Are you a business owner looking to switch phone providers? If you are, you’ll be searching for a solution that has a minimal impact on your business and customers, which is where number porting comes in. Here we provide a detailed guide to number porting, answering key questions such as what it is, how to port numbers and how the process improves your business.
What is number porting?
Number porting is when you move a telephone number from one communications provider (CP) to another. The process often incurs a fee, depending on the CP you’re moving from and the one you are joining. To give an example, if you’re switching from BT to Callroute but still want to keep your existing number, you’ll need to port it.
Why would I want to port a number?
There are many reasons that you and your business might be looking to move providers. Owners might choose to switch because they’ve found a cheaper alternative and their current provider isn’t offering competitive rates in comparison to others on the market. Another reason could be that your current provider isn’t providing the best solution for your business — perhaps your business is looking to move everything to the cloud, for example.
Businesses will often have purchased a lot of numbers in their time as they expand with their provider, and won’t want to lose these when they move to a new one. This would involve purchasing new numbers, assigning them to every staff member and getting all the website, online profiles, collateral, signatures changed, which is very onerous to say the least.
How would number porting help my business?
First and foremost, not porting your existing numbers and buying new ones is a very expensive and completely unavoidable move. Secondly, it can cause huge disruption to your business as you’ll need to go through and change the numbers on things like your website, online profiles and business listings, email signatures, business cards, customer documentation, and more. Moreover, customers are used to reaching you through your current number, and may even get confused by a new one.
How do I port a number?
1. Make sure your number is portable
Firstly, ensure that your number is portable. How do you do this? The easiest way is to just ask your current provider, as they will help test your number for portability and give you an easy answer. One instance where it might not be portable is if you’ve already cancelled your number before porting.
2. Contact your new provider
Contact your new service provider and tell them that you’d like to port your number. To save time, make sure to have handy a recent phone bill, as this contains important information required during the porting process, such as the billing telephone number, account details, services purchased and service address.
3. Complete a number request form
You will then be asked to fill out a number request form, which will require customer and account details, installation address, information about your current telephone service, main billing number, associated numbers, porting details and charges. All of this information is required so your new provider can contact your old one.
4. Send a Letter of Authorisation to the new provider
This refers to a letter that offers your new provider authority to port your number and obtain the required information that facilitates it. Following this and assuming everything is good, your new supplier will begin the porting process. However, with the right provider, this is included in the number porting process, meaning you won’t need to undertake this task yourself.
The benefits of Callroute’s number porting service
Here at Callroute, we provide just this as part of our number porting service, managing the entire process from start to finish and saving you significant time and hassle. Regardless of your business situation and whether you’re porting two numbers or 200, a dedicated Number Porting Account Manager will handle everything on your behalf.
With Frankham Consultancy Group, we implemented the full Direct Routing process from start to finish, including consolidating and porting numbers across multiple locations while also tackling existing Microsoft Teams issues.
Our number porting service can be carried out in line with adoption of our Callroute service integrations, allowing your company to continue operating seamlessly, or any time after you onboard.
