number porting

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Staying Out of Porting Purgatory: What You Need to Know if You Want To Keep Your Phone Number

Finding yourself suddenly without your business phone or fax numbers because of a porting pitfall can be more than an inconvenience: imagine having to change numbers on all of your printed business material, from business cards to brochures; updating websites; reaching out to all your contacts; and trying to remember everywhere you’ve listed your numbers. Then there are contracts, accounts, and other filings that you will have to go back and update if you are forced to get new numbers. Avoiding that is worth reading some fine print and understanding how to port a number from a VoIP or online fax carrier before you need to do so.

In these days of mobile technology, your VoIP phone or online fax number is more than just a convenience; it is a vital part of any business’s communications, whether you’re a sole proprietor or part of a company with 100 employees. It’s easy to take for granted that you’ll always be able to keep our phone and fax numbers, since many providers allow you to port an existing number in or out to a new service.

But what happens if you get a phone or fax number with a VoIP or online fax provider that doesn’t allow you to take that number with you when you change to a new provider? While number portability is common, it’s not a given, and in fact some companies have steep penalties for taking a number with you to another service. Others make porting possible, but only if you follow an exact series of steps or agree to pay a fee.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress first mandated number portability in 1996, and that means that all telecommunications carriers must allow number porting. However, some carriers refuse to port out numbers by claiming that they’re not telecommunications carriers, and that they therefore aren’t subject to number porting rules.

Carriers that have successfully made that claim, including online fax companies owned by J2 Global, Inc., have done so by stating that their cloud services exempt them from U.S. telecommunications services regulation. In other words, even though they transmit information over telephone lines, the service they provide can be classified as “information services” instead of “telecommunications services.”

“Ports involve a ‘losing carrier,’ and most of the pitfalls arise around the losing carrier not correctly responding to port-out requests, or delaying, or asking for money,” says Andrew Benton, CEO of Charge. “There is a lot of fine print about porting that’s never read when first choosing a service provider. It pays to be careful and ask questions to document what a carrier’s porting procedures are before establishing service. Of course, the losing carrier doesn’t have any incentive to assist you when switching service. This is an obvious source of issues.”

Benton says that in order to port most non-mobile numbers – including “virtual” numbers from VoIP providers – you need a Letter of Authorization, often provided by the new carrier you’re trying to port into.

For instance, Nextiva and RingCentral are among those whose porting policies require a LOA in order to port a number out. Others, like Google Voice (a free service) require you to unlock your number before porting it out, and pay a $3 fee.

Almost all providers require you to keep your number active while going through porting, another detail which can be easy to overlook. Paying attention to details like the wording in the LOA and keeping the account active can make or break a porting experience.

“Porting is really a straight forward process as long as you follow the carriers guidelines,” says David Xiong, vice president of technology with JDigital Voice. “Most of the time, that includes making sure the phone is currently active and not disconnected and making sure you correctly spell the name of the business on the LOA form to match exactly the invoice. That is the BIGGEST problem people have. You MUST make sure you follow the spelling of the name EXACTLY. Any character wrong and it poses a potential to get rejected. Every period, comma or LLC extension must match exactly. Not following these two guidelines will get your port request rejected.”

John Kinskey, founder of AccessDirect, Inc., says number porting in general can be an arcane and often confusing process “If you’re ever having trouble getting a number ported, I really recommend contacting a supervisor and explaining, plainly, what you are trying to do. Porting numbers doesn’t come up enough where frontline customer service is fully trained to answer those questions.”

Some providers simply don’t allow porting at all. J2 companies, which include online fax providers eFax and MyFax, put language in their customer agreements about not porting numbers out (in all caps for added emphasis!): “YOU FURTHER UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE NOT THE OWNER OF ANY eFAX NUMBER ASSIGNED TO YOU BY j2 GLOBAL. OWNERSHIP OF ANY SUCH eFAX NUMBER IS VESTED SOLELY IN j2 GLOBAL…YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM CAUSING OR ATTEMPTING TO CAUSE THE eFAX NUMBER ASSIGNED TO YOUR ACCOUNT TO BE TRANSFERRED TO ANY OTHER SERVICE PROVIDER, TELEPHONE CARRIER OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY.” What’s more, if you do port a number from a J2 carrier to another service, whether intentionally or by accident, J2 will automatically charge your credit card $500.

