Want to port your number smoothly? Here is a guide to porting your number

Since the official implementation of the "number portability" service at the end of November last year, the number of users applying for the service has increased rapidly. So far, the three major operators have successfully transferred 10.18 million people. Taking China Unicom as an example, in the work of number portability, a virtual team of more than 2,000 people in the entire group completed more than 1,400 network elements, system transformation and almost all business process adjustments, carried out more than 330,000 tests, and completed the national promotion task of number portability in just 8 months.

On the basis of the overall stability of the current "number portability" service, the national "number portability" service supervision system was officially launched on July 2, providing strong technical support for proactively discovering violations and further protecting user rights. All of this is to encourage users who were previously interested in portability but were on the sidelines due to various concerns to take a step forward.

"Number Portability" breaks down the number segment barriers between operators and has extraordinary historical significance. However, because of this, despite the huge human and material resources invested by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the three major operators in its realization, "Number Portability" is still a relatively complex business type in terms of technology and business rules, and various situations may arise during the process. In order to allow users to better understand the business rules and regulations of number portability and reduce misunderstandings during the process, here are some tips for number portability through several real cases, hoping to help everyone avoid detours and understand the process.

Tip 1

If the number has not expired and has an agreement with a time limit on the network, it must be cancelled before it can be processed, and the monthly call fee must be paid when the number is ported out.

At the end of June this year, Ms. Fu went to the business hall to apply for porting out. The staff told her that there was a contract for a free mobile phone with a minimum consumption, and the contract required a two-year network period. She had to cancel the contract before the application could be processed. So Ms. Fu cancelled the contract and paid the penalty according to the agreement. She received a text message notifying her that she met the conditions for porting in. Due to her busy work, Ms. Fu went to another operator's business hall to apply for porting in in July. Although it was successful, she was charged another month's package fee.

In this case, according to the requirements of the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Number Portability Services", if the number has an agreement on a time limit on the network, the time limit on the network should be lifted before applying for the number portability service. The salesperson terminated the contract for the user based on the user's request, and informed the user that the conditions for number portability had been met and that the number portability authorization code could be applied for at any time. However, the user did not apply for number portability this month, but applied for an authorization code the following month and successfully ported out. According to the relevant requirements of the "User Interaction Interface and Procedure Requirements for Number Portability" to "settle the outgoing telecommunications charges for the number applied for number portability with the outgoing party", the user should settle the outgoing charges before porting out (limited to the telecommunications charges of this number, including the real-time charges of the month). Based on this, the salesperson charged the user the number portability fee for the month. After understanding the business rules, Ms. Fu fully understood and expressed satisfaction with the service.

Tip 2

If you have carried out services such as fixed-mobile convergence, primary and secondary cards, one card with two numbers, one number for multiple terminals, and collection (corporate collection and personal collection that has signed a collection agreement at the business hall), you must change or unbind your number before you can handle the services.

Recently, when Mr. Mao applied for "number portability", he was told that the package fee for the whole month of July would be deducted, and the broadband and digital TV services bound to the mobile phone number would also be terminated. Not only that, to completely switch networks, the two secondary cards bound to this mobile phone card had to be "regularized". The whole process took at least one month and an additional fee of more than 200 yuan was required.

According to the "Number Portability Service Management Regulations", the ported number is no longer operated and managed by the original operator, and naturally cannot be bound to the broadband and digital TV services provided by the original operator. The two "secondary cards" under the number also have "nowhere to hang" and can only be "converted". The "conversion" of the secondary cards will take effect next month. After the "conversion", the secondary cards will no longer share the main card package, and a separate package must be selected for them, which will inevitably incur certain fees. This is all normal and in line with business regulations, the business employee explained, and Mr. Mao also expressed his understanding.

Tip 3

Even if the user does not live in the place where the number is registered for a long time, he or she can still apply for "number portability" in another place.

Mr. Sun moved from a second-tier city to Beijing for a job change. He had used his mobile phone number for more than ten years and it was inconvenient to change it, so he did not change it after moving. Recently, in order to apply for the China Unicom family number service with his family, he needed to apply for "number portability" first. His hometown is far away from his workplace, and Mr. Sun always felt it was not worth it to make a trip just to apply for a service.

