The procedure that allows you to change your telephone provider while keeping your telephone number is known as portability. This change of operator is generally not going to entail any additional cost, as well as being your future provider who is usually in charge of the entire process so you don’t have to worry about anything. Read on to discover more about change phone provider.
However, on certain occasions complications may arise and that is why it is important that you know a series of aspects before starting to change operators.
Portability when changing operator
First of all, we are going to explain the concept of mobile number portability (MNP). This term enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network carrier to another.
Portability process to change phone provider : request and deadlines
The process begins when you request to register a service with a different operator, requesting to keep your phone number. This request would imply the cancellation of your line with the previous operator, but it would not necessarily imply the cancellation of the service.
To start the process, you must give your consent to the new provider, by signing and accepting a contract that includes all the conditions of service.
Once the request has been initiated, the maximum legal term to carry out the portability is one business day, although this term could be extended in some cases if the technical specifications or physical means so require. For example, the delivery of a new sim card or the installation of equipment at home or office.
In case of changing to WebRTC Technology, the aforementioned period will not be affected, since no installation of any equipment is required. IIn this case we are talking about an open source technology that will give you the possibility to use your line through any device with Internet access, from the web browser or mobile applications.
Cancellation or withdrawal of portability
You should know that if you regret this change, there are two things you can do. It will be useful in the event that after requesting portability you realize that you have a pending penalty or they make you a more interesting counter offer than the one offered by the operator to which you were going to change.
Cancel porting. Once the process has started, you have 24 hours to request the cancellation of the process without paying any penalty. Even so, it is convenient that you review the conditions of the new contract, in case there are any expenses that the company may charge you if you decide to cancel the portability, such as installation or equipment expenses.
Right of withdrawal. Once the contract with the new company has been signed, the consumer has a period of 14 days to withdraw from the contract, without this implying any harm. However, it is important that you know that this right only applies to consumer contracts, that is, between a company and a consumer. Therefore, if it is a company who is contracting the service, this right does not apply.
Finally, in the event that the portability has been completed without being able to perform any of the two previous options, you can request a retroportability to your previous company. Although this is nothing more than re-porting your line to the previous company, so in this case you may have to hire a new service.
Other aspects to take into account to change phone provider
- Portability, to change companies without losing your number, is a highly regulated process, in which the ceding operator can do little, other than try to counter-offer their current client so that they do not leave. They won’t be able deny portability, unless there was an error in the request or your line is idle. In the latter case, you must activate it before resuming the process.
- The portability does not imply the cancellation of the service of your current company, it only implies the drop of that line. Therefore, once the change of operator has been completed and if you are not sure, it is convenient that you contact your previous company to confirm that the cancellation of your service has been processed correctly and when it will be effective.
- Before requesting the portability of a line, especially if you want to change your switchboard, you should know that portability change of supplier the complete line. Therefore, if you have any other contracted service on the same line, such as fiber optic, fax… it would cease to be operational when the process is complete.
- Until the exact moment in which the portability becomes effective, your line will continue to be managed by your previous company, so you must not suffer cuts. However, this is somewhat dependent on your new provider having the service ready for you at the time of porting. In our case, we provide the client with a Test Environment in which you can test configurations until everything is tailored to your needs and, when porting, you have all the tools fully operational.
To prevent something as simple as changing your telephone provider from giving you more than one headache, we recommend that you put yourself in the hands of a good advisor, as we have in Fonvirtual team, who will accompany you and keep you well informed throughout the entire process. process.
