Porting Your Telephone Number

The Local Number Porting (LNP) process can be a challenging and pitfall-ridden experience, even for people who have done countless numbers of ports.  The following information is meant to help people remember what we can and cannot do and what things can be done to help make the process as simple as possible.

LNP Process Limitations

– Number porting cannot occur on weekends or holidays.

– Requested FOC date MUST be between 15 and 30 days from date of case submission

– All information required for porting is dependent on what the Losing Service Provider (LSP) has on file.  It is against this information that submitted cases are evaluated and frequently rejected.

– LNP requests of greater than 100 telephone numbers (TNs) will need to be worked as a project with our winning porting partner and can experience delays when porting.  Please ensure to set realistic expectations with your end-user.

– LNP processes require the coordination of multiple groups.  This requires constant communication and monitoring to ensure that if information is requested, it is provided in a timely fashion to ensure the desired firm order commitment (FOC) date is achieved.

– RESPORG (toll-free numbers) and LNP must be worked in separate cases.

– LNP cases may not contain TNs that span multiple origination providers (ie, some numbers are provided by Verizon, others by Comcast, etc).  This can be an issue if the losing provider is an interconnect and not a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC).

– Typically we will NOT be able to retain Directory Listings (DL).  If this is a must for your port to retain the DL.  Please give us all information the listing should provider PRIOR to the port.

– A number that is disconnected CANNOT be ported.  First ensure the number is active on the account.  All ports must have the account with the losing provider in good standing (lack of payment can lead to rejections)

– Expedites will incur a charge and can only be worked prior to submitting to us the Service Provider.  The charges will vary depending on the rate center/origination provider and must be documented in the case that the reseller will accept the charges.

LNP Process Outlined

– Re-seller identifies a set of phone numbers that need to be ported from the end-user / customer.

– Re-seller begins gathering information required for the porting process.  This should include the following:

• Copy of Bill from the End-User – It is desired to have the following information included:
  • Service Address on file with the LSP
  • Phone Numbers provided by the LSP
  • Account Number
  • Authorized Person (sometimes present on bill)
  • Company Name receiving service
• Letter of Authorization (LOA) for local numbers – The document requires the following information:
  • Billing Telephone Number (BTN)
  • Losing Carrier Name
  • Losing Carrier Account Number
  • Company Name
  • Service Address on file with the LSP
  • Customer Account Contact including title and contact number
  • Numbers to be ported – this MAY be a superset of what is being ported, but MUST include all numbers being requested to port.
  • Authorized person on the account with LSP
  • Printed name of Authorized person
  • Signature of Authorized person
  • Date of Signature (Note: LOA MUST be signed within 30 days of request or risk becoming invalid)
• Customer Service Record – This document is requested of the LSP and should detail information such as:
  • Account Number
  • Service Address
  • Phone numbers associated with the account

– Once the re-seller has obtained as much of this information as possible and done due diligence in cross-checking the information between the documents, a new porting case can be entered within the portal.

Most Common Rejections

– Pending order on the account – Do not submit a port until all changes have been confirmed completed and closed.

– Address Mismatch – If a client is moving for instance, do not use the NEW address.  We need the address the losing provider has on file. Again note, this will almost never be a PO Box.

– Migration indicator – If there are other Telephone Numbers on the same account you are porting, some providers will require to define the disposition of the remaining Telephone numbers.  Double check that all of your client’s Telephone numbers are accounted for prior to submitting to Nex Gen Telecom.

– If you know there are additional numbers on the account you are NOT porting, be sure to put the numbers in the numbers to NOT be ported list.

– It will never hurt to define the disposition of the TN’s you are not porting – if you are going to keep service on all remaining lines, define one new BTN and one number not to be ported and state in comments remaining service will stay intact, or disconnect remaining TN’s after port completion.

Below is the form to port your telephone number: