Wireless Number Portability Policy
A Wireless Policy Brief from Ovation
In brief, your organization’s policy toward cellular
phone numbers being transferred in and out of your
corporate-liable accounts has an impact on the
employees requesting a move of a number, when
joining or leaving the company, as examples; on your
wireless carrier expenses; and on the telecom
administrators performing these transactions. It can
also rise as an issue during times of staff cutbacks,
wireless policy change, or when certain high impact
employees are involved. We discuss some policy
alternatives with examples of impacts and trade-offs.
For more on this Policy Brief and
other wireless topics contact:
Andrew Gordon
[email protected]
(301) 212-7010
Ovation Services Group
950 Wind River Lane
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Wireless Policy Briefs from Ovation is a series of short discussions geared to policy-makers
in telecom, information technology, and financial management at organizations with wireless user populations. Each policy brief discusses one specific facet of an overall wireless
policy, and provides you with information to plan policy at your organization — or arm you
with knowledge on the topic if a discussion is thrust upon you by a related issue.
Next in our series: Personal Blackberry or other Smart devices on corporate networks.
Wireless Number Portability Policy
A Wireless Policy Brief from Ovation
Corporate policy regarding ports or transfers of liability into or out of the corporate
wireless account varies greatly. Companies run the gamut of options that balance
convenience for employees, wireless carrier costs, and administrative burden. If an
employee joins your company in a position eligible for a corporate liable line of service,
is he or she allowed to bring a cellular phone line of service onto the company’s
account? And when a person leaves your employ, can he or she transfer the number to
a personal account? Does the answer change if the employee is an executive or a
sales person?
Your policy on
number movement
in and out of your
corporate accounts
impacts cost and
admin burden as
well as employees.
Consider your proposed policy’s impact and trade-offs
before
making
changes.
Some companies choose to be completely open, allowing numbers in and out as
employees come and go. This can lead to higher cost and higher administrative
burden, while easing restraints on employees. Less commonly and at the other end of
the spectrum are those organizations that allow no migration in or out, which reduces
administrative burden but can have an impact on costs and some annoyed new (or
departing) employees. In this Corporate Wireless Policy Brief, we offer some examples
of the trade-offs among the sample policies. This can inform your decisions in the event
a related issue arises and also make you aware of other policy options in use.
At most companies of course, new employees start while others leave on a monthly
basis, so the number of ports in and out or transfers of liability in and out (i.e. moves to
different carriers or moves within the same carrier but to the account of a different
financially liable party). As a result of this natural migration, the work of handling these
transactions falls regularly on telecom staff. As they will tell you, the more complex of
these transactions can occasionally turn into nightmare ordeals causing frustration for
the end-user involved and time wasted by telecom staff.
Since the policies have ramifications for employees, wireless costs, and telecom
administrative maintenance, it is important for you to know the issues and decide on the
policy that best fits with your company culture and resources.
With the caveat that there are almost as many variants of policy as there are policies
themselves, the broad categories below are in rough order of popularity that we see,
with the top four much more prevalent than the last two.
Stays In – New employees or those newly approved for a corporate liable device may
bring personal or prior professional numbers into the corporate account, but once it is in,
it becomes property of the organization and stays in (unless an exception is granted).
The trade-off for the employee is potential loss of phone number (e.g. when leaving the
company) versus having cell phone costs paid by the company.
Page 2
© 2009 Ovation Services Group, LLC, and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Reproduction or distribution of this
publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been
obtained through our experience with this topic. Ovation Services Group disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy,
completeness or adequacy of such information.
Wireless Number Portability Policy
A Wireless Policy Brief from Ovation
Job Based – The phone number stays with the job. If an employee leaves the
organization or is moved or promoted to different responsibilities, the equipment and
number stay with the departed person's job for his or her replacement to take over.
No Restrictions – New employees or those newly approved for a corporate liable
device may bring personal or prior professional numbers into the corporate account.
Those leaving the company may port their numbers out to individual (or another
organization's) accounts.
Policy
Positives
Negatives
Stays In
• Very clean because ports/transfers in are
• End users typically do not like to be restricted
administratively easier than out
• Keeps control of a number that has been
used for your business purposes
• Flexible: have the rule but manage exception
requests (for ex. allow execs but restrict key
sales people)
Job Based
• Customers and colleagues know the right
• Making name changes with the carrier as the
• Employees like this, for obvious reasons
• Higher number of transactions. Ports in and
number to call for a particular issue
• Very good for businesses whose customers
need to have a number for a particular location or function
• Less cost center movement on the back end,
so accurate accounting is easier
No restrictions
Ad hoc
No Sales
Ports Out
No Movement
from keeping “their” number upon leaving the
organization
• If exits are not managed well, costs can pile
up due to early termination fees, stockpiled
devices that become obsolete etc.
• Similar to job-based in terms of number
continuity when sales number is handed off
to replacement
user of the number changes is more difficult
• Employees need to inform personal and some
business contacts of new number
out, transfers of liability in and out all must be
handled, which can be very time consuming
• Rate plan pooling must be adjusted more
frequently if out-bound numbers are taking
available minutes out of the plan. Mistakes
can mean costly overages.
• Higher number of service pro-rations to factor
in and explain on mobile cost reports
• No policy usually means approvals must be
sought, unusual and special requests occur
that can take the transaction longer to complete
• Subjectivity/differing decisions can lead to
upset staff
• Similar to Stays In
• Sales end users not thrilled
• Management of remaining line of service
needed to keep costs in line
Ad hoc – Essentially
amounts to no policy on this
topic, as requests for
transfers in or out are
handled on an ad hoc basis
as they arise.
No Sales Port Outs – This is
really a modification of No
Restrictions, but with a
specific exception for sales
people. Some companies
feel that the phone numbers
used by sales should be kept
within the company to
prevent sales people from
"walking" with all their sales
contacts, especially if the
sales person is off to a
competitor.
No Movement – While the
least common solution, some
companies just avoid the
issue completely by having a
very restrictive policy. Ports
and transfers in or out are not
allowed.
These plans trade end-user
satisfaction against telecom
• Lower administrative burden as no need to
• Can lead to high equipment costs and freadministrative burden and
deal with Ports and TOLs
quent carrier fees
cost to the company.
• Clear straightforward policy
Though difficult to prove
statistically, anecdotal evidence clearly suggests that changes in an organization’s
policy can provoke end-users to alter behavior. As an example, very strict policies can
encourage people to keep their own cell phone number and use it for business if many
of their contacts already know that number. Very often, the same employee will submit
expense reports for wireless costs rather than take a corporate-liable device that is
Page 3
Wireless Number Portability Policy
A Wireless Policy Brief from Ovation
governed by a strict policy. Your organization may not approve of your business being
conducted on a personal cell phone. Similarly, the employee might take a corporateliable Blackberry but keep his or her own cell phone, submitting expense reports for the
cell. That means you are paying either all or some of the cost for two lines of service
and equipment. The lesson is to take care when changing policies to consider the affect
on end-user work habits and wallets.
There are many derivatives and variations to all of these policies. You will need to
consider what works best in your organization as far as cost, administrative burden and
desire to keep employees productive and satisfied.
@ 2009 Ovation Services Group
About Ovation Services Group
Ovation provides wireless purchasing and technical services in support of large groups
of wireless users. We provide wireless and technical expertise for wireless devices of all
types, focusing on cost control and outstanding service.
For more information about this Wireless Policy Brief or other wireless topics, please
contact us at [email protected] or download this and future wireless briefs at
www.OvationWireless.com.
Page 4