What happens to your phone number when you die

Nothing happens on its own. The line stays active and keeps billing until someone contacts the carrier, and once it is permanently disconnected the provider must age the number for a minimum of 45 days before handing it to a new subscriber. The expensive mistake is cancelling first, because that number is the SMS and password-reset anchor for the rest of the estate — Princeton researchers who sampled 259 numbers offered to new subscribers found 215 of them exposed to attacks tied to the previous owner.

Does the line cancel itself once the account holder is gone?#

No, and the billing runs on its normal schedule until somebody stops it. Verizon states that the account is responsible for all usage fees, taxes, and surcharges accrued through the termination date, which may include device payments, device promotion balances, third-party fees and security deposits.

Nor can the line simply carry on in the same name. AT&T states the account cannot stay active under the deceased person's name and Social Security number, with a narrow exception where the billing address was in Oklahoma, so the survivor must either transfer billing responsibility or cancel. Verizon offers the same two doors, listing transfer the number to another Verizon account alongside disconnection.

Who is on the hook for the balance is a separate question from who holds the line. The FTC's position is that family members usually don't have to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own money — the estate settles debts out of its own assets, and collectors may not create the misleading impression that a relative is personally liable. The exceptions are specific: co-signing the obligation, holding a joint account, living in a community property state, being a spouse in a state whose law requires payment of a particular kind of debt, or being responsible for resolving the estate and failing to follow state probate law.

Do you actually own the number?#

You never did. The FCC describes it as long-standing Commission and legal precedent that a telephone number is a public resource that is not privately owned and cannot be sold, and that neither carriers nor subscribers "own" their numbers. The courts put it more bluntly still: the same FCC filing cites the Seventh Circuit's holding in In re StarNet, Inc. that no one has a property interest in a phone number. Section 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act gives the Commission "exclusive jurisdiction over those portions of the North American Numbering Plan that pertain to the United States." The FCC made these particular statements while weighing a secondary market for toll-free numbers, but it framed the precedent as applying to telephone numbers generally.

That single fact reshapes the whole task. A number is not an asset the will can leave to anyone. It is a right to use, and that right ends the moment the line is permanently disconnected. "Inheriting" a number really means moving the right to use it onto a living person's account before the disconnect is ever reported.

How long before the number is reassigned to a stranger?#

45 days at the earliest. 47 CFR 52.15(f)(1)(ii) defines aging numbers as disconnected numbers not available for assignment to another end user for a specified period, and sets the window.

Line the number was on	Minimum aging	Maximum aging
Previously assigned to a residential customer	45 days	90 days
Previously assigned to a business customer	45 days	365 days

Carriers do not each set their own interval — they all sit on the same federal floor. Verizon repeats it verbatim on its own cancellation page: federal regulations require that we wait 45 days before reassigning changed or disconnected numbers. The number 45 was not arbitrary. The FCC picked it from the middle of a proposed 30-to-60-day range, reasoning that it allows 31 days to ensure each month's permanent disconnects are in the database before a number is reassigned and an additional two-week buffer to ensure consumers are fully protected. Before that rule, the Commission noted, some carriers were reassigning numbers in as few as two days.

One distinction decides whether the clock starts at all. A permanent disconnection is when a subscriber permanently relinquishes a number or the provider permanently reverses its assignment. It does not cover temporarily disconnected service, and it does not cover a ported number, which remains assigned to and associated with the same consumer. Port the number to another carrier and no aging clock ever starts. Cancel it and the countdown to a stranger begins.

Does the FCC's Reassigned Numbers Database protect the family?#

It protects the people calling the number, not the people who used to hold it. The Reassigned Numbers Database houses every permanently disconnected US geographic and toll-free number along with the date of its most recent permanent disconnection, and its administrator reports a holding of over 361 million numbers. Every service provider that obtains numbers from NANPA must report permanent disconnects monthly, by the 15th, with data current through at least the 10th. A query then returns only whether a number was permanently disconnected since the date the caller supplied — not whether it is disconnected today.

