Immediate Number Porting

This translation was generated automatically.

After my last number port (my own fault) went spectacularly wrong, I looked up how the process is supposed to work now.

A change introduced a few months ago: you can ask your current provider in advance to release your number for “immediate” porting.

For example, a T-Mobile iPhone 4S contract runs until October 2013, but I want to move my number to another provider now. I tell T-Mobile—perhaps in my cancellation notice—that the number should be released for porting. The release remains active for 30 days.

When signing up with the new provider, ask them to arrange the port. They contact Telekom, get approval, pay €25–30, and one night the number switches to the new contract.

If asked, Telekom is now also required to assign a new number to the remaining contract, so you can keep using it until the term ends. Naturally, you still have to pay until then. At the end of the term, that replacement number can also be ported to another provider.To keep things running smoothly, it’s probably also a good idea to call the hotline after cancelling and check that all the bits are in place.

The existing restrictions still apply: some providers refuse to port numbers into existing contracts, and some offers can’t be ported between one another because they’re actually operated by the same company.