Porting your phone numbers when you move to VICIdial

If you have DID (direct inward dialing) numbers on your current dialer that you want to keep - inbound lines, caller ID numbers your outbound campaigns use, toll-free numbers - you will need to port them to your new Carrier before or during the VICIdial migration. The porting process is not instant. Plan for 3-10 business days per batch, and build a temporary forwarding strategy so your inbound lines stay live during the wait.

What porting involves

A number port moves a phone number from one carrier (the losing carrier, your current provider) to another (the winning carrier, your new SIP provider). You initiate it by submitting a Letter of Authorization (LOA) to the winning carrier. The LOA is a short form where you authorize the move and confirm you are the number's account holder. The winning carrier submits it to the losing carrier, who has a regulated number of business days to release the number.

Simple local number ports complete in 3-7 business days under normal conditions. Toll-free ports take 5-10 business days. Ports from a major carrier that does not cooperate, or numbers with billing issues on the losing side, can take longer. Do not schedule your VICIdial cutover date on the same day you expect the port to complete - give yourself a two-day buffer.

Port timeline

stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> LOA_Submitted: Submit LOA to new carrier
  LOA_Submitted --> FOC_Received: New carrier gets Firm Order Commitment date
  FOC_Received --> Port_Day: Wait 3-10 business days
  Port_Day --> Number_Active_New_Carrier: Port completes - number live on new SIP trunk
  Number_Active_New_Carrier --> Inbound_Routing_Configured: Configure DID route in VICIdial
  Inbound_Routing_Configured --> [*]

Temporary forwarding during the port window

While a port is in flight, the number still rings on the losing carrier. To avoid a dead period, set up call forwarding on the number from the losing carrier side - forward it to a temporary DID you have already provisioned on your new carrier and wired into VICIdial. The temporary DID routes to the same inbound group or IVR that the permanent number will eventually point to. On port completion day, the permanent number is live on the new carrier automatically and you remove the forward.

In VICIdial, inbound routing for a DID (direct inward dialing) is configured under Admin > DID. You assign the DID to an ingroup (a queue or agent group) or a menu. The Carrier delivers the call to Asterisk via the SIP trunk, and Asterisk matches the dialed number to the DID record and routes accordingly. Set this up with the temporary DID first so you have tested the full inbound path before the permanent number arrives.

Outbound caller ID

If you are porting outbound caller ID numbers, note that the port completion does not automatically update your VICIdial campaigns. After the number lands on the new carrier, update each campaign's outbound caller ID field to the ported number if you were previously using the temporary DID as a placeholder. This is a manual step that is easy to miss during a busy cutover day.

The broader migration context including parallel running, cutover timing, and rollback is in the VICIdial migration guide. For cutover day specifics, see the VICIdial cutover plan.

If you want to get your VICIdial server running while the port is in progress, VICIfast managed plans provision a configured server in under 40 seconds - enough time to wire up your temporary DIDs and test inbound routing while you wait on the port.