Two limits matter to a family. Only "Callers" and "Caller Agents" may query it after registering a subscription, so consumers cannot query the database about their own number. And the FCC's stated purpose is narrow: preventing unwanted calls intended for someone who previously held the number, with consumer advice amounting to keeping contact information updated with organizations that hold the number. That is advice only the subscriber can act on, and by the time this question comes up they cannot.

What actually goes wrong when a stranger gets the number?#

The Princeton study is the only large public measurement of this, and the findings are blunt. The researchers sampled 259 numbers offered to new subscribers at Verizon and T-Mobile, then checked them against six services that will hand an account to whoever holds the number — Amazon, AOL, Facebook, Google, PayPal and Yahoo — plus people-search sites and known breach corpora.

What the researchers found	Numbers affected
Recycled and exposed to at least one attack tied to the previous owner	215 of 259
Indexed on people-search services, allowing reverse lookup of the previous holder's personal information	171 of 259
Tied to email addresses already present in known data breaches, enabling hijacking without a password reset at all	100 of 259
Still receiving sensitive communications meant for the previous holder, in a separate one-week monitoring test	19 of 200

The researchers cataloged eight attack types enabled by recycling — three of which they evaluated empirically — including reverse lookup and PII indexing, hijacking via password reset, hijacking without a password reset, targeted takeover, phishing, persuasive takeover, spam campaigns, and denial-of-service or ransom schemes. The scale behind it is ordinary rather than exotic: roughly 35 million US numbers are disconnected every year, and one carrier studied had on the order of a million recycled numbers available at a time. After the study, both Verizon and T-Mobile updated their public documentation to remind subscribers to keep contact information current and to spell out the 45-day minimum.

Read that as an estate problem rather than a privacy curiosity. If the number was the recovery number on someone's bank, email and payment accounts, releasing it is not tidying up. It is publishing the key.

Why does cancelling the line early lock the family out?#

Because the number is not a contact detail on those accounts. It is an authenticator. NIST's current guidance, SP 800-63B Revision 4, states that use of the PSTN for out-of-band verification is restricted, and tells verifiers they should consider risk indicators such as device swap, SIM change, number porting, or other abnormal behavior before sending a code over it. NIST also states that setting or changing the pre-registered telephone number is considered to be the binding of a new authenticator and must follow the formal post-enrollment binding process — a number change is a security event, not a clerical one.

Even the official handover paths lean on a live number. Google's Inactive Account Manager requires a phone number for the trusted contact and explains why: verifying the identity using a mobile phone number prevents data access from unauthorized people who might get hold of the notification email. Cancel the line, then discover the trusted-contact flow wants a verification code, and the loop has no exit.

Every one of those codes lands on a handset that is almost certainly locked, which is its own separate wall — how to unlock a deceased person's phone covers what Apple, Google and Samsung will and will not do about the lock screen.

What is the correct order of operations?#

Work down this list before anyone calls the carrier to cancel. Every step here is cheap, and every step is impossible afterwards.

• Keep paying the bill for now. A live line costs a month of service. A closed line costs the accounts behind it.
• Back up the voicemails and record the greeting first. T-Mobile warns that transfers or cancellations will result in the permanent deletion of voicemails and greetings. Verizon says voicemails can be saved from the line before disconnection if the family contacts Verizon first.
• Inventory which accounts use the number for password resets and codes. Princeton's team checked exactly six — Amazon, AOL, Facebook, Google, PayPal and Yahoo — because those categories hand over an account to whoever answers the code. Start there, then banking and payroll.
• Move authentication off the number account by account while the SIM still receives codes. NIST treats each replacement as the binding of a new authenticator, so expect every one to re-verify.
• Find the account PIN and the port-out credentials before you need them. Verizon requires the Account Owner's name, mobile number and Verizon mobile Account PIN to act on a bereavement request.
• Turn off any transfer locks. Verizon states plainly: you must turn off Number Lock before moving a number.
• Decide the destination for the number before touching the line — another family member's account, or a cheap plan elsewhere. The next section compares the two.
• Start the transfer, and only then let the old line close. The FCC's guidance for anyone changing providers applies exactly: do not terminate your service with your existing company before initiating new service with another company.
• Release the number last, once nothing routes through it and nobody is still waiting on a code.

