When changing telephone provider, you may want to retain your telephone numbers. This is possible due to a process called porting which requires collaboration between the new supplier and the current supplier. The good news is Plum Communications can handle your porting requirements with the minimum of fuss and have arrangements with many UK providers which means that there is little for you to do except instruct Plum to process the ports for you.
Although porting a number can be complicated or impossible with some providers, Plum have simplified the process by doing it all for you. If you want to know the steps behind the porting process, here is a simple step-by-step guide on what we do.
First, we need to advise you of some common terms, the range holder is the carrier that originally issued the number. The losing provider is the carrier currently providing the service to you. The gaining provider is Plum if we are porting the number from the losing provider. The customer is you and the invoice is the monthly bill you receive from the losing provider.
Check that your number is portable
The first step is we ask you for a list of the numbers you wish to port and request a copy of your invoice so we can check that the numbers belong to you. We can only port numbers which belong to you, if they belong to someone else, we will need to speak to them to gain their permission to port the numbers. You cannot port numbers which are billed to another party unless you have that party’s permission to port the numbers.
Once we have the numbers and the invoice, we confirm the invoice details and if the invoice is from the losing carrier and the carrier is also the range holder, we check that the numbers can be ported, in most cases they can be. Sometimes the losing carrier may not be the range holder when we make further checks that porting is possible.
When the invoice is not from the losing carrier, we make further enquiries, so we have a paper trail from the losing carrier to the invoice provider. This ensures that in the case of query or dispute we have an audit trail of the order.
Note: DO NOT cancel your contract until your business number has been successfully ported. If you cancel it before this is done, you might lose the number.
Why would my business number not be portable?
There are a few situations where your business phone number might not be portable, the two most common are:
If service is cancelled before or during the porting process the order may fail as the number has to be active at the time of porting the number. If the number has been ceased in error speak to Plum to see whether the number can be reactivated.
If the new supplier does not have a porting agreement with the losing provider however there is a process to cater for that situation which we will use if necessary.
Letter of Authority (LOA)
You may be asked to sign a letter of authority; this is a document which will be sent to the losing provider as evidence that you have instructed the port of the number. Although the letter of authority is not always requested it is good practice to have it completed so it can be produced if required and it serves as part of the audit trail in case the order is subsequently queried.
Lead Time
After the request has been made, we submit the porting order which will automatically notify the losing provider and if not disputed the port order will receive a committed date which can be from 4 to 15 days depending on the service the number is being ported from and to.
Where we are providing a replacement service, we will usually configure the new service before the committed porting date to ensure that there is no loss of service. Ports usually complete on weekdays at 10.00 am although for an additional fee other options are available.
Congratulations – Your number has been ported
You’ve moved from your old supplier to Plum.
Remember that although there are many steps Plum Communications will run the processes and make the checks on your behalf.
So now you know how easy it is, get in touch today to port your numbers to Plum.