A Letter of Authorization (LOA) is a doc that you need to ship to your telecom supplier once you need to change to a brand new enterprise cellphone service however preserve your previous cellphone quantity.

It lets each your new and previous cellphone firm know that you just’re the one who is definitely requesting the change. Whether or not you’re switching over your landline or VoIP cellphone service, you’ll want an LOA to finish the method.

Porting a quantity can take time — as much as a few weeks in some situations — so ensure you wait to listen to out of your new supplier earlier than canceling your previous service. That’s the huge factor to recollect from my submit.

Don’t cancel your present cellphone service till your new service is ready up.

Cancelling your previous cellphone service immediately after submitting your LOA may result in a spot in time the place you wouldn’t have any service. The LOA merely begins the method — you need to keep in your present service throughout that point.

That stated, finishing an LOA may be very simple when you have a single quantity, or a handful of numbers with a single supplier.

When you’ve got a digital name middle with a whole bunch of numbers throughout a number of accounts, you should have extra work to do to make sure the method goes easily. When you’ve got a number of service suppliers, you’ll want a number of LOAs.

Let’s undergo every little thing intimately.

What’s an LOA in telecom?

LOAs are letters containing detailed details about your identification in addition to your present cellphone service and the cellphone service you need to port your quantity to. Typically additionally known as a Letter of Company, your LOA additionally accommodates a brief be aware telling your previous and new telecom corporations that you just need to change providers.

They’re utilized by telecom corporations to verify {that a} consumer desires to port their quantity. In your LOA, you’ll give the brand new cellphone firm all the data it wants to verify your identification and make the mandatory modifications to your service. Some telecom corporations present their customers with a template for an LOA, but when not, you’ll should create one your self.

After you signal the LOA and ship it again to your new cellphone service supplier, the corporate will evaluation it and ensure your identification. It’s going to then ship a Native Service Request (LSR) to your present cellphone service supplier, which is a proper method of asking the previous supplier to begin the porting course of. The LSR additionally goes to the Aggressive Native Change Provider (CLEC) that your new cellphone service supplier is part of. That is the corporate that owns the cellphone numbers.

As soon as the CLEC receives the mandatory documentation, it’s going to ship the LOA and LSR to the CLEC to your previous cellphone service supplier. They’ll then situation a Agency Dedication Order (FOC), which tells your new cellphone service supplier the date that the quantity will likely be ported.

Your previous supplier is meant to course of your request in a well timed method, however it will probably generally get slowed down with their CLEC. Because the CLEC doesn’t need to lose a paying buyer, it could attempt to discover causes to reject the FSR. As an example, in case your LOA has your present tackle on it, however your cellphone plan continues to be registered at your previous tackle, your previous cellphone firm’s CLEC might kick the LSR again to the brand new firm’s CLEC, and also you’ll should edit your tackle and take a look at once more.

Consider it or not, I’m tremendously simplifying this course of — there’s a lot extra to learn about telecommunications, how price facilities work, and dozens of different acronyms — however for the needs of understanding what an LOA is, this fast abstract is ample.

Why do I would like an LOA to port cellphone numbers?

Safety — there must be some form of test on the flexibility of somebody to port a cellphone quantity from one service to a different. I’m positive you don’t need your quantity ported to a brand new service you don’t management.

An LOA is a methodical method to guarantee that the one that is requesting the port is definitely the present proprietor of that quantity.

That is what stops somebody from porting a financial institution’s quantity to their very own service and scamming its clients. That’s an excessive instance, positive, however there are lots of extra examples of criminals utilizing VoIP to defraud companies and people. It’s extremely frequent. I’m speaking about tens of millions of {dollars} in damages yearly, if not billions.

It might be annoying, however an LOA is supposed to guard you in order that not simply anybody could make modifications to your cellphone service.

An LOA is a small hoop to leap by way of. More often than not, the brand new cellphone service goes to make it as simple as attainable so that you can full this step in a well timed vogue.

What information does an LOA require?

Often, an LOA accommodates the next info:

• Your title.
• Your billing tackle.
• Your present cellphone quantity.
• The title of your new service supplier.
• Your new VoIP cellphone numbers.
• The title of your previous service supplier.
• Your account quantity with the previous service supplier.
• Your account PIN, when you have one.
• A replica of your present cellphone invoice or bill.
• Copies of your ID.

In case you are simply porting one quantity, you solely want one LOA.

You should use the identical LOA to port a number of numbers, as long as they’re from the service or service supplier. You have to a separate LOA for every supplier.

It’s vital that every one in all these components is stuffed out appropriately and that the data you present in your LOA matches the data that your previous cellphone firm has on document.

If not, their CLEC may reject your request and also you’ll have to begin the method over again.

Billing and account info is the place a variety of corporations mess up. Over time, they’ve a number of accounts with a number of carriers and generally the billing info is completely different from one account to the opposite.

Any errors are going to result in delays within the porting course of.

The place an LOA matches into the quantity porting course of

The next is a simplified overview of the quantity porting course of with particular consideration paid to the function of the LOA:

1. Select the finest enterprise cellphone supplier to your wants. Verify they can port the entire numbers you need — most are, however you don’t need to waste your time if they will’t.
2. Get in contact along with your previous supplier and your new supplier. Let every one know what’s occurring, and ask them if there’s any paperwork that you might want to fill out. The supplier might be able to offer you a template for an LOA. Even when they don’t, you’ll want to affirm precisely what they want, particularly in case you are importing a big batch of numbers from a number of service suppliers.
3. Collect your info. Get all the data to your LOA collectively. Most of it, like your title and tackle, are simple. However you’ll additionally need to have issues like your account quantity and copies of your ID able to go. When you’ve got a variety of cellphone numbers tied to a number of accounts or a number of service suppliers, you’ll want to discover all of that info.
4. Full the LOA and another paperwork the businesses offer you. Write a brief letter saying that you just need to change out of your previous service to a brand new service. Embrace all the data you gathered within the earlier step. And you’ll want to fill out another paperwork both firm offers you.
5. Look ahead to affirmation earlier than canceling your service. I can’t emphasize this sufficient — don’t cancel your service till you obtain affirmation out of your new supplier and also you’re 100% positive your new service is linked and dealing.
6. Check your new service for a couple of days. When you get a discover out of your new supplier, take a few days to strive it out. Search for any points and report them instantly to the brand new supplier.
7. Then and solely then, finish your contract along with your previous supplier. When you’re completely positive that you just’re blissful along with your new service, get in contact along with your previous supplier to cancel your service.

To reiterate a very powerful level — don’t cancel your previous cellphone service earlier than you may have your new one fully arrange. The very last thing you need is to finish up with out an energetic cellphone service since you canceled your previous service too quickly.