For business travelers and migrant workers, this situation is very common and inconvenient. The three major operators have launched many off-site service initiatives from the perspective of user perception. For example, China Unicom's provincial branches have launched more than 20 cross-provincial off-site services and 4G/5G cross-domain integration products, including off-site porting, off-site package changes, off-site account opening, off-site transfer, off-site network loss reporting/unblocking, etc. Local services can also be handled in off-site business halls, completely breaking geographical restrictions and providing users with a convenient and barrier-free handling experience. In the future, the problems encountered by Mr. Sun will no longer be a problem.

Tip 4

"Number portability" can also be processed online, which is convenient and fast and saves you the trouble of taking detours

"I want to transfer my number to China Unicom to apply for the Smart Wojia integrated package and add broadband to my home. However, a trip to the business hall, the round trip and the queue will take at least two or three hours. It's too troublesome!" Ms. Wu has always wanted to apply for "number portability", but her busy work makes her always unable to spare the time to go to the business hall. She is also worried that even if she goes, such a complicated service may not be completed, which would be a wasted trip.

In fact, after continuous investment and development by operators, "number portability" has been implemented online in many places, and users no longer have to go to business halls in person. Take China Unicom as an example. In the mobile hall-service-number portability, a porting entrance has been opened. After logging into the mobile hall, users of other networks can directly see it on the homepage. As long as the user meets the transfer conditions of the original operator and obtains the authorization code, he can transfer to Unicom and choose a package. After the order is placed, a dedicated person will come to handle it, which is very convenient and fast.

Tip 5

The channels for recharging the number after the network transfer will be limited. Users need to fully understand before making a decision

Mr. Wang usually uses a relatively niche app to recharge his phone bills, because he has a certain amount of deposits in this app and there are often discounts. In April this year, Mr. Wang applied for number portability. After that, he found that the app he used to recharge always prompted that the recharge failed, and did not explain the reason. After several communications with the original number operator and the incoming operator, the problem was not solved. Mr. Wang was very depressed and even said that if he had known this, he would never apply for "number portability". In the end, in order to continue using the original recharge channel, Mr. Wang switched back to the original operator after 120 days.

Users can recharge through various official channels of the operator. If you recharge through a third-party phone recharge platform, please note that only WeChat and Alipay have undergone number portability transformation and can determine the operator to which the user belongs and recharge correctly. Other third-party apps do not currently support recharge for users who have ported their numbers. As the work progresses, this problem may be solved in the future, and users can choose a more convenient recharge method after porting their numbers.

Tip 6

After number portability, the other party's phone may still show the original operator when you call.

Ms. Li recently successfully processed the "number portability" process. Her relatives and friends were very curious about this. In order to show her relatives and friends the results of the "number portability", Ms. Li called the other party's mobile phone. She thought that the other party's mobile phone would display the name of the incoming operator, but unexpectedly, the name of the original operator was still clearly displayed on the screen. This confused Ms. Li, and she even felt that she had not really succeeded in the number portability and was "cheated" by the business hall.

In fact, the function of displaying the operator of the number ported by the user has always been provided by the embedded software of the mobile phone or the third-party App, not by the operator. The problem encountered by Ms. Li was caused by the failure of the software provider of the location display to synchronize the user's number porting data in time. At present, there is no suitable solution to completely solve this problem. However, you can rest assured that the display problem will not affect the use of the number. Whether the number porting is successful or not, the user can directly consult the operator, and there is no need to be confused by the display problem.

The original intention of users to apply for "number portability" is to make life more convenient and the tariffs more affordable. However, if the number portability is applied without sufficient understanding, it is very likely to add inconvenience to life like the above two cases. This requires operators to take the user's perspective and fulfill their reminder obligations to ensure the user's experience after portability. For example, Guangxi Unicom has set up a special number portability seat in each open business hall, and placed a public notice board of the "Number Portability Service Handling Guide" and a public notice board of the risk notice in a prominent position, printed the "Incoming User Notice" and ensured that each incoming user signed it according to the specifications; established a 24-hour system guarantee mechanism at the provincial and municipal levels, and monitored and solved problems in the operation system at any time through the WeChat operation guarantee group; sent professional personnel to the "Number Portability" special working group formed by the Autonomous Region Communications Administration to coordinate and solve problems in the process of number portability, quickly and effectively solve user needs, and allow users to port in, port out, transfer quickly, and transfer well.