Common issues and questions for porting

Overview

When requesting to port your phone numbers, you may come across these common porting issues. Read this article for common porting issues and how to resolve them.

Note: To make the porting process easier, submit the Customer Service Record (CSR) of the losing provider when you submit a porting request.

This article covers:

• Best practices
• Frequently asked questions
  • What is a losing provider?
  • Can I port my phone numbers?
  • What is a DDI block?
  • Can I call forward my existing numbers to my Zoom Phone account?
  • What is CSR?
  • How long will porting take?
  • When should I cancel my existing service?
  • Will my existing service work during the porting process?
  • Why is my order takes longer than usual?
  • Why is my port request cancelled?
• Common issues
  • Address mismatch
  • Account number missing or invalid
  • Disconnected
  • Incorrect billing telephone number (BTN)
  • Name mismatch
  • Partial port / migration indicator
  • Partial order commit failure
  • Passcode/PIN required or invalid
  • Pending order
  • Lock or freeze
  • Copy of bill is required
  • Authorized name mismatch

Best practices

• Don’t cancel your telephone service with the losing provider. You may be at risk of losing your telephone numbers if your contract is terminated before the transfer request has been completed. Once your transfer is complete, please contact your losing provider to discuss your old service.
• The information you provide must match exactly what’s on record with your losing supplier. If in doubt, please contact your losing supplier for further details.
• If you have broadband installed on any of your porting telephone numbers, you will lose your broadband service once the number port completes. Contact your broadband service provider to go through your options prior to submitting your porting request to Zoom. 
• If you have alarm monitoring services installed on any of your telephone numbers, you may find the number port request is rejected until the alarm monitoring services are moved to another line or ceased if you no longer need them. Contact your alarm service provider for assistance prior to submitting your number porting request to Zoom.

Frequently asked questions

What is a losing provider?

This is the provider that you currently pay your telephone bills to. The losing provider name must always appear on your porting LOA.

Can I port my phone numbers?

Note: For more information, see our articles about requesting a number port.

Local or geographical numbers

We can port your local (sometimes referred to as geographical) numbers in all supported countries. The porting process itself is dependent on your losing provider and their acceptance of the porting request. In some countries, your porting date will coincide with the termination date of your contract with the losing provider, they may even reject the port. It would be advisable for you to check your current contract terms with your provider, note they may apply an early contract termination fee.

Toll-free or non-geographic numbers

We can port toll-free numbers in the US and Canada.

EMEA: We can port freephone / toll-free numbers in the UK and Ireland. Currently, we do not support toll-free porting and international mobile portability in all EMEA countries.

What is a DDI block?

A DDI block is a set of sequential numbers, without any gaps or missing numbers. If the losing provider has built your numbers as a DDI block on their network (or their underlying suppliers network), then they may only allow the numbers to be ported away as a DDI block when you leave them. Contact your losing provider for more details on the numbers you own and if they're part of a DDI block.

As you own all ported in numbers, you will need to add and keep your ported numbers within your Zoom Phone account.

Can I call forward my existing numbers to my Zoom Phone account?

Yes, you can. Contact your losing provider about forwarding to your Zoom Phone account before submitting your porting request.

What is CSR?

A CSR (Customer Service Record) is a document provided by telecom service providers (also known as carriers). This document lists all the telephone numbers and services that belong to a customer who wants to move their services.

How long will porting take?

North America: Porting will take as little as 7 business days, and as long as 10 business days. Most wireless numbers will port in 4 business days; landlines will typically port in 7 business days from major providers, and 10–20 business days from smaller providers (including Canada). 

Latin America: Porting can take up to 60 days

APAC: Porting can take 10 to 12 weeks

EMEA: Porting can take up to 60 days. The UK can take up to 30 days.

We'll keep you updated throughout the porting process, and we'll let you know once we have agreed on a firm porting date with your provider.

When should I cancel my existing service?

Your service must remain active with your losing provider throughout the number porting process. You will be notified by Zoom once your number has successfully transferred and you will be able to cancel your service with your losing provider at that time. Zoom does not cancel your service on your behalf.

Will my existing service work during the porting process?

Your existing service will work as is during the porting process as long as you do not make any account changes. Once your number has transferred to Zoom, your old service will no longer function.

Note: Any service interruption during porting process must be raised to your provider.

Why is my order takes longer than usual?

Porting may take longer than the standard time frame. A lot of factors can contribute to the delays.

Common Reasons:

• Number or account is under legacy or old infrastructure (Complex Port).
• Your provider has an internal number migration (Common with VOIP/Cloud service).
• Records may have been unclear due to company merging.
• Your providers business rules have a long response time frame.
• Could also be possible order volume related.

Why is my port request cancelled?

Your porting request will be cancelled if there are no response or update from you within 15 business days. Some orders will be automatically cancelled if the system detects the following:

• Order have numbers belongs to multiple providers.
• Order have numbers are from multiple locations/addresses.

