Number Porting

Jul 20, 2018 | User Guides

number porting
number porting
Number porting is a necessary process when making the move from a traditional phone system to a IP phone system. The process involves both carriers confirming exactly which numbers need to be ported over from losing carrier to Aatrox Communications.

While in theory number porting doesn’t sound like a very complicated process, in practice this needs to go through many confirmation stages between us and the losing carrier. Depending on the speed of the communication to confirm specific details, this can take between 2-8 weeks to get the whole process completed.

Porting 1300/ 1800 numbers is generally the easiest and quickest, generally only taking between 2 – 10 days.

Australia geographic location numbers however often take longer, and fall into two categories:

Cat A Port

This is a very simple port and is the quickest port to happen as it is an automated porting process. If all goes smoothly, we are looking at between 2-4 weeks to get this ported.

Cat C Port

This is a complex port and is required if there are services attached on the losing providers end.

We usually submit a Cat A port first, and if additional services are attached to the number, the request will be rejected due to it being a Complex Service. We then resubmit the port as a Cat C Port.

At this stage it’s important to have all the numbers which are involved with the Complex Service from the customer, otherwise it will come back being rejected once again. Without the numbers supplied from the customer, we are required to submit a PNV (Pre Port Validation) to identify which numbers are required to be ported.

This is the porting situation that can take the longest, approximately 8 weeks, due to the amount of communication between carriers required and delays in communication.

Complex Services

Number porting can be considered complex if there are a large amount of numbers to be ported at the one time, or if there are any of the following services attached to the number:

  • Faxstream Duet/ Enhanced Faxstream
  • Siteline
  • Line Hunt
  • Ant1
  • Onramp2
  • Onramp 10, 20, 30
  • CVPN

Note: This is not an exhaustive list of services often attached to numbers that are considered complex, and these may vary depending on the carrier.

The day before the number port is scheduled, we gain access to your numbers that you are porting. This is to ensure there is no downtime when the port is finalised, as we will set up your inbound rules on your IP phone system and enter them into your SIP trunk before you begin using them.

For more information on number porting, visit our number hosting page, or contact us for more information.