Transfer the line, or port the number out?#

Both keep the number alive. They differ in who ends up liable, what it costs to hold, and how much paperwork the carrier demands.

Route	What it is	What it needs	Best when
AT&T Transfer of Billing Responsibility	Moves the line and number onto another AT&T account, keeping both active	Past-due balance paid first; the accepting party passes a credit check; any installment plan associated with the line stays active and transfers with it	Someone in the family already has AT&T and wants the number long-term
Verizon transfer to another Verizon account	Moves the number onto another Verizon account instead of disconnecting it	Death certificate and/or executor paperwork, account owner details, and the Account PIN	Someone in the family already has Verizon
T-Mobile continue service	Continue service with the same mobile number and device previously owned by the family member who passed away	Account holder's name, mobile number, date of birth and last four of their SSN — a death certificate is not required	The line is T-Mobile and the paperwork is not ready yet
Port out to a cheap plan or Google Voice	Moves the number away from the carrier entirely so it can be parked	Google Voice charges a one-time $20 fee to port in a mobile number, and warns not to cancel the phone plan until it confirms the port is complete	Nobody wants a second line, but the number must stay reachable for months

Parking is usually the honest answer. The estate needs the number to keep receiving codes for as long as accounts are still being closed, not forever, and a ported number never enters the aging pool at all — it remains assigned to and associated with the same consumer. Two mechanics make the port safe rather than risky. First, the old carrier cannot refuse: once service is requested from a new company, the old company cannot refuse to port the number even if money is owed for an outstanding balance or termination fee, and simple ports must be processed in one business day. Second, no cancellation call is needed afterwards — with Verizon, once the new carrier connects the same number you moved, your Verizon account closes automatically.

What blocks the transfer that nobody sees coming?#

Locks and timers, and all of them sit on the deceased person's side of the account.

Blocker	What it does	How it clears
Verizon Number Lock	Prevents the number from moving to another carrier at all	Must be turned off first — Verizon states you must turn off Number Lock before moving a number
Verizon Number Transfer PIN	Authorizes the port alongside the Verizon account number	Expires after 7 days, so generate it only when the new carrier is ready
Verizon prepaid delay	Turning off Number Lock on a prepaid line starts a waiting period	15 minutes before a Number Transfer PIN can be generated; postpaid lines have no such wait
AT&T Wireless Account Lock	Disables account changes including porting of mobile numbers, SIM and eSIM swaps, and number changes	Toggled in the myAT&T app by the account owner, or by someone the owner previously granted secondary online access
FCC SIM-swap and port-out rules	47 CFR 52.37 requires providers to use secure methods to authenticate a customer that are reasonably designed to confirm the customer's identity before effectuating a port-out request, and to train employees on fraudulent port-out attempts	Nothing clears it — expect authentication the family may not be able to satisfy

The FCC adopted those authentication rules at its November 15, 2023 open meeting. Most of the rule text took effect January 8, 2024, with the provisions carrying information-collection requirements delayed; the Commission then waived the compliance deadline for those rules pending OMB review under the Paperwork Reduction Act, so the exact date carriers came under full obligation is muddier than the original notice suggests. The direction of travel is not muddy at all. The rules exist to stop criminals from stealing numbers, and they work exactly as well against a relative holding none of the credentials.

The AT&T Account Lock deserves its own warning, because it turns a paperwork problem into a hardware problem. It is not something a support agent can switch off for you — it lives in the myAT&T app, and if nobody else was ever granted secondary online access to the account, the only place to reach it is the phone in the drawer.

Verizon adds the sequencing rule that trips up the most families: don't disconnect your Verizon line of service until after your number is moved, because otherwise the number must be reactivated before the new carrier can take it. The account has to stay open until the move is complete.