Benton says that since carriers like eFax do not consider themselves telecommunications carriers, they’ve been able to refuse to port out numbers. Whether or not that would hold up in court remains to be seen, he adds.

The bottom line is that it pays to do some advance reading before picking a VoIP or Internet fax provider. Chances are that you won’t stay with the same provider forever, and if you don’t want an unpleasant and expensive surprise when it comes time to change to a new service, you should know your options before committing to a provider.

A Step By Step Guide To Porting a Fax Number

April 22, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

If you’re interested in signing up for an online fax service but are hesitant because you don’t want to change your established land line fax number, there’s good news: many services allow you to port over your existing fax number. Porting a fax number simply means transferring an existing fax number in to a new provider. That way you’re set up with a new service that saves you the money you were spending on a landline, and no one faxing to you or receiving faxes from you will know the difference.

Here’s what that process would look like.

To quickly learn which online fax services offer fax number porting, visit FaxCompare Internet fax list page and select the feature filter box marked “fax number porting.” This will automatically rule out any services that don’t offer that feature.

You can get a closer look at the differences between each company and plan by clicking the “mark to compare” box beside each service provider, for up to five comparisons at a time. You then can see individual plans side by side, like this:

Once you’ve browsed the information about each provider and selected the one you want to sign up with, click the red “visit website” button to go to that provider’s site and sign up.

Depending on the provider, you might be able to sign up with a free trial, or go directly to whichever plan you’ve selected. Either way, you’ll be asked to provide your payment and contact information to get started. Once you’re signed up, you should contact customer support to start the process of porting your existing fax number, either by phone, email, or a chat. Many services will initiate the offer of a chat to answer questions during the signup process.

Let the provider know that you want to port your existing fax number into the service. The representative will request your number and will verify that it is portable before setting up the porting. Typically, in order to port an existing number into a service, you must first verify that the number is eligible for transfer, and that transferring the number won’t affect other services or contractual agreements you have with your current provider.

You might be asked to fill out a request form, but the new provider will handle the actual transfer. The process may take up to a few days, after which time you’ll be notified that the porting is complete. And then you’ll be up and running!

Porting A Number

January 21, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

What Is Fax Number Porting, And Why Would You Need It?

Porting a fax number means transferring an existing fax number in to a new provider, or porting out a fax number to a telecom or another fax provider.

Why would you want to port a number? If you have an existing fax number that’s printed on marketing materials and that customers or other businesses already know, it makes sense to keep that number. Likewise, it would make sense to take your existing number with you, should you switch providers.

Porting A Number Into A Fax Service

Most fax companies make this an easy process, and some even provide it for free. Among providers that charge a fee, many will offer a discount if you’re looking at a large number (more than 50, for instance) of ports.

Typically, in order to port an existing number into a service, you must first verify that the number is eligible for transfer, and that transferring the number won’t affect other services or contractual agreements you have with your current provider.

If you are able to port your current number, you would then sign up for service with the online provider you’re interested in and contact the provider to let them know you’d like to port a number in. You’ll need to fill out a request form, and then the new provider will handle the transfer for you.

Porting A Number Out Of A Fax Service

Porting out a number can be more complicated. While some fax companies have a policy that a number belongs to a customer and they may do with it as they please, others say the exact opposite. Fax providers owned by j2 Global – which include major brands like eFax, MetroFax, MyFax, TrustFax, RapidFax, Send2Fax, and Fax.com – fall under the latter category. Providers owned by j2 Global expressly prohibit the transfer of a number assigned to you to another provider. If you try anyway, you may be subject to a $500 fee.

There is an exception to the non-porting policy: if you ported in a number, it is yours to port out as well. And if your provider is a traditional phone company of VoIP service, you should also be able to port your number out relatively easily.

Typically porting out a number is similar to porting one in: keeping your service active while you complete the transfer, you would request a letter of agreement from the new provider, which will then contact the current provider. Once portability is verified, the new provider will make the switch.

image via Creative Commons