Appendix B — DID Porting Fundamentals

What porting is

Number porting is the process of moving an existing phone number from one carrier to another. Federal law (Local Number Portability) requires carriers to allow this. The number stays the same; the underlying carrier and routing changes.

Most partners need to port numbers regularly because customers come to you with numbers they've had for years and don't want to change.

The actors

Three parties in every port:

• Customer — owns the number, signs the LOA
• Losing Carrier (LSC) — currently provides service; loses the number
• Gaining Carrier (us, via the platform) — receives the number; will route calls going forward

The customer initiates by signing a Letter of Authorization (LOA) authorizing the gaining carrier to take over.

Information you need from the customer

For each number being ported:

• Phone number(s) — including main and any DIDs they want to bring
• Current carrier name (Verizon, AT&T, Spectrum, RingCentral, etc.)
• Account number with the current carrier
• PIN / passcode for that account (some carriers require this)
• Account holder name — the legal name on the carrier account, exactly as it appears on the bill (capitalization matters)
• Service address — exactly as it appears on their carrier bill
• Most recent carrier bill — PDF, ideally less than 30 days old
• Signed LOA — see template below

Get all of this before submitting. Missing information is the #1 cause of port rejections.

Letter of Authorization (LOA) template

A simple LOA includes:

LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION (LOA)
FOR PORTING TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Date: [date]

I, [account holder name], authorized representative of
[business name], hereby authorize [your brand name] and
its underlying telecommunications partner to act as my
agent in transferring the following telephone number(s)
from [current carrier name] to their service:

  [number 1]
  [number 2]
  ...

The service address for these numbers is:
  [street address]
  [city, state, ZIP]

The current carrier account number is: [account number]

I confirm I am authorized to make this change.

Signature: ____________________
Name (printed): _______________
Title: ________________________
Date: _________________________

PDF or scanned image is fine. The signature must be the actual account holder, not their assistant.

Submitting the port

Top nav → Numbers → Port Numbers In.

Click New Port Request. Fill in:

• Number(s) being ported
• Current carrier
• Account holder name + account number + PIN
• Service address
• Customer's tenant (which tenant the numbers go to once active)
• Desired port date (we'll honor if reasonable; carrier sets the actual FOC date)

Upload the LOA and the most recent carrier bill.

Click Submit. You'll get a port request ID. Track its status from the same page.

Lifecycle of a port

Status	What it means	Typical duration
PENDING	We've received your submission, not yet sent to carrier	Hours
SUBMITTED	Sent to losing carrier	1-3 business days
FOC_RECEIVED	Carrier confirmed and provided a Firm Order Commit date — the date the number actually moves	1-3 business days after submission
COMPLETED	Number is now on our network. Calls flowing through us.	On the FOC date
REJECTED	Carrier rejected the port. Reason in the notes. Most common: account info mismatch.	Same day as rejection
CANCELLED	You or the customer cancelled before completion	n/a

Total elapsed time from submission to completion: 5-30 business days, with 10-15 being typical for a single number from a major carrier.

Common rejection reasons

Reason	Fix
Account holder name doesn't match	Get the exact name from the carrier bill
Service address doesn't match	Same — copy from the bill verbatim
Account in pending order with current carrier	Customer needs to wait for the pending order to complete or cancel it
Account is part of a multi-line account that hasn't been split	Customer needs to "spinoff" their number from the parent account first
LOA not signed by authorized party	Get a new LOA signed by the actual account owner
Account requires PIN we don't have	Customer gets it from current carrier

When rejected, the port request stays open. Fix the issue, click Resubmit, and the port re-enters the workflow. You don't have to start over.

Porting out

Sometimes a tenant leaves your platform and wants to take their numbers. Don't fight this — it's their right under the law, and being difficult about it makes you a bad actor.

When a tenant tells you they're porting out:

1. Provide the new carrier with the customer's account info (their account = your tenant's account on your platform)
2. Provide the PIN if you have one set; otherwise their account number is usually enough
3. Don't release the DID before the port completes — releasing prematurely will fail the port
4. Once the port completes, the DID returns to your inventory automatically (or you can reassign it)

Customers who port out and have a smooth experience often come back when their next provider lets them down. Burning the relationship guarantees they won't.

Practical tips

• Order phone numbers in batches. Most ports are bundles of 5-50 numbers. Get all the info upfront for the whole bundle.
• Set FOC dates 2 weeks out minimum. Avoid Mondays and Fridays. Avoid the week after a holiday.
• Tell the customer about the cutover. On FOC date, calls move from old carrier to new — there can be a 5-30 minute window where calls might be missed during the routing flip.
• Don't promise a port date until you have a FOC. "Hoping for next Tuesday" is fine; "your numbers will move next Tuesday" is a problem if the carrier takes longer.

Carrier-specific quirks

• Verizon Wireless — slow. Allow 4-6 weeks. They demand precise account info.
• AT&T — moderate speed. Account PIN is mandatory.
• Comcast/Spectrum business — moderate. Requires exact service address match.
• RingCentral / 8x8 / Vonage — fast. They're VoIP carriers, used to porting numbers out.
• Small local CLECs — variable. Some are fast and reasonable; some require paper LOAs and faxes (yes, in 2026).

For multi-carrier complications, open a support ticket. We've seen most edge cases.