What is porting a number?

If you currently have a phone number that you would like to keep, we can look into the option of porting your number from a different provider to MessageBird. After having ported the number(s) you will be charged the monthly costs for a Virtual Number, which can be found on our pricing page.

The porting process differs between Voice numbers, SMS numbers and US/CA numbers, for which we have outlined in detail, below.

Voice numbers

To port a voice number we would need the following information:

• Phone Number that you wish to port
• A copy of a recent invoice from your current provider
• A filled in version of MessageBird's Power of Attorney form, which can be found at the bottom of this page.

There are likely costs involved with the porting of a voice number, however, the costs will be assessed on a case by case basis. We will always ask you to agree to the costs before proceeding with the porting of the number.

The timeframe of the porting of these numbers differ based on multiple factors which are out of our control; we find that the porting of voice numbers can roughly take up to a month.

SMS numbers

To port an SMS number we would need the following information:

• Phone Number that you wish to port
• A copy of a recent invoice from your current provider

We find that this process changes regularly and because of this, we might request more information from you at a later stage.

There might be costs involved with porting an SMS number, the costs will be assessed on a case by case basis. We will always ask you to agree to the costs before proceeding with the porting of the number.

Because of the regular changes in the process we are unable to provide a timeframe for the porting of SMS numbers.

United States/Canada number

To port a US/Canadian number we would need the following information:

• Phone Number that you wish to port
• Authorized person's name which is listed with the current carrier
• Account number which is listed with the current carrier
• The end-user address which is listed with the current carrier
• Desired porting date, we can't guarantee this date will be reached but we are able to fill this in as a request

There might be costs involved with porting a US/CA number, the costs will be assessed on a case by case basis. We will always ask you to agree to the costs before proceeding with the porting of the number.

The timeframe of the porting of these numbers differ based on multiple factors which are out of our control; we find that the porting of US/CA numbers can roughly take a couple of weeks.

Toll-free number

To port a Toll-Free Number we require the following information:

• Phone Number that you wish to port
• Authorized person's name which is listed with the current carrier
• Account number which is listed with the current carrier
• The end-user address which is listed with the current carrier
• Desired porting date, we can't guarantee this date will be reached but we are able to fill this in as a request
• A Letter of Authorization from your current provider

Twilio number

If you wish to port a number from Twilio, kindly look at this article from their help center which describes the porting process and also shows you where you can find the needed information to port your phone number.

If you wish to port your number, or if you have any other questions with regards to the process, please send us an email at support@messagebird.com with the requested info.