Porting

Porting is the process of leaving one network and moving to another but taking your number with you.

Comreg introduced it a number of years ago now and it means that you don’t have to get a new number every time you decided to change networks.

Porting is (or should be) relatively easy and simply involves going into another network’s store (or calling them or online) and asking to move your number.

It should take only a few hours as they work every day, even Sunday, on porting numbers up until about 5pm. We have seen cases of it taking a few days but these are probably the exceptions.

Remember to check your current contract to make sure you’re not in one when you move as you may not be allowed to port your number or worse you may be permitted but then you’ll receive a cancellation fee for breaking your contract. This is usually your base monthly fee times the number of months left in your contract so it can be a substantial shock.

Make sure that you don’t have to give notice before leaving to, such as in the case of 30 day sim only contracts, or you may be penalised by an extra months charge.

If you’re a pre pay customer you can move whenever you like.

You may even be able to move away for a short time and move back to take advantage of a deal on your old network which would normally be only available to new or switching customers.

As we’ve said before, if you are considering moving networks test out the signal before you leave by using a pre pay sim which are usually free.

If you’ve a smart phone you’ll want to see good 3G signal where you live work and play.

Have you ever ported? Did it go smoothly?

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