"Can I port numbers into smrtPhone?" - Yes!
For a business, changing a phone number can be painful, especially if you have a lot of existing marketing materials or phone numbers memorized by long-standing clients. We get it! Moving to smrtPhone doesn't mean you have to leave your other numbers behind. You can port your number(s) into your smrtPhone system and work them seamlessly into your more efficient, smrtPhone-driven processes.
We are happy to guide you through this process, which requires coordination between your existing carrier and our underlying provider. We have a dedicated LNP manager who will take the lead and guide you through the process. You simply need to contact Support on our live chat and they will connect you with him.
What to Know About Porting Phone Numbers to smrtPhone
smrtPhone can guide, but doesn't control the process.
While we can facilitate the porting process, the actual transfer of numbers happens between your carrier and our underlying carrier (Twilio). We will help you gather all of the information you need and place the request. smrtPhone is considered a third party advocating for you. We can follow up on your behalf to try to influence the process.
Porting can take some time
Porting times vary. We usually see the porting process taking 1-3 weeks, once all of the paperwork has been submitted and confirmed. This timeline can stretch longer if the paperwork is rejected for incorrect or non-matching information. Or, it can be shorter (for example, if your current provider uses Twilio as their carrier like we do so the transfer is simply between accounts within Twilio.)
Many clients choose to secure new, additional phone numbers to begin to get the full benefits from smrtPhone immediately. They either fold these new numbers in to the portfolio once the other numbers port, or they release/delete the new numbers when their ported ones arrive.
Voice and Texting port separately - although typically in unison
Sometimes you'll experience an "incomplete" port for a short period of time, where the voice capability has transferred to the new carrier but texting has not. Typically this fixes itself over several hours. If the issue persists, please reach out to our Support Team.
Set Call Flows ahead of time for a better experience
Once your phone number is in smrtPhone, our system needs to know which User or Group of Users to ring for an incoming call. The best way to create a seamless experience for your callers when porting live numbers is to set up your smrtPhone call flows as soon as you initiate the port.
Before the numbers arrive, you can invite your Users into your smrtPhone account, create Groups as needed, and design all of your call flows and SMS flows. Then, once your ports complete, it takes less than a minute to get your phone numbers connected to the proper call flow, ensuring no interruption for your callers.
For added confidence, you can use the $7 initial credit we place on all new accounts to secure one phone number. Test each call flow using this new number to ensure they work the way you want. Then, remove the number when you no longer need it.
How do you port a phone number to smrtPhone?
The process of porting a number to smrtPhone is very simple and the support team will assist you throughout the entire process. The process includes 3 stages :
1. Submit a porting request
The first step is to Open up a chat on our live support with the title "Porting Numbers" - the support team will contact you shortly in order to advance to the next step
2. Gather Needed Information
A porting file will be created and you will be asked to provide the following:
Your current provider that you are porting your numbers from
A list with the numbers that you want to port (Don't forget that you can add a name for each number)
What type of account you have with your current carrier? (Business/Residential)
A business Name. (If applicable)
Your full address.
Billing statement. (An invoice from your current carrier - PDF)
After you provide our team with the information mentioned above, a Letter of Authorization (LOA) will be sent to your email. You will need to sign it as this LOA is essential in our porting procedure.
Delays in providing this information will extend the porting timeline.
3. The transfer
This is the last step of the porting process. It takes between 1 and 4 weeks to port a phone number to smrtPhone. There is no downtime as the number remains active on your current provider till it is not ported to smrtPhone. When your porting request is approved, we get a specific porting date and time from our telecom partner. And, at this specific scheduled time, your number is switched over to smrtPhone.
Important Reminders
Do not cancel your previous provider's account till the porting is completed. Once, we receive the above mentioned docs, we will submit a number porting case with both your and our operators & take this forward.
smrtPhone does not receive any fees for the porting process, however, the charging for the phone numbers will begin as soon as the numbers are transferred to your smrtPhone account. Make sure your credit balance accounts for the arrival of your ported numbers, to avoid temporary pausing of the account for a negative balance.
Please note: if you wish to cancel your smrtPhone account, you must port out all of the numbers you wish to retain before the cancelation is completed. There is no way to retrieve numbers that have been left on a cancelled account.