10 Benefits of Porting Your Mobile Number
| By Florence Hastings | 0 Comments
Heard about mobile number portability but wondering what is porting or how to port your number? This simple guide will help you understand what it is to port a mobile number and whether it is the right choice for you.
What Is Porting?
Porting is a system that allows you to transfer your phone number from your current mobile provider to another. This can be done for a variety of reasons; people may not know they have the right to move their mobile numbers when they move to a new provider, whether it is a personal, business or even landline number.
Porting was introduced in 1995; Ofcom made it clear that customers have the legal right to keep possession of their mobile numbers irrespective of who their provider is. Otherwise customers may feel trapped and forced to stay with their current provider to avoid changing numbers.
How To Port My Mobile Number?
Porting is actually a very simple process.
All you need to do to get started is request a PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) from your old provider. Once you have the code, simply pass it on to your new provider and schedule the swap!
A PAC is a format of nine digits, made up of three letters and six numbers. You can receive this code by text, as, in 2019, Ofcom created the ‘Text-to-Switch’ drive to make it even easier for people to transfer their number from one provider to another. So, if you want to receive a PAC quickly, all you need to do is text ‘PAC’ to 65075. Many networks can still provide you a PAC over the phone, if you would like to talk to a person to get more information when receiving your code.
After you have given your PAC to your new provider, all you have to do is wait! The wait time depends on who you are switching to but mostly takes a few hours to a few days and you will be notified when the switch is complete.
Should I Port My Number?
Porting is mostly a matter of convenience, allowing you to switch to a better, more affordable mobile carrier, without the annoyance of getting a new number.
If you are having difficulties with your current provider, such as long wait times to talk to customer service, bad signal or extra charges, i.e roaming fees, porting your number to a new, better provider that works for you is the answer!
Ten Benefits of Keeping My Number
Keep Your Mobile Number When Switching Providers
This is an obvious benefit!
You won’t have to stay stuck with a provider that isn’t a good fit. There is no need to go through the hassle of letting your family, friends and colleagues know that you have a new number, let alone websites, apps, bank accounts that all use your mobile number.
Brand Continuity
If you are a business, small or big, old or new, you can upgrade your business’ communications without having to contact customers and clients with a new number. Allowing brand continuity, which does not disrupt your business or unnerve your clients! Continuity is essential for any business, but it shouldn’t mean they are stuck with a bad communication system.
Keep Your Business Number
A phone number can be something that defines your business, that is recognised by customers and clients. A business phone number can be seen everywhere, on a website, advertisements, business cards and so on.
Porting ensures that your business doesn’t have to sacrifice changing a core part of your company. Further eliminating unnecessary costs of rebranding and admin.
Simple Process
Porting is a very easy process, from start to finish. All you need to do is obtain your PAC and send it over; sometimes you may need to verify your identity but that is largely the bulk of it.
Time Efficient
The process of porting, from requesting a PAC code to waiting for activation can take, at most, a week.
Depending on the company you are porting to, the process can sometimes take only a day or less. If you schedule your port for overnight, you will wake up with your number ported, not affecting anything else on your mobile.
Prompts Providers to Improve Their Service
Customers having the ability to easily move providers, if their current one is causing issues, means service providers are forced to take action to prevent customers leaving.
Network providers will be aware that they have to keep their services up to date, efficient and of a high quality in order to keep customers. This is a great advantage as providers will more likely offer deals and better services for a lower price, allowing you to choose the best service for the lowest price.
Don’t Let Your Number Expire
If you don’t port your number, your number will become available to others. Anyone can purchase your number as their own.
Not only would this cause confusion for those trying to reach you, if you are a business, someone calling may assume your company is no longer in service or a competitor could purchase your old number and benefit from your customers calling them.
Area Codes
Finding a new number in a popular area code can be difficult, there are not infinite options of numbers in each area code. In some cases, the demand for numbers exceeds their availability.
Porting with an existing number would be a lot easier than finding a new number with the same area code.
Move Your Number Online
Porting allows you to move your mobile number to a virtual phone provider.
You may want to switch to a virtual provider if you are moving abroad, to avoid extra fees. Alternatively, you may want to get rid of your work phone but keep your work number, you can do this by porting your work mobile number to a virtual provider.
Cheap
Porting is not an expensive service. Providers will not charge you for porting out. Some providers will charge you to port to them, anything upwards of £5, but only if you are porting a business or landline number.
How Do I Port My Number to Devyce?
Devyce is a completely virtual provider, perfect for the Brit moving abroad or the CEO looking for an improved communication system for their business.
Porting your number to Devyce is not only easy, but a free service when you sign up.
All you need to do is purchase a Devyce Plan, get your PAC and fill out the Devyce porting form. From there, a Devyce member will reach out to schedule when the porting will take place. Porting with Devyce takes no more than 24 hours!
Devyce has many features that are helpful to small and big businesses:
– Real-time statistics
– Compatibility with WhatsApp, Viber, TikTok, Instagram and more
– Do Not Disturb Mode
– Management Portal
– Cloud Based
– Customisable voicemail
– Landline SMS
To get starting on your porting journey, fill out the Devyce porting form here:https://devyce.com/porting/#porting-form
Or browse Devyce pricing plans, to choose the best package for you, here: https://devyce.com/pricing/
Sources:
https://www.mitel.com/en-gb/features-benefits/number-porting
https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/porting-your-mobile-phone-number/
https://www.gradwell.com/guides/business-number-porting/
https://usechalkboard.com/pros-and-cons-of-porting-a-phone-number
https://winproductivity.com/number-porting-and-its-benefits/
https://www.onsip.com/voip-resources/voip-solutions/buying-vs-porting-business-phone-numbers-pros-and-cons
https://www.money.co.uk/mobiles/guides/how-to-port-your-phone-number
https://www.fightingcasualisation.org/what-are-the-advantages-of-porting-number/