 

Common issues

Address mismatch

The address submitted on the order does not match the address on the losing provider's Customer Service Record (CSR). Most providers will require the service/physical address be presented on the order, rather than the billing address.

Some countries in Europe and Asia require an address that matches the geographic area code of the porting numbers. Without this, the port request will be rejected and cause delay.

Resolution: Our partners will attempt to pull a CSR to resolve the mismatch. If they cannot obtain the CSR, you will need to obtain the correct information from the provider.

For porting in EMEA and APAC, you will need to contact the losing provider to find out the correct site address for your numbers.

Account number missing or invalid

Account Number Required: The provider requires the account number before approving the port. This generally assists in the verification process to prevent unauthorized ports. The account number is usually different than the account telephone number (ATN) / or billing telephone number (BTN), and is usually found on the bill or CSR. This most common for mobile numbers.

Account Number Invalid: This means that the account number provided on the order does not match what the provider has on file. See above topic for information on the account number.

Resolution: You need to obtain the correct account number, send it to us, and we will resubmit. This can usually be found on the bill or CSR.

Disconnected

The phone number or the account holding the phone number is disconnected or inactive. Sometimes this means that the phone number itself is inactive (rings to a disconnect recording), or that the number is in a status with the provider that indicates an inactive account.

Resolution: All phone numbers need to be active in order to port. You may need to contact your provider to re-establish connectivity.

Incorrect billing telephone number (BTN)

In the US and Canada, when we submit a port request to a provider, we give the BTN/ATN to the provider that was populated on the order. The provider will take that BTN and search for the corresponding Customer Service Record (CSR) to obtain all of the account details in an effort to approve the port request. If the BTN provided on the order does not allow the provider to pull up the account records, they will reject it back to us indicating the BTN is incorrect.

Resolution: Unfortunately, pulling a CSR on an incorrect BTN can prove difficult as providers often use that as a way of searching. You will need to contact the provider and ask them for a CSR. The CSR should detail everything on the account and provide the valid BTN.

In EMEA and APAC countries, you will need to ask your losing provider for the correct BTN (or Main Billing Number) for your porting telephone numbers.

You can also just ask the provider for the proper BTN since some providers won't give a CSR to the end user and will only give it to the asking provider. As long as we have the correct BTN, we should be able to assist in resolving the issue.

Name mismatch

The business or residential name on the order does not match that of the provider's Customer Service Record (CSR).

Resolution: Our partners will attempt to pull a CSR in hopes of resolving the mismatch. If you cannot obtain the CSR, you need to obtain the correct information from the losing provider.

Partial port / migration indicator

Partial port indicates that there are more numbers on the account than you may have initially provided. We need to know what those numbers are and what you would like to do with them.

Migration indicator is the setting on the port request that tells us if you are requesting a full port or partial port.

Both of these settings indicate an incorrect setting with the type of request. For example:

• a partial port, but it's actually a full port; or
• a full port was requested, but you are leaving numbers behind, thus it should be a partial port.

Resolution: The request must be updated to either a partial/full port, depending on rejection. If you plan on leaving numbers behind with the provider, but you're porting the BTN (the main number on the account), you need to provide a new BTN to keep the account intact with the provider. The new BTN needs to be a number that already exists on the same account. We can talk you through this if you were to face this issue.

Partial order commit failure

This is an error you may see when first submitting your request. To fix the error, please update your BTN (Billing Telephone Number) field to reflect one of the numbers you are looking to port. Once updated, you should be able to submit with no issues.

Passcode/PIN required or invalid

Some providers require a PIN or passcode in order to authenticate and approve the port request:

• Passcode/PIN required: Indicates that a passcode/PIN was not provided on the order and needs to be.
• Passcode/PIN invalid: Indicates that the passcode/PIN supplied on the order is not correct, according to the provider's records.

Resolution: Unfortunately, we, nor our porting partners can obtain this information. Obtaining/setting up the PIN can only be done by an authorized user on the account. This is required by all mobile providers.

Pending order

A pending order can be another port request that has been submitted with the same number; a feature added or disconnected, or an address change. If there is an active order on the account, it will prevent your numbers from porting. Even if you only requested a name change or billing address change, they all contribute to a pending order rejection. This could also mean that one or more numbers are being ported on separate orders.

Resolution: If you are not sure what the pending order is, you will need to contact the losing provider to resolve the issue. Sometimes a simple change is delayed in a queue on the provider's side and never completes. Once resolved, we can resubmit the order.

Lock or freeze

A porting application may be rejected because the losing provider placed a freeze on your account or phone number

Resolution: Contact your provider to remove the lock or freeze.

Copy of bill is required

You didn't attach a copy of your bill to the porting request, or your bill is outdated.

Resolution: Upload a copy of your bill that is dated within the last 45 days.

Authorized name mismatch

Your order may be rejected because the person listed on the request is not authorized to make account changes with your provider.

Resolution: Contact your provider and validate the person in their system that's authorized to make changes.