What is number porting?
- Number porting is the term for taking a phone number and putting it on a phone. It is the process used by telephone company providers when you switch from an old phone carrier to a new one.
Can I port a number to any phone?
- Cellular phones and VoIP (as well as Google Voice) can be used with any number. However, landlines must be associated with an area code for the region it is in. So while you can use a New York 212 area code for a cellphone or VOIP carrier in San Francisco (as an example), you would need a local area code such as 415 for a landline.
- Furthermore, not every phone number in your area code will work at every address in your area code. This is true of all numbers in the country. If you moved outside of your “rate center” (telecom jargon), even your current landline number would not work at your new address. It all has to do with the legacy telecom switch network. VOIP and wireless carriers are not bound by these restrictions. They use the internet and cell towers, respectively, as a transport mechanism, independent of the telecom switch network.
- Please contact your landline carrier and ask them if the number you are interested in will work at the physical address you want your phone number to work at before ordering or buying your new phone number just to be sure.
How does owning a phone number work?
- When you buy a cell phone for the first time, you are assigned a phone number to go with it. Once you’ve purchased that number, it’s yours to keep. You can switch providers at any point and take that phone number with you. So when you buy a phone number from us, it works exactly the same way. It’s yours to keep and use how you want, for whichever device you want. You can even replace your current number on your phone with the one you’ve just purchased.
Okay, I want to purchase a number from you. How do I port it?
- It depends on what you’re using it with. The process varies slightly depending on which cellular carrier or VoIP service you want to use. When you purchase a number, we will send you an email with the current account information on it, and explaining what you will need to do. Porting a number to a wireless carrier is the simplest process of all. Porting to a landline or VOIP provider may, but not always, require a simple form from your telephone provider that needs to be filled out. We even fill out the form for you!
How long will porting take?
- That depends on your carrier or service provider. Some are faster, some are slower. Usually it only takes a few business days for the process to complete. We will walk you through everything once you’ve completed your order.
I have a GSM (SIM Card based) phone. Can you send me a SIM card with the number on it?
- It’s not necessary. You can just use the account information we can send you. Examples of GSM/SIM Card base phone services are AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile — although new phones on Verizon Wireless and Sprint such as the iPhone 5 now use a “nano-SIM Card”. No need to worry about all of this jargon. The key point is that all of our numbers work on all of these carriers!
I’m on a CDMA network such as Verizon. Can I still purchase one of your numbers?
- Yes. We are not limited to GSM/SIM Card based phones! Examples of CDMA based phone service providers are Sprint and Verizon Wireless.
Can I port my new number to Google Voice or Google Fi ?
- Yes. But Google requires you to first port the number to a wireless carrier and then to Google’s services. They will not recognize any number — including your existing home or business number – unless it is first ported to a wireless carrier. So you will first need to port your new number to a prepaid wireless account (we recommend Verizon Wireless and ATT Mobility.
