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Call Porting

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Call Porting

What is Call Porting?

Call porting is the process of transferring a phone number from one phone service provider to another. Basically, it lets you remain in the same geographic area while keeping the existing phone number. Call porting is not similar to call forwarding or temporary switching of phone services. With call porting, you need to close the old account after you’re done with the transition to the new carrier. 

The name “call porting” is derived from the word “port” as port means a connection that allows the flow of information between programs. While customer communication plays a huge importance in today’s time, keeping your phone system updated has become the need of the hour! With call porting, you don’t have to take the risk of changing numbers or missing crucial calls from customers. 

How Call Porting works?

While call porting might seem risky but it’s not. Your phone numbers belong to you and not your phone service providers. The FCC has made customer-centric rules that allow you to transfer your phone number in the case of switching your phone service provider. 

So once you make up your mind to switch your phone services, get in touch with the respective new carrier as they’re responsible for initiating the process of call porting. Your old carrier isn’t authorized by FCC to keep your existing phone numbers, no matter if you owe them an outstanding termination fee.

While transferring your phone numbers, usually phone service providers don’t take much time and the process is completed within 30 days. However, there are no rules defined by FCC related to the time required for completing call porting. It’s important not to cancel your old service until your new number becomes fully active and starts working. On canceling your service with the previous carrier before the completion of porting might make you lose your number. 

For call porting, you should be the primary account holder of that number and give proofs for the same. You’ll need to fill some forms for compliance too!

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What is the difference between call porting and call forwarding?

As prospects are likely to call on your main business line, there are chances when you might miss it. Therefore, you should be able to take calls other than your office if you don’t want to miss the important ones. That’s where call forwarding comes into place and it’s different from porting phone numbers. 

Call forwarding, also known as call diversion, is a telephonic feature that seamlessly intercepts an incoming call and directs it to another number (programmed by you) automatically. In this case, your phone service provider acts as a bridge that helps your call reach the desired number. Whereas if you want to shift all of your phone numbers to a different phone service provider, it is referred to as call porting. 

There’s a crystal clear difference between call porting and call forwarding. Call forwarding focuses on directing calls from one number to another one, irrespective of provider. With call porting, you’re supposed to move all the numbers from an existing phone service provider to another. By leveraging a cloud-based phone system, it becomes easy to forward calls and you can send them to unlimited forwarding numbers.

What are the advantages of call porting?

In the earlier times, switching a phone service provider meant getting a new phone number. Due to this, companies used to stick with their vendors for a longer time than required for avoiding the hassle of changing phone numbers.  

With effective call porting, it becomes easy for your brand to upgrade business communication providers without informing your existing clients or stakeholders as the phone number hasn’t changed and is still the same. In this case, every feature continues to work as intended, while making your organization reap the benefits of using a supportive communication provider.

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A look inside the best practices for call porting

  • Ensure to collect all the required documents and information for the new service provider that you’re going to port your number to.
  • For initiating call porting, leverage a proper Letter of Authorization (LOA) for the specific geographical area.
  • Always make sure that the Letter of Authorization should be similar to the one that’s listed with the losing carrier.
  • Determine the real carrier for VoIP services.
  • Seek acceptance from both the parties especially when there exists a range holder (an additional carrier which is also known as the subsequent port).
  • The transfer should be sanctioned by an authorized person only. 
  • Don’t cancel your old numbers before the new ones become up and running.  
  • Always wait for your trial period to get over before considering a call porting.  
  • Make sure you have a physical address proof or a national identification card to present if needed. 
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How Voxco can help you make the most of your call porting?

The following are a few features that ACDs have:

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Survey organizations around the world have maximized their phone survey ROI with the advanced features, hosting options, seamless telephony integration, and flexible pricing of our CATI software.

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Call Porting: FAQs

Call porting is the process of transferring a phone number from an existing phone service provider to another.

Porting means moving a particular phone number to another service provider permanently, as the account with the previous service provider becomes closed.

On switching a service provider and staying in the same geographic area, you can continue using your existing phone number. This process is known as call porting or phone number porting.

Porting a number means changing the service provider from one to another while keeping the same phone number. It’s a very simple process that lets you transfer numbers effortlessly from one carrier to another.

The cost of porting is based on the type of number that you want to port and the total number of contacts that you want to transfer. Although, a termination fee might be charged by your old carrier.

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