What does each carrier ask for?#

	Verizon	T-Mobile	AT&T
Documents	Death certificate and/or executor paperwork	A death certificate is not required	Death certificate, obituary, or an accident report for the account holder
Account details	Account Owner's name, mobile number, Verizon mobile Account PIN	Account holder's name, mobile number, date of birth, last four of SSN	Account and mobile number, account holder's name, your relationship to them, last four of their SSN
Options offered	Disconnect, transfer the number to another Verizon account, or manage the device	Close the account, or continue service with the same number and device	Transfer billing responsibility, or cancel
Contact	800-922-0204, 8AM-7PM Mon-Sat and 8AM-5PM Sun, or a Verizon Company Store — explicitly not an Authorized Retailer	1-877-746-0909 or 611 from a T-Mobile phone; TTY 1-877-296-1018; T-Mobile for Business 1-866-335-1467	Chat, or 800.331.0500 / 611 from an AT&T wireless phone
Timing	Requests are reviewed in about 3 business days	Not published	Not published

Two other providers come up often enough to name. Xfinity runs a dedicated bereavement path that lets the family either close the account or transfer ownership by uploading documentation — a death certificate, or a Comcast affidavit and photo ID if no certificate is available — and directs account changes by phone to 1-800-XFINITY. Google Fi has no dedicated bereavement desk at all, and after cancellation you receive two final statements, with the billing and refund process taking up to 90 days to complete.

What happens to the phone itself and the payments on it?#

Verizon splits it on whether the device is paid off. If it is fully paid, the family may keep it and the line as-is, disconnect the line only, change to a different number, or trade the device in. If payments remain, they may return the device with the remaining balance forgiven, keep it and continue or pay off the balance, or keep it and disconnect, in which case the remaining balance falls due on the next bill.

AT&T handles it through the transfer instead: an installment plan associated with the line stays active and transfers with the line, and any past-due balance must be paid before the line can move. AT&T also states that early termination and/or Transfer of Billing Responsibility fees won't be charged on the deceased person's line of service, which is worth quoting back if a representative tries to apply one.

The AT&T transfer has timers of its own. The person accepting must complete a credit check with a satisfactory result, the account must have been active for at least 60 days, and an AT&T Next Up installment plan must have been active at least 30 days before it can transfer.

Is prepaid different?#

Very. There is no bereavement desk to call and no transfer to negotiate. There is a refill deadline, and missing it ends the number.

Prepaid service	How long the number survives without payment
Verizon prepaid	Renew within 60 days of the plan renewal date and the account stays active; miss the expiration date and any remaining balance is lost and you may not be able to keep the mobile number
T-Mobile prepaid	Accounts in Not Paid status for more than 120 days may be cancelled and the mobile number lost
AT&T Prepaid	A payment must be made within 60 days of the account balance expiration date, or the account is cancelled and the number lost

If the line is prepaid, the first action is a refill, not a phone call. Thirty or forty dollars buys back the whole timeline above.

What legal authority does the family need?#

The carriers ask for documents; the platforms ask for standing. RUFADAA, the Uniform Law Commission's Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Revised, gives executors, trustees, agents under power of attorney and court-appointed guardians a legal path to manage a person's online accounts and digital property after death or incapacity. All but a handful of states have enacted a version, and the section numbering differs in every one of them — Washington's sits at RCW 11.120 — so work from your own state's enacted text, not the uniform draft.

The limits are the part that decides whether it helps here. As enacted, it establishes a priority order in which a direction the user left through a provider's own online tool overrides a contrary instruction in a will, trust or power of attorney, and those in turn override a contrary provision in a terms-of-service agreement. It gives custodians 60 days from receipt of a valid fiduciary request to comply — longer than the 45-day aging window the number is running on. And the content of electronic communications is disclosed only where the deceased user consented or a court directs it. Authority over an account is not authority to read the messages inside it, which is one more reason the practical route runs through the number and the codes rather than through the courts.

What should you set up now so your own number never becomes the blocker?#

Three things, each of which takes an evening.

