Keeping your existing phone numbers is the part of switching providers that scares everyone, and fairly so — a botched port means missed calls and angry customers. We've ported thousands of numbers into our network from Ocoee, Florida. Here's the honest version of how it works, what it costs, where ports actually fail, and what you can do to make yours go smoothly.
What porting is and what it costs
Number porting (LNP, Local Number Portability) moves a phone number from your current carrier to ours. The number stays the same. Your callers don't know anything happened.
- $15 per number on our standard porting. Most carriers charge somewhere between $10 and $25.
- Timeline: 7–14 business days for most local numbers in the U.S. Toll-free can be faster (3–7 days). Some rural CLECs and small ILECs are slower (3–4 weeks).
- No downtime if it's done right. Your current service keeps working until the port "FOCs" (Firm Order Commit date), at which point it cuts over within a few minutes during business hours.
What porting does NOT do
Porting moves the number. It does not cancel your old service. If you have a contract or bundled internet, those continue until you cancel them separately. People miss this all the time and end up double-paying for a month.
What porting CAN'T do
Porting only works between carriers in the same country. A US number can move from AT&T to us; a UK number can't move to a US phone system through porting. Cross-border, the only options are number forwarding or replacement.
What we need from you
Three pieces of paperwork:
- LOA (Letter of Authorization) — one-page form you sign authorizing the port. We send it.
- Recent bill from your current carrier — within the last 30 days, must show the account number and service address exactly as the carrier has it.
- List of numbers — main number, DIDs, fax lines, anything you want moved.
The single most common rejection reason is a mismatch between the service address on the LOA and the address your current carrier has on file. If you've moved offices and never updated the carrier, fix that first. If your business name changed (LLC to corp, DBA shift, acquisition), make sure the LOA matches the name on the bill — not the name on your storefront.
Authorized signers
The person signing the LOA needs to be authorized on the account at the losing carrier. If you're the office manager but the account is in the founder's name, the founder needs to sign. Carriers will reject mismatched signatures.
What about cell phone numbers?
You can port a cell number into a business VoIP system. We do this regularly for owners and salespeople who want to keep their long-standing personal cell as their business line. The catch: once it's a VoIP number, it stops being a cell number. SMS works (with registration), but it can't roam onto a foreign carrier the way a SIM-bound cell number can. If you're porting a number that someone still wants on a physical cell, route it through Pro Mobile instead.
The timeline, step by step
- Day 0: You sign the LOA and send the bill. We submit the port request to your carrier.
- Day 1–3: The carrier validates the request. If anything mismatches, they reject — we resubmit. Most rejections are paperwork, not technical.
- Day 3–7: Carrier returns a FOC date — the day the number actually moves.
- Before FOC: We provision your phones, softphones, IVR, and routing. Test calls go to the new system using temporary numbers so we know everything works before the port.
- FOC day: The number cuts over, usually mid-morning. Your old service stops, our service takes over within minutes.
- Day after: We verify call flow, voicemail, and caller ID. Done.
Can you pick the FOC date?
Sort of. You can request a date, and the losing carrier either accepts it or comes back with a different one based on their queue. Mondays are heavy; Tuesday through Thursday porting is generally smoother. Avoid Fridays unless you want a weekend of "my number doesn't ring" texts.
What about emergency or expedited ports?
Some carriers offer expedited porting for an extra fee, typically $50–$100 per number. It can shave a few days off the timeline but doesn't eliminate the underlying carrier-side delays. Worth it if you're facing a hard deadline; not worth it for a routine switch.
Where ports go wrong
Three failure modes show up over and over:
- Bundle lock-in. If your phone is bundled with internet, security, or TV from the same carrier, they may refuse to port the number until you unbundle. Resolve that before submitting.
- PIN required. Some wireless and cable carriers require a transfer PIN. Call your carrier and get it before we submit, or the port bounces.
- Contract penalties. Porting doesn't cancel your service — it just moves the number. If you're under contract, you still owe the early-termination fee unless you wait it out.
- Numbers tied to specific physical addresses. Some carriers have provisioned numbers in places the customer didn't realize (alarm panel address, suite number on bill vs. signed lease). Mismatches block the port.
- Centrex and other legacy services. Some old Centrex configurations require special handling and can stretch ports to 4+ weeks.
- Hostage scenarios. A small number of carriers genuinely drag their feet on outbound ports. There's a regulatory process for this (FCC complaint) but it's slow. The carrier reputation for porting cooperation is something to ask about before you sign up with anyone new.
We've seen every variation. We tell you up front if your numbers look risky.
What if my port gets rejected?
Rejection isn't fatal. We get a rejection code, look at why, fix the paperwork, and resubmit. Resubmits cost nothing extra. Plan on the timeline restarting from the day we resubmit, not from Day 0.
What happens to your service during onboarding
While the port is in flight (usually 7–14 days), we build your phone service — extensions, IVR, ring groups, voicemail, hold music, integrations. Phones ship pre-configured. You test on temporary numbers, and the day the port FOCs, your real numbers go live on the working setup.
