Porting
Bring the number your customers already have.
The number on your van and your invoices does not have to change. Moving it is routine and takes a couple of weeks. The most useful thing you can do is start it early.
In order
Six steps, and you are waiting for most of them
Porting is largely a conversation between two carriers. These are the points where you are involved.
Step 1: Send us the numbers
Every number you want to move, exactly as it is billed. Main numbers, direct lines, the fax line nobody admits to using. A number left off the list stays with the old carrier.
Step 2: We check each one
Portability is a property of a specific number, not of a place. We check yours against the carrier that holds it and tell you which ones can move before you commit to anything.
Step 3: Send a recent bill and a letter of authorisation
The bill proves the account details the losing carrier matches against: name, service address and account number. A mismatch is the most common reason a port is rejected, and it is usually an old address.
Step 4: Build the system in the meantime
Lines, groups, call flows and handsets are all set up and tested on a temporary number while the port is in flight. Nothing about your current phones changes yet.
Step 5: Pick the cut-over
You choose the date and, within reason, the hour. We confirm it with the losing carrier and tell you the window.
Step 6: The number switches
Calls start arriving on the new system. Your old service stops carrying that number at the same moment, which is why the window matters and why nobody should schedule one for a Friday afternoon.
Things worth knowing first
What decides whether a port goes smoothly
- Do not cancel the old service
- Cancelling releases the number, and a released number cannot be ported; it goes back into the pool. The port itself ends the old service for that number.
- The details must match exactly
- The losing carrier matches the account name and service address character for character. If you moved office and never told them, fix that first.
- Partial ports are possible, and a decision
- You can move some numbers and leave others. Just be deliberate about it: a number left behind still rings somewhere you are no longer looking.
- Two weeks is normal, not slow
- Most ports clear in one to three weeks. Build and test the new system while you wait. That is what the temporary number is for.
We check your numbers before you commit to anything
Send us the list and we will tell you which ones move, how long each will take, and what the cut-over looks like, before there is a date or an order. A few numbering plans hold their numbers in place and cannot be ported by anyone; where yours is one of those, we will say so and set you up on a new number instead.