Port Requests
Introduction
This document guides API developers to submit requests to port phone numbers to SkySwitch.
The porting process allows moving new numbers into SkySwitch as stock numbers as well as converting Off-Net or BYOT numbers into stock numbers.
Type of Numbers
- Off-Net Numbers - These are numbers that use SkySwitch services (like SMS) but do not use SkySwitch for voice termination. If you are not a BYOT Reseller and need to use SkySwitch for services other than voice (like SMS), import your numbers as Off-Net Numbers. Off-Net numbers have “origin”=”off-net”
- Port-In Numbers - These are numbers that are currently in progress for porting. These numbers will become stock numbers when porting is completed. Port-in numbers have “origin”=”port-in”
- BYOT - Bring Your Own Telecom (BYOT) numbers are routed to a SIP Trunk and they do not use the SkySwitch PBX platform. This option is only available for BYOT type resellers.
- Stock - These are numbers that are owned by SkySwitch, including those numbers that were ported into SkySwitch. These numbers could use SkySwitch for voice termination and other services.
Type of Port Requests
- Draft Port Requests - These are incomplete port requests. The SkySwitch LNP team will not begin to process Draft port requests.
- New Port Requests - These are port requests with complete porting information and supporting documents. The SkySwitch LNP team will proceed to process these requests.
Porting Workflows
There are 4 possible workflows when porting numbers:
A. Immediate submission of new port request.
Use this workflow when you have all the information available to complete a new port request and do not need the phone numbers immediately used as Caller IDs.
- Create New Port Request
- Submit supporting documents in RT
- Wait for LNP feedback - could be either more info is requested or order status update is given
B. Import as off-net numbers first > then submit as a new port request.
Use this workflow when you do not yet have all the information to complete a port request but would already need to use the phone numbers as Caller IDs.
- Import Off-Net Numbers
- Create New Port Request
- Submit supporting documents in RT
- Wait for LNP feedback - could be either more info is requested or order status update is given
C. Create draft port request first > then submit as new port request.
Use this workflow when you are building a web application wherein you give users a “Save Draft” functionality so they can complete the port orders at some later time.
- Create Draft Port Request
- Update Port Request's Status from Draft to New
- Submit supporting documents in RT
- Wait for LNP feedback (either request for more info or order status update)
D. Import as off-net number > then create draft request > then submit as new port request later.
Use this workflow when you don’t have all the information to complete a port request yet but need to use the phone numbers as Caller IDs immediately.
- Import Off-Net Numbers
- Create Draft Port Request
- Update Port Request's Status from Draft to New
- Submit supporting documents in RT
- Wait for LNP feedback (either request for more info or order status update)
General Tips
To get optimal speed in the processing of port requests
- Complete all the fields (both required and optional) in a new port request. This will avoid the need for the LNP Team to reach out to you to get the missing information.
- Ensure that the Letter of Authorization (LOA) is easily readable. Some delays in porting are due to the submitted information in port requests being not easily verifiable because of hand-written hard-to-read LOAs.
- The signature in the LOA should be a typed signature. LNP Team accepts wet or electronic signatures.
- Ensure the submitted information in the port requests matches the information shown in LOAs.
1. Importing Off-Net Numbers
Use the Add off-net phone number method to import Off-Net phone numbers below.
developers.skyswitch.com2. Validating Phone Numbers
Use the Validate order method to check if a phone number can be ported. The response of this method will indicate which numbers are good to be included in a port request.
- The phone numbers must follow the E.164 format without the + sign. Thus, the number must include [country code] [subscriber number including area code]. Specifically, for US and Canada phone numbers, it must start with 1 and should be 11 digits such as "15555551234".
- When creating a Draft order or submitting an order, only include numbers in the response with “status”=”allow”.
- Numbers imported as Off-Net or BYOT are allowed to be included in a port request.
3. Creating a Draft or New Port Request
Important
Before submitting a Draft Port Order, validate first the phone numbers to ensure that numbers are allowed for porting. Call the Validate Order method described above first. Only add phone numbers that are allowed in this request. See section "2. Validating Phone Numbers" above.
This method can be used to create a DRAFT port request or can be used to actually submit a NEW port request.
DRAFT port request. Creating a Draft port request can be used to allow a user to start filling in fields for a request but not yet submit it. The SkySwitch LNP team will not process any DRAFT port request. Note, however, that the Validate Order method must be called prior to add only allowed phone numbers into a Draft order.
- To create a draft request, call this method with “status”=”Draft”
- To transform a draft to a new port request, see section “Updating a Port Request or Converting a Draft to a New Port Request” below
NEW port request. This can be used to actually submit a port request by skipping the step to create a draft. The SkySwitch LNP team will immediately begin processing the port request once a NEW port request is created.
- To create a new port request, call this method with “status”=”New”
- The Validate Order method must be called prior to add only allowed phone numbers into this new port request.
- When a new port request is successfully submitted, an associated RT ticket will be created. The ticket number will be given in the response as the “ticket_ref” field.
Create port order request
4. Updating a Port Request or Converting a Draft to a New Port Request
This method can be used to update a Port Request or to move a DRAFT port request to a NEW port request.
To update a DRAFT port request and to keep it in draft mode, call this method but keep the status to Draft. This can be done multiple times.
Converting a DRAFT port request to a NEW port request is actually to update a Port Request object. To do so,
- call this method with “status”=”New”
- supply “link_to_ticket”=”1” when moving a Draft to New so a ticket could be created. The ticket number will be given in the response as the “ticket_ref” field.
Once submitted, the SkySwitch LNP Team will begin to process the port request.
Update port order request
5. Viewing a Port Request
Get port order request
Note: No status updates are delivered thru webhook for port requests. All updates are posted in the relevant RT ticket. API clients can check status by polling this method.
6. Viewing All Requested Port Numbers
This method can be used to query all numbers being ported in.
List order-phone numbers
6. Viewing All Port Requests
This method can be used to query details of Port Requests.
Here are some key parameters to supply:
status - If you want to show only the submitted and open port requests, use this: "New, Processing, Carrier Pending, Customer Pending, Accepted, FOC, Processing CNAM/DL, Billing, Port Out Notice, CSR Requested, Purchase TN, Portability Check"
page - Required. Number of port requests to return.
per_page - Required. The "page number" of port requests to return.
List port order requests
Updated over 1 year ago