About a year ago, I purchased a US Maxroam number with a really nice ring to it (please excuse the unintended pun) , the number is (area code) 929-0100.

Since I am based in Sweden but have a significant portion of the business in the U.S. Since it is a great advantage for US customers to call a local number than international to make contact, this number has been put on business cards and has been spread and communicated to many customers and other important business contacts. Having a cellphone with a local US number has been of particular value when I have been on longer business trips in the US.

Since we made such an investment in communicating the number, I even contacted Maxroam and asked them to verify that we would keep this number and got such assurances in writing from the customer services representative Sean Halpin.

But in November this number, without any previous warning, suddenly ceased to work and only after a fairly long time Maxroam got back to me and told me that the “number provider” had decided to take this particular number back and that there was nothing they could do about it. They also pointed to one of the clauses in their user contract with states that they have the right to replace subscriber numbers without any reason. One month after taking the number away from me I was presented with a random list of numbers, none of the with the slightest “ring” to it (see above).

I write this blog entry because I want to warn other users, particularly business users that the Maxroam subscriber numbers are only to be considered as temporary and can be replaced at any time without Maxroam having to give you any warning, reason or compensation for this.

To me, this haphazard approach to phone numbers is totally unacceptable and today I am considering legal action for the damage caused – I would also like to argue that today, the cellphone number is a very important asset and a part of the identity, both for individuals and for businesses.