Keeping your phone numbers

Your main number is on your letterhead, your website, emergency cards and every family’s phone. When you change phone providers, you can almost always keep it. Moving a number from one provider to another is called porting. This chapter explains how porting works, what to gather first, and how to keep it calm.

What porting is

Porting moves a phone number from your current provider (the “old carrier”) to a new one. The number stays the same. Only the company that carries your calls changes.

Federal rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are on your side. (Links marked “CFR” point to the Code of Federal Regulations, where those rules are published.)

• If you stay in the same area, you can keep your number when you switch providers, including between traditional phone companies and internet-based providers (FCC, as of Oct 2026).
• Providers of internet phone service (VoIP, or voice over internet protocol) must help with a valid port request, without unreasonable delay (47 CFR 52.34, as of Oct 2026).
• Your old carrier can’t refuse to port your number because you owe money or a termination fee. You still owe that money, though (FCC, as of Oct 2026).
• Companies may charge a fee to port a number. It’s fair to ask whether it can be waived (FCC, as of Oct 2026).

Who does the work? Usually your new provider. You sign an authorization and give them your account details. They send the request to your old carrier. The old carrier confirms a date, and on that date your numbers start ringing on the new system.

What you’ll need before you start

Most port delays come from details that don’t match the old carrier’s records. Gather these first.

Tip: Ask for the CSR early, before you sign anything new. It often shows numbers nobody remembers: an old fax line, an alarm line or a number that only forwards somewhere. Compare it with your phone inventory (inventory worksheet).

The LOA has to match the CSR exactly. That means the same account name, spelling and service address. If your district changed its name or moved its office since the account was opened, sort that out first.

Partial ports: moving some numbers, not all

You don’t have to move every number at once. Moving only some numbers from an account is called a partial port. Schools do this when they:

• move one school at a time;
• keep a few special lines on the old service for now;
• plan to cancel some numbers they no longer need.

A few things to know:

• The BTN matters. If the billing number is one of the numbers you’re moving, the old carrier will usually need a new billing number for the lines that stay. Ask how they want you to handle it.
• Lines you don’t port keep billing. Anything left on the old account stays active, and you keep paying for it, until you cancel it.
• Special lines need their own plan. Alarm panels, elevator phones and other life-safety lines need specialized, listed equipment. Before you move or cancel any of those lines, talk with your fire or alarm vendor.

Simple ports, complex ports and timing

The FCC sets deadlines for how fast carriers must complete a port:

• Simple ports must be completed within one business day (47 CFR 52.35, as of Oct 2026). The FCC describes simple ports as ones that generally don’t involve more than one line or complex changes to telephone switching equipment (FCC, as of Oct 2026).
• Non-simple ports must be completed within four business days (47 CFR 52.35, as of Oct 2026).
• Either deadline can be longer if you or your new provider ask for a later date (same source). That’s how you schedule a port for a specific cutover day.

Most school ports aren’t “simple.” A typical school account has several lines and many numbers, and sometimes older features like hunt groups (a set of lines that ring in turn).

The deadlines also start only once the old carrier receives a complete and accurate request. If the request is rejected because a detail doesn’t match, the clock starts over when you fix it and send it again. So build in room to spare. Ask your new provider what lead time they recommend for a port your size, and pick your cutover date from that.

Tip: Schedule the port for a weekday during a break, when IT and office staff are on hand. Under the FCC rule, business days are Monday through Friday (47 CFR 52.35, as of Oct 2026). A Friday-afternoon port leaves no one around to fix problems.

Important: Don’t cancel your old service until the port is complete. The FCC advises against ending your current service before the new service starts (FCC, as of Oct 2026). If you cancel first, the old carrier may disconnect your numbers, and getting them back can be hard or impossible. Cancel only after every number works on the new system.

Toll-free numbers

Toll-free numbers (like 800, 888 or 877 numbers) can move too. They follow a different process from regular numbers.

Each toll-free number is managed by a Responsible Organization, often called a RespOrg. It’s the company that keeps the number’s record in the national toll-free database (47 CFR 52.101, as of Oct 2026). FCC rules require toll-free numbers to be portable. To move one, you change its RespOrg when you change service providers (FCC, as of Oct 2026).

In practice:

• Expect a separate authorization form for toll-free numbers.
• Treat each toll-free number as its own item on your porting list, with its own date.
• Find out who your current RespOrg is. Your current provider or your bill should say.

Fax numbers

Fax numbers port like any other number. The bigger question is how you’ll fax afterward. Two common options:

• Keep the fax machine. It connects through an analog telephone adapter (ATA), a small box that lets older analog devices work on an internet phone system.
• Switch to email-to-fax. Faxes arrive as email attachments, and you send them from a computer.

Whichever you choose, test sending and receiving a fax right after the port. Use the cutover-day checklist.

The same goes for other analog devices that use a phone number. Door entry phones, card readers and postage machines all need a plan, and so do older devices that dial out on their own.

What can delay a port

• The name, service address, account number or PIN on the request doesn’t match the CSR.
• The billing number is missing, wrong or part of a partial port without a plan for the lines that stay.
• Numbers are spread across several accounts (each school or department billed separately).
• The account is with a different company than you thought, such as a reseller.
• There’s a pending order or change on the old account.
• The person who signed the LOA isn’t listed as an authorized signer.
• The port date changes at the last minute.

A pre-port checklist

• List every number you have, using the inventory worksheet.
• Get a recent bill for every account.
• Ask the old carrier for the Customer Service Record (CSR) for each account.
• Note each account number, PIN and billing telephone number (BTN).
• Confirm the exact account name and service address for each account.
• Confirm who is listed as the authorized signer.
• Decide which numbers move, which stay for now and which you’ll cancel later.
• Flag toll-free, fax, alarm, elevator and other special lines, and make a plan for each.
• Ask your new provider what lead time they recommend, and choose a port date during a break.
• Ask your new provider how you can test the new system before the port date.
• Ask your new provider to set the caller ID name people will see when you call out.
• Plan the 911 location for every number and phone. See 911 for schools.
• Keep the old service active until every number works on the new system.
• After the port, cancel anything left on the old account in writing, and confirm the final bill. See the first-30-days checklist.

For where porting fits in the bigger project, see Switching, step by step.