• Set up Google Inactive Account Manager. You can select up to 10 people to receive your data and choose all or only specific data types, and trusted contacts are notified only after the account has been inactive for the period you set. It needs a working phone number for the trusted contact, which is the whole reason the number has to outlive the line.
• Designate an Apple Legacy Contact. Up to 5 people can be named; each requests access afterwards at digital-legacy.apple.com using the access key shared with them at setup, plus a copy of the death certificate for Apple to review.
• Write down the port-out credentials. The account PIN, the carrier account number, and whether Number Lock or Wireless Account Lock is switched on. Verizon's Number Transfer PIN expires after 7 days, so the standing note should say where to generate one, not contain one.

Those three notes are worth nothing if nobody finds them inside the 45 days, which is the gap a scheduled check-in that releases an encrypted handoff plan is built for: Proceedly pings you on your own schedule, and if you miss it past the grace window, a person you name confirms — or, on a paid plan, it releases automatically — before your instructions reach the people who depend on you. It holds the account PIN's location and the order of operations above, never the passwords themselves.

FAQ#

How long does the family actually have? At least 45 days from permanent disconnection before reassignment is even permitted, and up to 90 days for a residential line or 365 for a business line. Treat 45 days as the real deadline, because the maximum is the carrier's option, not a promise.

Can the family keep the number without keeping the plan? Yes, by porting it rather than cancelling. Google Voice charges a one-time $20 fee to port in a mobile number and instructs users not to cancel the phone plan until Google Voice notifies them the port is complete; after that, the old provider cancels the phone service itself.

Does a death certificate always unlock the process? No, and sometimes it is not even asked for. T-Mobile states that a death certificate is not required to start this process, AT&T will accept an obituary or an accident report instead, and Verizon asks for a death certificate and/or executor paperwork plus the Account PIN.

Will the estate be charged an early termination fee? Not at AT&T, which states that early termination and/or Transfer of Billing Responsibility fees won't be charged on the deceased person's line of service. Device balances are separate: Verizon forgives the remaining balance if the device is returned, and bills it on the next statement if the line is simply disconnected.

Can you check whether a number has already gone to someone else? Not as a member of the public. Only registered Callers and Caller Agents may query the Reassigned Numbers Database, and consumers cannot query it about their own number.

What happens to the voicemail greeting? It is destroyed unless it is captured first. T-Mobile warns that transfers or cancellations will result in the permanent deletion of voicemails and greetings and tells families to back up voicemails and record any greetings they want to keep beforehand. Verizon will help save voicemails if the family contacts Verizon before disconnection.

Is a ported number still at risk of being recycled? No. A port is not a permanent disconnection, because the number remains assigned to and associated with the same consumer. The aging clock only starts when someone gives the number up for good.

Sources#

• FCC, Reassigned Numbers Database, and the RND administrator's FAQ
• 47 CFR 52.15(f)(1)(ii), aging of disconnected numbers
• 47 CFR 52.37, SIM change and port-out authentication, and the Federal Register notice for Protecting Consumers from SIM-Swap and Port-Out Fraud
• FCC, Second Report and Order on reassigned numbers (FCC 18-177), and Toll Free Assignment Modernization NPRM (FCC 17-124), for the public-resource precedent on telephone numbers
• FCC, Porting: keeping your phone number when you change providers
• Princeton University, security and privacy risks of number recycling
• NIST, SP 800-63B Revision 4, Digital Identity Guidelines
• Verizon, deceased account handling, disconnect or cancel, port-out FAQs, SIM Protection and Number Lock, prepaid billing FAQs
• T-Mobile, account of a deceased family member, and prepaid suspend or cancel
• AT&T, life events, Transfer of Billing Responsibility, accept billing responsibility, Wireless Account Lock, AT&T Prepaid
• Google, Inactive Account Manager, Google Voice porting, Google Fi cancellation
• Apple, Digital Legacy
• FTC, Debts and deceased relatives
• Uniform Law Commission, Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Revised, as codified at RCW 11.120 (Washington)
• Xfinity, bereavement