How long does it take to port a phone number?

Moving a mobile number between two mobile carriers usually takes hours, not days. Verizon quotes 4 to 24 business hours. A landline is different. US law gives carriers one business day to complete a simple landline port, and four business days for a complicated one. Verizon's own figure for landline numbers is 2 to 10 business days. In the EU, the number must be working within one working day of the date you agreed with the new provider. In the UK, a mobile number should normally move within one working day of giving your new provider the code.

What porting a number means

Porting means moving your phone number to a new provider, so that you keep the number and only the company behind it changes. You ask the new provider, not the old one. The new provider sends a request, and the old carrier checks it and releases the number. Your old service keeps working until then.

Three more terms decide which clock applies to you.

• Wireline means a landline, the kind of phone service tied to an address.
• Intermodal means moving between two kinds of service. US rules list three cases: landline to mobile, mobile to landline, and any port that involves internet phone service (VoIP) that can call ordinary numbers.
• Simple port is the FCC's term for an easy case. A simple port covers a single line on the account. It does not involve a reseller, which is a company selling service on another company's network. And it carries no complex features, such as ISDN, Centrex or remote call forwarding. Anything else is a non-simple port.

Most people moving one personal number make a simple port. Small businesses with several lines on one account usually do not.

Every deadline in one table

Each row comes from the rule or page named in it.

The US one business day and four business day limits both end with the same words: "unless a longer period is requested by the new provider or by the customer." If you pick a later date, the later date applies.

Why you read hours and also a week

Search the question and you find "a few hours", "1 to 2 days" and "5 to 7 days". Few of those pages name a rule. They are answers to different questions.

Mobile to mobile really is fast. In 2009 the FCC wrote that the wireless industry "established a voluntary standard of two and one-half hours for wireless-to-wireless ports." The FCC pointed to it as proof that porting could be quick. But that order did not make it a rule. So no US law sets an hour limit for a mobile port.

Landlines run on business days. The US rule for simple landline and intermodal ports says one business day. That rule defines a business day as Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., not counting the old carrier's own holidays. One business day can easily cover three or four calendar days, as the example below shows.

The longer figures cover harder cases. A non-simple port gets four business days by law. A carrier that the FCC excused from the one day rule also gets four business days for simple ports. Verizon's 2 to 10 business days for landlines is an average across all of these cases.

One landline port walked through the clock

Take a home landline, one number on its own account, moving to a cable company's phone service. That makes it a simple intermodal port, because the new service is VoIP. Now follow 47 CFR 52.35 step by step.

Suppose the new provider sends a complete, correct request on a Friday at 3 p.m., local time. The rule says a request must arrive between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. to be eligible for activation "at midnight on the same day." This one missed that window.

The rule treats a late request as received at 8 a.m. on the next business day. The next business day after Friday is Monday. So this request counts as received on Monday at 8 a.m. It is then eligible for activation at midnight on Monday.

That gives one business day by the law and about three and a half days on the calendar. If Monday were one of the old carrier's holidays, add another day. Sent instead on a Tuesday at 11 a.m., the same request would be eligible to switch at midnight on Tuesday.

For a landline, send the request on a weekday morning, and avoid the end of the week.

The EU, UK and Ireland count from the agreed date

In Europe the deadline is tied to a date you choose. Article 106 of the European Electronic Communications Code covers this. A ported number must be activated "within one working day from the date agreed." And "the loss of service" while you switch "shall not exceed one working day." If the port fails, the old provider must switch your number back on until the port works. Providers may not charge you directly for porting. If you cancel a contract, you keep the right to port the number for at least one month afterward, unless you give that right up.

The same article makes each EU country set rules on compensation for delays. Ireland's regulator, ComReg, says switching "should take the shortest amount of time" on a date you agree. It also says that "you shouldn't be without service for more than one working day" and that providers must compensate you for delays.

The UK left the EU, but Ofcom sets its own one working day standard. You text PAC to 65075 to get a porting code, called a PAC. The code is valid for 30 days. You give it to your new provider. Ofcom says your number "should normally be ported and ready to use with your new services within one working day." If it takes longer, you are owed reasonable compensation. If you want to leave without keeping your number, text STAC to 75075 instead.

What this answer does not cover

This page covers the US, the EU, the UK and Ireland. Canada, Australia and other countries have their own rules. The UK figures here are for mobile numbers only. The US rules cover the carrier's part of the job. They do not cover the time you spend finding your account number and transfer PIN, or fixing a rejected request. Verizon calls its figures average time frames, and other carriers publish their own figures, or none. Business accounts with many lines, toll free numbers and numbers moving to a new area are outside this page. Port-out fraud, where a criminal moves your number away, is also a separate topic. This is general information, not advice about a specific contract.

How to port without losing a day

1. Do not cancel the old service. Verizon tells customers not to cancel during a port, because the old account closes by itself once the switch is done. Cancel first and the number is disconnected. In the US it can then be handed to someone else, as how long before a phone number is reassigned explains.
2. Unlock the phone if you are keeping it. A locked phone will not work on the new network, and the unlock can take longer than the port. How long before a carrier unlocks your phone gives the Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile rules.
3. Get the details exactly right. In the US you need the account number and a transfer PIN from the old carrier. Verizon notes that this PIN is not the same as your normal account PIN. In the UK, you need the PAC.
4. Expect a short gap for incoming calls. Verizon says a new line can make calls but cannot receive them until the switch is final. Sign-in codes sent by text can go missing then. Check which accounts send codes by text and set up a backup way back into your accounts first.
5. Protect the number once it moves. Ask the new carrier for a port-out PIN, so nobody can move the number without it. If your phone ever drops to no signal for no clear reason, read the early signs of identity theft.
6. Back up before you change SIMs. Data often gets lost when you change phones at the same time, so make a backup you have actually tested. If the old phone is going to a buyer, wipe it properly after the port has finished.

Done in this order, a mobile port is usually over the same day. A landline port takes longer, so start it early in the week.