Toll free numbers are portable and able to be transferred from one company to another. However the speed of processing transfer requests varies more than most customers realize. We help companies get good numbers and then transfer them to whatever company the customer wants. So we treat the transfer process as more of a priority. That’s also why we collected and analyzed this data to show our customers how long it takes to transfer their number over to different phone companies. We hope this information is helpful.

Not all phone companies are created equal. We have collected and analyzed data from over 2000 toll free transfer requests from February through July 2006 to show the speed that they process transfer requests. This chart shows the days it takes to process toll free transfer requests, measured from the date the customer signs the paperwork to the date we receive it from their phone company. Most toll free requests are faxed back and forth which leaves a good date trail.
The time listed is only for the requesting carrier to send the request to the releasing carrier. It doesn’t include the time it takes the releasing carrier to actually release the number. The industry standard for this is two business days but most phone companies often take considerably longer. At TollFreeNumbers.com we release most toll free transfer requests the same day we receive the request, often within hours or less instead of the several days or more that it takes most companies. That’s because our goal is different than regular phone companies. We don’t want to provide the ongoing toll free service for customers but to help customers find the best possible toll free number and then to transfer the number to whatever carrier the customer wants as quickly as possible for the ongoing service.

We’ve worked with Opex, FVS, Get1800 and PNG to speed up the processing so these companies appear artificially fast. Most companies take between two days and a week or so. In general the larger companies often take longer than the smaller companies to process the paperwork to transfer numbers. Some of the fastest companies are smaller but small companies can also be less consistent in their processing. Some companies also seem to batch their requests, processing a week of transfer requests at a time which makes some requests within the same company take longer than others.

Canadian companies also tended to be slower at processing them, although there is no specific reason or steps necessary for transfers from the US to Canada or vice versa. Sometimes Canadian phone company reps tell customers that there are differences but there really isn’t much difference in terms of the resporg system between Canada or the US. They are both part of the same North American Numbering Plan.

Phone companies with less than 5 transfer requests were removed, and some large bulk transfers were discounted as well so as not to skew the results. The secondary sort was on the volume of transfers so if two companies had the same average speed, the one that processed the most numbers was listed first.

Due to mergers, some phone companies have multiple resporgs. Since records were kept by resporg some companies like SBC have multiple listings. Some companies are also resellers and may use other companies for their resporg, such as Qwest or Global Crossing. These resellers are listed along with their carrier.

Transferring toll free numbers from one company to another is often confusing to the customer and is where toll free numbers sometimes do get lost when they are left on the old company after the account is closed. It is extremely damaging and costly if you lose your toll free number, especially if it’s on all your advertising.

This data is not intended to promote or discourage the use of any specific company or companies. We simply started keeping track of the information because customers often ask who is the fastest at transferring numbers. We also hope that displaying this information may encourage some companies to process transfer requests for our customers faster. We will continue to monitor this information and compare the results for the next six months to see if there’s any significant changes.

This data is exclusively owned and published by TollFreeNumbers.com. Your results may vary. Please consult your doctor or your tax advisor before transferring your own 800 number. If you have questions about transferring your toll free number, even if you’re not a current or former customer of TollFreeNumbers.com feel free to contact us at 1-800 MARKETER. We can look up and show you the resporg history of your number

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