to move “well before” that date, so it pays to start early.

After the change

From MeiSIM USA

MeiSIM USA, which runs this checker, sells phone lines on the T-Mobile network, with taxes and fees included:

  • Talk & Text, $15 a month: unlimited calls and texts in the US.
  • Unlimited, $30 a month: calls, texts and 5G data, 50 GB a month. It asks for a US address and a photo ID after payment.

You buy online and set it up in a few minutes on an unlocked phone with eSIM: iPhone XS and newer, Google Pixel 3 and newer, most Samsung Galaxy S and A models from 2020 on. The page has step-by-step videos. Each line comes with a new number; we can't move a landline number to it.

See the phone lines

In New Jersey?

Check whether Verizon has filed a notice for the office that serves your line, and get an email if it changes.

Check a New Jersey number

The other plans

Verizon's New Jersey copper retirement notice names the alternatives itself: “VoIP service from Verizon or a cable company, or fixed or mobile wireless service from multiple providers including Verizon Wireless.”