Number porting may be a term that you have either used or at least heard before, the nature of this article is to outline the process of porting a telephone number from one telecommunications service provider to another.
Porting is a way of keeping your current number; a good means of porting is to port what would seem like a fixed line phone number into a virtual environment. The benefits of doing this is that your personal number then becomes more transferable and thus more manageable, so you can keep it for life and any calls to that number can follow you anywhere whether for business, travel or personal use.
We must first state that when ever porting you should first check with your current provider before starting the process as they may have some deep embedded caveats when porting your number, companies can charge a small fortune if you want to keep your number and move it to another provider.
There may be two reasons for this; one, your current carrier just wants to make a last bit of money from you before you say goodbye, or, a more valid reason would be that they had originally paid for you to port your number into their network and they wish to recuperate that cost(if they haven’t done so already).
Usually porting numbers outside of the USA and Canada can incur a one off porting charge. This is usually for porting in (transferring your number to a new carrier) rather than porting out (moving from your current provider to another).
If companies charge for both then that would be their decision to do so.
What is the process?
The process believe it or not is pretty straight forward its just a pain in the backside as you have to get all the right documents and information in place before you can proceed.
With good hand holding by your new carrier this should be a breeze and the process almost takes care of itself.
Once you have done your bit by providing the right information the port process will be in motion and you should be kept in the loop on the stages that follow. Your new service provider should be the go between you and your provider that you’re porting away from, this will make the process almost seamless.
Required Documents
Letter of Authorization (LOA)
This document will show your address, name and phone number on the headed paper of your new carrier. The detail of an LOA basically states that you are the owner of your number and agree to move your number from your current carrier to your new one. You will then be required to date and sign this document.
Proof of ownership
This can simply be a copy of a bill from your current provider that shows both your account number, phone number and the address and name on this document should match the details that appear on the LOA (above).
Identification
This can be a copy of your passport or driving license. Again matching the details on the 2 documents above.
Service Pin/Passcode
You may be requested to provide your service PIN or Passcode, this would have been setup at the start of your agreement with your current carrier. You can easily obtain this information by contacting your current provider and requesting it.
How Long Does It Take?
Once all of this information has been gathered and passed over to your new service provider, they will then submit this information to your current carrier to initiate the port process on your behalf.
Your current carrier will notify your new service provider of the timeframe of the port, it can usually be quite vague and they will just say 10-14 days or something similar.
Be aware that the process can take anywhere from 1 week to 4 weeks depending on the status of your current number and how quickly your current carrier processes everything.
When the port takes place you should suffer no downtime, your new carrier should be prepared to accept your newly ported number and any setup of your new service should be done prior to the port actually taking place, this will avoid any downtime.
If you wish to keep your current number but have the flexibility to manage how calls are delivered to you from that number (no matter where you are in the World), then you must visit www.voicerules.com, there are lots of options available to you to manage your phone numbers and also inbound and outbound calls.
VoiceRules is a clever app for managing all your voice communications in-house with no technical expertise.
www.voicerules.com
