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Number Portability

PaulZen

Oct 25, 2003, 3:33 PM
Hi guys... I work as an indirect agent for Alltel, Sprint, and T-Mobile, and we've been starting to get bulletins on the number portability process. Excuse me when I say that it looks like it's going to be a royal pain in the ass for us reps. I got a memo from Alltel Corporate, outlining an EIGHT-STEP process. Not only is there kind of a convoluted process, but there are internally specified qualifications for eligibility for customers to port numbers, each carrier having their own set of qualifications. What these are exactly, I have yet to find out... anyone else know what any given company's qualifications are? I imagine a steady payment history is the first qualifier...
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prcstrp

Oct 28, 2003, 7:21 PM
I work for ATT cust care and i feel bad for u guys...we haven't even found out if anything will change on how we will look up a cust. If there insurance on their old carrier will carry over..stuff like that..it surely will be a pain i guarantee.
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Myth

Oct 28, 2003, 8:47 PM
prcstrp said:
I work for ATT cust care and i feel bad for u guys...we haven't even found out if anything will change on how we will look up a cust. If there insurance on their old carrier will carry over..stuff like that..it surely will be a pain i guarantee.


I almost envy you. Cingular's taken me through Phase 1 and 2 training already, with Phase 3 as soon as they finish updating our software.

As far as I know, we are treating is as a specialized form of new account. Start activation, move number & cancel old account, apply new number.

With that model, anything specific to the old account other than the number (insurance, bonus minutes, unlimited nights & weekends, etc) is gone.

I will, of cou...
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phonemanic

Oct 29, 2003, 5:41 PM
I think it can be assumed that attachments sold by the old carrier would be null, with one exception. Retailers who sell insurance on the phone will no doubt still cover the phone even if it's used on a different carrier.
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prcstrp

Oct 29, 2003, 8:52 PM
not necessarily true..when worldcom (mci) went bankrupt and ATTws, Verizon and Cingular got their cust, the cust lost their insurance. It didn't carry over..let's just hope that doesn't happen.
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qagirl

Nov 2, 2003, 10:43 PM
I can't speak for all carriers, but with VZW the insurance would not carry over if you port out. If you signed up for insurance, your carrier bills you as a courtesy on behalf of the insurance co. If you cancel your account (port out) then you have, in effect, cancelled your insurance. You would have to sign up for insurance with your new carrier, who may be affiliated with a different insurance co altogether. Or you may be able to call the insurance company directly and arrange to have them bill you directly instead of through your provider.

One thing about porting... You don't even need to call your old provider to request a port. The new provider will initiate the port request, and once received by the old carrier, service is t...
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prcstrp

Oct 29, 2003, 8:58 PM
we wouldn't get to much traing being in Care, but we are just going thru training for a new system to do acct..we do existing accts not having to activate new cust and all that....thank god
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155n8th

Oct 29, 2003, 6:02 PM
yah i agree i work for cingular, seen the memos, and its going to be hell espcially the first day of release, and customer are buzzing about it already some know the dates, we have training on it next week so im hoping this will help but i know some people are going to be disappointed, becuase it would only make since that you have to be a long time customer, with good history.
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PaulZen

Oct 30, 2003, 8:01 PM
Yeah, it makes sense that any of the old added features or options would not carry over, or the minute plans for that matter. All that carries over is the phone number and PERHAPS the insurance on the phone, if they wish to use it with their new provider, as long as the insuring company is a 3rd party.

I thank everyone for their replies and input, but my original question still remains unanswered: what are the internal "qualifications" for any given company? The memos we got basically said that a customer has to "qualify" to be able to port their number to a new service provider. Besides paying one's bill on time, what kind of qualifications are we talking about here?
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qagirl

Nov 2, 2003, 10:51 PM
The only "qualifications" would be to see if the number is able to be ported. In other words, to check if the number is in one of the top 100 MSA's.

That's it. You cannot place any other restrictions on porting out, per the FCC.

Even if the customer has terrible payment history or has been with the old provider for 3 days, this cannot prevent them from porting out, just like poor pymt history cannot prevent them from cancelling service. Because that's all that porting is, really. They are cancelling their service. Just now they get to take their number with them.

Of course, the cust would still be responsible for any past due balance, or any early termination fees if they were under contract, etc.
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PaulZen

Nov 3, 2003, 11:11 AM
Yeah, I got a few more docs from the carriers at the end of the week; basically the "qualifications" are whether or not the new carrier provides coverage in the area you want service in, and whether or not the company you are looking to switch to has what is referred to as a "porting partnership" with the carrier the customer is switching from. I think the "porting partnership" basically means that the two carriers have channels they have created through which to request ports.

Also, phone numbers of course can only be ported locally. Since area codes and switches (the prefix) are specific to certain geographical areas, they can only be ported in the same geographical region.

Other than that, there aren't any other eligibility require...
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