In order to be able to take your phone number with you immediately when you change your tariff or provider, you need to adjust the timing of your actions carefully.
Take your phone number with you immediately: Regular porting
If you change your mobile phone provider, you have the option of taking your own phone number with you. After all, you don't want to give up the number you've been using for a long time, which your family, friends and business partners already know. But number porting, also known as number transfer, can sometimes seem complex.
- Make sure that your new contract allows you to keep your old phone number. In Germany, consumers have had the legal right to take your mobile phone number with you when changing providerThis applies to both contract customers and prepaid users. The advantage: you can still be reached on the same number, regardless of which provider you are currently using.
- There are two ways to take your phone number with you: either immediately, i.e. while your contract with your current provider is still running, or after the end of the contract. If you want to take the number with you immediately, you must end the current contract or, with some providers, continue it in parallel in order to carry out the porting.
- You can cancel your contract directly with your current provider or declare your intention to do so, or you can let the new provider do it for you. Coordinate the timing of the termination and the change of provider sensibly, to avoid outages. Please note the cancellation periods of your old contract. A phone number cannot be assigned to multiple contracts.
- Her The previous provider must release the phone number for portabilityWith prepaid tariffs, you often have to fill out a corresponding form. You should also have enough credit left, as there is a porting fee for prepaid tariffs.
- Providers such as ALDI Talk or freenet offer all necessary Forms for number portability an.
Number portability: How to proceed
Porting your phone number does not necessarily mean that you have to cancel your contract with the other provider. You can also have two numbers with two providers in parallel if that is useful to you. In general, if you only want to keep your one number, proceed as follows:
- Terminate your old contract on the desired date and submit a request to release your phone number for the upcoming porting. Have the termination confirmed in writing.
- Bring the cancellation confirmation from your old provider to your new contract partner. When you sign the contract, also tell your new provider that you want to port your old phone number. Also tell them your old provider and the customer details you left there, which should definitely be the same for both providers.
- Pay the porting fees to your old telephone provider such as Vodafone on time. These costs may be offset against your prepaid credit. In this case, make sure that you have sufficient credit.
- The fee is usually between six and 30 euros. However, check whether your new provider offers a switching bonus – many companies reimburse the porting costs as a new customer bonus.
- The new provider can now initiate the number porting with your previous provider within 30 days. The old provider must have released the number for this. The number transfer usually takes between one and two weeks. This usually involves processing costs.
- At a Number portability before contract end you will end up having two contracts running at the same time. You will of course be assigned a new phone number for your old contract.
- An immediate number transfer can often be completed within a few days if everything goes smoothly. Porting at the end of the contract However, the process usually takes longer because it is tied to the notice period. Make sure that the new provider requests the porting in good time to avoid interruptions.