Porting Numbers 

The Porting Process (Local Number Portability or LNP)

The process of moving your phone numbers from your existing provider to our service takes an average of 10 business days starting when we submit the order. For existing locations, we always install phones with temporary phone numbers that you can use to forward your old phone(s) to. Once the new phones are installed and tested we will initiate the porting process. We are able to port over 95% of US and Canada phone numbers but for remote locations we may not be able to retain your number.

What we need prior to processing an LNP order

1. Permission to port your number(s) in the form of an LOA. LOA will be sent via email.

   For multiple sites, please attach a spreadsheet with the phone numbers, store numbers and addresses. Please verify the phone number is NOT shared with your DSL line!

2. If the order is rejected, we may ask you for a recent copy of your phone bill showing the phone number(s) we are porting.

The Porting Process

1. First we submit the port request with a requested port date of <As soon as possible>

   1. We will register your site address in our 911 database (please verify this address is accurate!)

   2. We will update the CNAM database for outbound caller ID name

   3. We will update the national 411 directory with your information

       

2. In 4‐7 business days we will receive a FOC (Firm Order Commit) from your existing provider and the date and time the number is scheduled to port. We will notify you when this is received.

   1. We may receive a rejection, in which case we may come to you for more information or clarification before resubmitting and starting the process over.

   2. We can request a certain date and time or request the 1st available. Generally we request 1st available and avoid Fridays.

       

3. On the FOC date we will receive notification immediately after the number has successfully ported to our network. Your site should not experience any downtime since you will have call forwarding set up to our temporary phone number.

   1. We will place a test call into the site to verify the number works.

   2. We will remove the temporary phone number in our system

   3. We will notify you that the port is complete

Porting is complete

You should call your old provider and cancel the phone lines and numbers that ported to us. This is not automatic. Please be careful not to cancel lines you left behind like modem and alarm lines.

What we need to make this process easier

If you supply us with the information we need to contact your previous provider on your behalf we can get what we need quicker without your involvement. This includes authorized contacts, passwords, billing addresses, account numbers, etc.

Reasons LNP Orders Are Rejected

Service providers don’t like losing customers so some don’t make this process easy. Rejected orders cause delays, which costs us money. The following are the most common reasons orders are rejected:

‐ Service address you provided doesn’t match the provider’s records

‐ Incorrect authorized contact

‐ Customer name incorrect or not an exact match

‐ Phone number is bundled with other services (shared line DSL, double play bundle)

‐ Account is on a financial hold/freeze for unpaid bills

What happens after a rejection?

We will submit your LNP order with the information provided to us on the master spreadsheet. If an LNP order is rejected we will most likely need to get a “CSR”, or customer service record, from your previous provider. The CSR shows exactly what information they have on file, allowing us to submit the information exactly as it needs to be to match. Sometimes we can get this information from a recent bill copy, but that will not show the authorized contact. If you give us the permission, we can call your provider to get this information (no charge). Once we get updated information or change service around on an account we will resubmit your LNP order.

What Might Go Wrong?

Porting phone numbers involves a number of time‐sensitive, automated and manual processes to be completed in an accurate and timely manner. These are the most common problems we see and how we fix them:

1. Incomplete Port: we receive notification that a port was complete but our test call fails.

   This is normally a programming issue with our wholesale upstream provider or the “losing carrier”. These types of issues are generally resolved within 5‐15 minutes and are the reason we schedule all ports for 8‐9am CST so we have time to fix before most locations are open.

    

2. Partial Inbound Routing Problem: this is when a port is complete and our test calls are successful but we receive notification that certain people can’t call the number.

   This happens because the losing carrier did not remove the phone number from their database and their customers cannot call the number because they think it’s still installed on the old service. We can generally fix this within 1‐2 hours of diagnosis during business hours by calling the losing carrier’s LNP department. If this is discovered on a weekend it will not be fixed until the next business day. Unfortunately we can only react to this issue when it is brought to our attention and it generally affects only a particular group of customers.

    

3. Early Cancel: this is when we have a scheduled port date (FOC) and the losing carrier shuts off service a day or a week early. 

   If this happens we may be looking at an extended outage as we will have to attempt to trigger a port early or may be forced to reinstate the line with the losing carrier and resubmit a new port order.