The demise of traditional ISDN lines is quickly approaching – as from 2020 they will no longer be sold, from 2022 they will no longer be supported and they will be switched off entirely in 2027. As a result of this, more and more businesses are choosing to move to VoIP phone systems.
Moving from a traditional phone system to a VoIP phone system begs the question, how easy is it to port your business telephone number over to VoIP? We have explored the steps you can take to ensure you port your number as smoothly as possible.
When you have selected the right VoIP solution to best fit your business requirements you will begin to port your business phone number(s) to your new service provider. It is important to note that the responsibility of terminating calls to specific numbers, moves from your old provider to your new provider.
You will need to supply your telecoms provider with signed authorisation to port your business numbers, this will be via a Letter of Authority. This will be submitted as a porting request and will be validated and processed between your old and new communication providers.
In regard to lead times, these tend to be agreed between your old and new providers and can take up to 30 working days. With this in mind, we recommend planning ahead when porting your business telephone number, to request a specific date or request for the porting to take place out of hours to avoid any disruption.
Once your number is ported, the number from the additional provider as well as any other services that you ran on that line, such as broadband, will automatically cease so you don’t need to request that your existing provider does this. We strongly recommend adhering to this, as if you do request cancellation from your existing provider this could result in the cancellation of your number altogether.
Want to find out how our telephony solutions can help you increase your productivity and reduce your costs, or just some friendly, impartial advice on the best tools to make comms a breeze? Contact us today via our live chat, 0333 3603 723, or email enquiries.uk@enreach.com.