Wireline Local Number Porting Redefined with PortControl Pre-Orders

If there’s one thing that everyone in the U.S. telecom industry can unanimously agree on, it’s a need for a collaborative and straightforward process to port wireline local numbers. We should all be able to enjoy using one standardized, easy-to-use platform that gives us everything we need for a simple and pleasurable porting experience.

Simply put, we need a platform that doesn’t require us to have to use a bunch of different systems to track down and share phone numbers, and one that doesn’t result in us picking up a ton of tiny but unnecessary costs for basic wireline local number porting.

At ATL Communications, we’ve been refining this platform for several years. And we’re happy to report that, in our latest update, we’ve created our most integrated and easy-to-use, and versatile version yet – with a highlight being our new Pre-Orders component.

The Challenge

Amazingly, although the ability of customers to keep their phone number when switching from one service provider to another has been available for over 20 years, there has been no standard or a technologically efficient process for service providers to track down, exchange, and update phone number records to complete wireline local number ports.

The challenge involved with this comes into focus with the difficulty involved with hiring employees who are experienced with porting or with training new employees on porting. It’s time-consuming and painstaking to bring new employees up to speed on the complicated processes of local number porting, and it’s likewise a headache when you lose these employees or when these employees go on vacation.

A particular challenge lies in the trading partner profile tracking platforms that telecommunication service providers use for the entering and updating of phone number records.

This is where PortControl Pre-Orders comes in.

A Closer Look at Pre-Orders

When it comes to a basic part of working with trading partner profile tracking platforms, customer service requests (CSRs), and local service requests (LSRs), the telecom industry has long been challenged by having no simple solution or centralized submission method. For the most part, CSRs and LSRs are exchanged by sending emails containing spreadsheets or by logging in to non-standardized carrier port-out portals. As a result, to port from 10 different carriers, service provider employees might need to know 10 different ways to accomplish the same task.

This area has been specifically revamped in the optimized features of the new PortControl Pre-Orders version, which has been designed with the principle that the pre-port process is standardized data that should be able to be automated and streamlined. Among its highlights, the newest version includes a comprehensive but easy-to-use dashboard that integrates all information for local service requests (LSRs), a collaborative assignment system for delegating and scheduling local number porting tasks, and an extensive email notification system and notes system for alerting users and tracking particular tasks in detail.

In particular, Pre-Orders has been designed to simplify the CSR and LSR process by allowing users to ditch having to use different email addresses and handle LSRs in a system that integrates directly into PortControl’s Orders Dashboard. By automating the email-sending process with trading partners that may not have port-out portals, and by tracking the results in an aggregated Orders Dashboard, service providers can maintain full visibility of pending port-in and port-out orders within an easy-to-understand interface. Once orders are created, they can be assigned users specific tasks on a per-order basis.

At long last, this gives departmental leads the ability to track team progress and ensure an optimized, excellent onboarding experience for new customers, and a seamless and satisfying day-to-day porting routine for employees.  

More Features

More fully, the new functionality of PortControl includes this set of innovations:

1. Reporting Dashboard for tracking number of PortControl Explore lookups, numbers ported in and out from an SPIDs in the last range, and export orders data, including order or project ID, phone numbers on the order, due date, create date, and type of port, using a “range” or a comma-separated values (CSV) file.
2. Assignment system for delegating tasks to users, sending users notifications, managing workflows, scheduling work queues and administering all tasks through the real-time PortControl Dashboard.
3. Email notification system for alerting users when events occur, and allowing them to subscribe to event notifications and receive port-out notifications through PortControl.
4. Notes system for creating and updating information, deleting functions, defining public or private viewing, and viewing an entire order history timeline.
5. First automated LSR API port-out for united carriers.
6. First automated email submission capability for LSRs for carriers accepting LSRs through email.
7. New filters for custom Orders Dashboard viewing, including due date (calendar spread), type of port, status of order, new SPID, old SPID, worked by, and worked date columns.
8. Bulk disconnect function for disconnecting many numbers at one time, with separation either by range or by commas, with no limit on bulk, and with the ability to return a number back to original pool block holder.
9. Submission capability for port-in pre-order LSR function for internal work or work by the ATL Communications team, with a full workflow display, whether automated or not, including rejects, supplements, and approvals.
10. Auto Create Subscription Versions (SV) function for LSRs that receive firm order commitments (FOCs).
11. PortControl Explore function for tracking of caller name delivery (CNAM) updates and fraud score data.
12. Extended trading partner profile (TPP) management for more robust TPP management and option for ATL Communications to handle TPP setup.
13. New quick-action buttons to Orders Dashboard to activate, modify, cancel and archive port orders.
14. New module to provide easier access to ATL Communications’ 24/7/365 customer support.

A SaaS Platform, APIs, and a Managed Service

On a final note, PortControl offers the option of using it to handle Pre-Orders and local number porting yourself, with back-office integrated APIs, or one that you can turn over to our experienced team to use to completely manage your local number porting for you. For a managed service, ATL Communications can act as a service bureau that provides 24/7/365, U.S.-based LNP experts capable of performing end-to-end local number porting for your business.

Ultimately, porting a phone number shouldn’t be a struggle. It should be easy. With PortControl, we’re simplifying the burdensome but necessary processes of local number porting and allowing service providers to improve customer service, eliminate tedious steps, and create a happier workplace. And with PortControl Pre-Orders, we’re bringing to market a solution that streamlines the use of trading partner profile tracking platforms and, finally, brings them into a platform with one login, one set of APIs, one invoice, and one support call system.