If you have integrations to set up — Microsoft Teams, a CRM, property management software through AppFolio or Rent Manager — we configure that during the same window. The port and the build run in parallel.
Day-of-port playbook
On FOC day, have someone available to make a test call to the main number around 10 AM ET. We monitor the port confirmation from the losing carrier and follow up if it lags. Once we see the port complete, we make a verification call from outside the network, check voicemail flow, and confirm caller ID. If anything is wrong, we have the day to fix it.
What can go wrong on FOC day
Rare but real: the losing carrier doesn't release the number on time. Usually a few hours of delay, sometimes a full day. We chase it. In the meantime, calls to your number may temporarily fail or route to old voicemail. We tell you when this is happening so you can post on your website or send a text broadcast to key customers.
What to ask before porting
- Is the number bundled with any other service that would block the port?
- Is there a transfer PIN required by my current carrier?
- Does the service address on the bill match where I actually do business today?
- Who is the authorized signer on the account?
- Are there any specialty numbers (alarm, elevator, fax) on the list? Some need extra steps.
- What's the contract end date with the losing carrier?
- Do we have any numbers we no longer use but are still paying for? Port the ones we want, drop the others when we cancel.
Common mistakes
- Canceling old service before the port completes. You'll lose the number. Cancel after the port FOCs.
- Submitting the wrong bill. The bill has to be current (within 30 days) and match. Old bills get rejected.
- Porting one number to test the process. Sounds reasonable; in practice it just doubles the work. Port the whole list at once.
- Not warning customers. Even with no downtime, port day is a good time to tell key clients you're moving providers in case anything blips.
- Forgetting fax and alarm lines. They're often on separate accounts. Get them on the list.
- Underestimating the LOA paperwork detail. The exact business name and address matter. "Acme Inc." and "Acme, Inc." are different to a carrier's port-validation system.
What we don't do
We don't promise instant ports — the timeline is set by the losing carrier and the regulator, not by us. We don't port numbers from countries we don't operate in (US/Canada are our main porting footprint). We don't charge for resubmits when the losing carrier rejects on a paperwork technicality. And we don't tell you a port is clean when we know it's risky — if your carrier is known for being slow, we'll say so.
Toll-free porting specifics
Toll-free numbers (800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, 888) port through a different system than local numbers. Each toll-free number has a "RespOrg" (Responsible Organization) that owns its routing in the central database. To port, your current RespOrg has to release the number to ours. The process is faster than local porting (often 3–7 days) but the RespOrg release can stall if your current carrier doesn't move quickly. We've seen toll-free ports finish in 4 days and we've seen them drag to 3 weeks. Most are in the 5–10 day range.
If your toll-free number is in a vanity database
Vanity toll-free numbers (1-800-FLOWERS-style) usually carry the same porting rules but may be tied to your existing carrier's terms in a way that requires extra paperwork. Get clear ownership confirmation before porting.
International numbers: what we can and can't do
We provide US and Canadian phone service. If you have UK, AU, or EU numbers you want to keep, we can't port them — they stay with a local carrier and we provide call forwarding to your US-based phone system. Some customers run that pattern (Canadian numbers ported to us, UK numbers forwarded) without issue. The catch is that international forwarded calls bill at the originating carrier's rate, which is usually fine but worth checking before assuming.
What if we're a foreign company opening a US presence?
You don't need to port anything — just buy fresh US numbers from us during onboarding and route them however you like. We can issue numbers in any US area code and provide local presence in markets where you don't have offices. Pricing is the same as any other DID.
What happens to voicemail history
Voicemails on your old system don't transfer. The old carrier's voicemail box stays with the old carrier. If you have voicemails you want to keep, download them from the old portal before you cancel. Most carriers support voicemail download as MP3 or WAV; some require you to call the box and play them back. Plan for this before port day, not after.
Real porting scenarios we've seen
A law firm with 12 attorney DIDs and 3 toll-free numbers ported to us last fall. We split it into two batches: toll-free first (faster), local DIDs second. Total time from kickoff to all numbers live: 18 business days. Zero downtime.
A real estate team with 22 agent numbers across two area codes ported in one batch over 11 business days. One number rejected because the agent's name on file at the losing carrier was "Robert" and the LOA said "Bob." We resubmitted with the legal name and it cleared in 2 days.
A multi-site healthcare practice with 47 numbers across 4 sites in 3 states ported in three batches over 22 business days. We staggered the FOC dates so each site cut over on a different day, with our team on-call for each cutover. Zero patient-facing downtime.
Where to start
Send us a recent bill and the list of numbers you want to keep. We'll tell you within 24 hours whether the port looks clean. See pricing for the phone service those numbers will land on, or get started and we'll handle the rest. If you want to talk through a complex port (mixed carriers, dozens of DIDs, multiple sites) before committing, contact us and we'll put a porting specialist on it. We've done large batch ports for multi-location chains and they go fine — they just need a project plan and a single point of contact on your end.