What is porting?

Porting is the process of switching your communications provider while retaining your previous phone number and account information. Porting shouldn’t be confused with forwarding, which is when calls are redirected to another phone number without transferring account ownership or switching carriers. 

You can port both personal and business phone numbers, including any numbers you use for your brand’s mobile marketing efforts.

How to port your brand’s phone numbers 

Here’s what you need to do to port existing phone numbers:

1. Verify your eligibility to port your number

If you’re staying within the same geographical area, you likely won’t face issues porting a business number.

Still, you’ll need to check eligibility with your service provider. Depending on your contract, you may need to pay a fee or complete your contract term before you can port your number.

Never terminate your existing service without first lining up service with a new provider.

2. Set up your number with a new service provider 

Your new carrier will require details like your phone numbers, phone bills, port-out PIN, billing address, letter of authorization, and more.

3 benefits of porting your business phone numbers

  1. You save time switching providers: Porting means you can switch your service provider without setting up a new number.
  2. You keep your current number: You won’t need to update your assets with your new contact details.
  3. You can improve phone service: You may be able to access better monthly plans from other service providers without switching business numbers.

If you use SMS marketing to stay in touch with your audience, it’s a good idea to keep your phone numbers to maintain communication.

A marketing automation platform like Klaviyo makes it easy to run SMS and MMS marketing initiatives.

Sign up for Klaviyo and craft a mobile marketing strategy today. 

Additional resources