Number porting is improving - 9group

In order to improve the industry agreed porting processes a number of changes will be coming into effect on Monday the 3rd August.

Number porting

Customers are entitled to keep their telephone numbers, regardless of who they choose as their service supplier.

Porting numbers should be a routine aspect of doing business for those providing telecoms services to customers using UK telephone numbers. This is a regulatory requirement and forms part of Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement (General Condition B3), which apply to all telecoms providers.

The right to port (R2P) requirement forms part of a directive of The EU’s new Electronic Communications Code (EECC), which will be adopted in the UK in 2021.

A key part of the improvements is the alignment of geographic numbers and non-geographic numbers in terms of port procedure. This means that lead times for all number types will be the same as existing geographic numbers and there will be a single revised customer letter of authority (CLoA) for all number types. The updated letter has been released for use from Monday 3^rd August 2020.

The new Customer Letter of Authority (CLoA)

Download the new CLoA

The features of the new document and rules for its use are as follows;

• A single template, which caters for all number and order types that should always be obtained and retained by the new provider for twelve months and provided if requested within 24 hours.
• Customer authority and proof of ownership to initiate the port order.
• Authority to the current provider to share details with the gaining provider. On request for information from the gaining provider (GP), the losing provider (LP) is obliged to assist the GP so that an accurate port order can be raised.
• Provide a facility for the Customer to ‘cancel’ their order if they decide to do so subsequently.
• Provide a name, address and contact details for the two Retailers involved Current (Losing) and New (Gaining).
• There is no requirement on the CLoA to capture supply chain details as these are relevant only to the Retailers involved & their Wholesale partners.
• There is no requirement for the template to be on letterhead paper if submitted as a scanned CLoA template with authorised signature or sent as an email attachment from the Customer’s business email address (which must show their Business title, and the company’s full name & address) – e-signatures are acceptable. If posted as a hard copy alone then a letterhead is required.

Lead times for port orders

These minimum lead times have been aligned for both Geographic and Non-Geographic numbers. This represents no change for Geographic numbers but for Non-Geographic orders, the losing wholesaler needs an increased time allowance to notify their immediate supply chain reseller who also needs to pass the notification down the supply chain to the end user.

• Single lines (1), 7 – 10 days
• Single lines (2-10), 14 – 17 days
• Multi lines (2- 30) no DDI, 7 – 10 days
• Multi lines (31-150) DDIs, 10 – 13 days
• Multi -lines (151 +), 17 – 20 days
• Complex DDI, 22 – 25 days

Further changes are due to follow, to improve the porting experience for everyone. We’ll keep you informed of any updates.