Everything you need to know about porting phone numbers to Microsoft

The new digital age is changing the way we work and learn, and Microsoft Teams helps us stay connected by providing one single place for exchanging ideas and collaboration. You can easily transform it into a powerful and flexible phone system by adding Business Voice to your Teams.

Business voice is a replacement for traditional telephony that allows your employees to have their own phone numbers so that they can receive calls directly. Because Phone System is a part of Teams, you can turn any PC, Mac, or mobile device into a phone that can use your Business Voice phone number. If you already have phone numbers that you would like to transfer to Business Voice, you can bring them with you by porting them from your previous service provider to Microsoft.

Here are the essential steps you should take to complete your porting process most efficiently:

Place a Port In order:

We strongly recommend you use Microsoft Teams admin center to submit your port requests. You will benefit from an automated process and a structured wizard with additional guidance.

• To create a porting request, go to Voice > Phone numbers. Click Numbers, and then click Port to start the porting wizard. After you port your phone numbers to Teams, Microsoft will become your service provider and will bill you for those phone numbers.
• On the Select location and number type page, specify the following, and then click Next:

1. Country or region: Country or region where you're getting numbers.
2. Phone number type: Type of number, such as geographic or toll-free numbers.
3. Numbers assigned to: What the numbers are assigned to. For example, users, or conferencing or voice features.

On the Add account information page, complete the following, and then click Next.

1. Country or region: Country or region where you're getting numbers.
2. Order details.
3. Phone number details
4. Person requesting details.
5. Current provider's details
6. Billing telephone number (BTN): Your BTN in E.164 format, which requires a + sign to pretend the number. For example, for a North America number, use +1XXXYYYZZZZ format.

To check the status of your port order, in the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Voice > Phone numbers, and then click Order history. Each port order status is listed in the Status column.

Validate Information you provide in a porting request.

Make sure the account information you give matches exactly what your phone carrier has on record. Mismatched information is the most common cause of errors and can delay your port order. Double-check there are no advanced call control features, for example, Call Hunt, Distinctive Ring, that are enabled on these phone numbers.

Do not cancel existing services until porting is complete.

Make sure your service is active and you haven't placed any new service orders or disconnects with your current service provider. Freezing the account prevents the change of carriers on the account. All numbers must be from the same carrier and the same account. Port-In Special Notes:

• Avoid requesting to schedule the execution of number ports on Friday afternoon because this may result in the numbers being out of service over the weekend.
• The number format you must use to upload the CSV file must be in E.164, for example: +12345678901.
• You can only submit one order at a time from the same carrier. Phone numbers from different account numbers in a single port order will fail.
• Toll-free phone numbers must be submitted on separate port orders.
• If you are porting Service and User numbers from the same carrier, please select all as Users, this will speed up the process. Once you have a FOC date (Firm Order Commitment date provided by the losing carrier when it is ready to release the numbers), contact Microsoft to program the number conversion from User to Service.
• The Desired Due Date may vary from the FOC because of different causes and internal policies that carriers have. Both dates may not be the same, please take this into consideration.
• If after submitting your order it goes into “Manual” status, this means that something in the request cannot be processed based on the information provided. Please contact your current carrier to review the service information they have registered on your account. You can also go ahead and place another new order with the updated information. (800 numbers and Canadian numbers will always go into manual status and this is ok).
• If you receive a message that there was an error in your order or that it failed and you need to open a ticket, please reach out to your carrier to review the service information they have from your account to be ready to re submit. If you can get a CSR or Invoice from them with your numbers’/account service information, it will save you time since we do not have access to their records.

What numbers can be transferred?

In general, you can transfer any phone number that's from a supported provider, including:

• Land line phone numbers.
• Mobile device phone numbers such as those used for cell phone and tablets. (only available in the United States and Puerto Rico).
• Toll phone numbers.
• Toll-free phone numbers. (Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN) can't be transferred to Microsoft).

You can't transfer:

• Phone numbers used for data connections like for DSL lines or broadband Internet connections.
• Phone numbers dedicated to faxing.

At this time, you can't transfer any phone number or numbers that aren't from a supported country or region, including phone numbers from a VoIP phone provider. For a list of supported countries/regions, see Country and region availability for Audio Conferencing and Calling Plans.

What are full-port and partial-port transfers?

When you're porting phone numbers, you can choose to shift all your numbers to Teams or some of them:

Full-port This is when you transfer all of your numbers from your current service provider to Teams. When you're asked for the phone numbers you want to transfer, you must include the billing telephone number (BTN) along with all of the other phone numbers on your account.

For example, let's say your BTN is +1 425-555-1234 and you want to port all of your 25 phone numbers (+1 425-555-1235 through 1259). When you follow the instructions below to transfer your numbers, you would enter: +14255551234 - +14255551259.

Partial-port. This is when you're only transferring some of your phone numbers from your current service provider to Teams. When you want to port some of the phone numbers tied to the same BTN, you ** must not include ** the BTN along with all of the other phone numbers on your account.

For example, let's say your BTN is +1 425-555-1234 and you want to port only 5 of your 25 phone numbers (+1 425-555-1235 through 1259). When you follow the instructions below to transfer your numbers, you would enter: +1 425 555 1235 - +1 425 555 1239. How long does it take to port numbers?

After you've completed the port order request, it takes between 7-14 days to be processed. However, depending on your service provider it may take up to 30 days. The losing carrier will process the port request and respond with either an approval or a rejection. Microsoft has no say in this decision and cannot influence the behavior of the losing carrier. After the phone numbers are ported over, you'll get an email from Microsoft to let you know that you're good to go.

When submitting your porting requests, it is crucial to avoid mistakes and minimize potential issues. IT Partner can help you ensure the seamless experience while shifting phone numbers from your previous carrier to Microsoft.

2021-07-14

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