Local Number Portability

To find out if your number can be ported to our network, give us a call at (506) 406-8003

How it Works

Our phone number is 506-406-8003. The three distinct parts are, in order:

506: Area Code
406: Exchange
8003: Line Number

This breaks the phone number up into three parts. The middle part of the phone number is what we care about: the exchange.

Exchanges used to mean physical telephone exchanges where circuitry was switched to connect calls by joining and separating individual wires. Technology has advanced to the point where this is no longer necessary, and electronic switching is now standard. These days, the exchange part of the phone number is used to identify the rate centre: the mini-area-code used by service providers to draw geographic billing and service areas.

Why is all this important? Well, each rate centre requires a local exchange carrier to manage the physical infrastructure required to route calls to that geographic area. We at Three Layer Solutions get access to these rate centers only when there exists a local exchange carrier in that rate centre who is willing to let us use their infrastructure to provide service to that rate centre. 

We at Three Layer Solutions do not operate any physical telephone infrastructure; we don’t need it. All of our important work is done in datacentres across the world, where calls are connected through internet packets instead of analog signals. When we have a friendly local exchange carrier, they “share” phone numbers in their rate centre with us, so they connect the physical phone line to our servers and let us handle the rest.

Not all local carriers are friendly with us however, and that’s where regulations help us: local exchange carriers cannot refuse porting requests within the same rate centre. We therefore do our best to maintain at least one friendly local exchange carrier in each rate centre to guarantee we have access to phone numbers across Canada. In this case, if you want to switch to Three Layer Solutions, you can keep your phone number; we will have our carriers submit a port request to your current service provider, and they cannot refuse.

This is, unfortunately, not always possible. There are many rate centres — often in rural or remote areas — where there is only one local exchange carrier who is not willing to let us lease their infrastructure and share phone numbers. In these cases, you cannot keep your phone number as there simply is no carrier willing to share their infrastructure with us. We understand this is frustrating, and we are upset about it too: the lack of competition in these regions means the incumbent carrier can charge basically whatever they want, as the end users are forced to pay outrageous prices or face the inconvenience of changing phone numbers.

Let’s look at what happens in both of these situations:

Case 1: Your Number Can Be Ported 🙂

Your number is in a rate centre that is served by one of our carriers. Yay!

In order to avoid the port request being rejected, please ensure there are no outstanding disputes with your current provider. Additionally, the phone number must be active and in working order. Do not cancel your service! Your account must be active with your current provider.

To get the process started, contact your current service provider and ask them for a document called your Customer Service Record. This contains all of your account information and the information of your service provider.

Further, you must print a copy of your most recent bill, sign it on any blank part (do not write over anything!), then scan it.

Both of these documents should be e-mailed to support@threelayer.ca. From there, we will submit the port request and get back to you as soon as we have information on the port status. It typically takes up to a week, which is why you must not cancel your service with your current provider! The carrier will respond with a final order confirmation date, which is the day the number will be officially disconnected from their system. 

Between submitting the port request and the final port date, you should continue to use your current provider’s services. While you can make calls over our network before the port, only after the port is completed will you be able to receive calls to your number through our systems.

We will do our best to schedule installation for the port completion date to reduce service disruption, however it may be necessary to install your hardware before or after the port completes.

Case 2: Your Number Cannot Be Ported 🙁

Unfortunately if your number is tied to a rate centre without a friendly carrier, we cannot port your number to our network. If you want to switch to Three Layer Solutions, you must get a new phone number.

We understand this is not ideal, so we would like to try and make the transition less painful. If your number cannot be ported, your first month is on us.

To reduce disruption and give you time to update your contact information, we plan for the following sequence of events:

  1. You open an account with Three Layer Solutions and get your new phone number. 
  2. You contact your current service provider and request all calls be forwarded to your new number.
  3. We install your hardware. Your service with us is now activated and you may make and receive calls normally.
  4. Calls placed to your old phone number will be forwarded to your new number, and your phone will ring normally.
  5. You have one month to give your new phone number to any interested parties.
  6. At the end of the month, you cancel your old phone line.

The one-month transition period is intended to give you sufficient time to inform everyone of your new phone number. Every phone call should contain the sentence “I got a new phone number, please call me at 123-456-7890 from now on”. Once the month ends and you cancel your old line, it will not be possible to reach you from your old phone number!

We want to reduce the inconvenience of this process, so during the one-month transition period, we will pay for the recurring portion of your bill. If you are on a pay-per-minute plan, we will cover the bill as if you were on the Hybrid US plan.

Sometimes it is not possible (or it is prohibitively expensive) to forward all your calls for an entire month. If this is the case, let us know; we might be able to install special hardware that will merge your old landline and your new one. Once the first month is over and you no longer have your old line, we will replace the temporary hardware with our typical, one-line adapter instead.

The following rate centres cannot currently be ported:

595

Seen enough?

Create an account by clicking the button below and we will contact you to activate your services!