What’s changing with Number Porting in South Africa?

If you’ve been staying in the loop, you’ll know that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) recently updated regulations for non-geographic number porting in South Africa. But what does that mean for Telnyx customers?

What’s changing with number porting in South Africa?

Starting March 7th, 2022, businesses will be able to port their non-geographic numbers to any service provider of their choice, adding competition into the South African market. This is welcome news to businesses who can now choose a telecommunications partner that best suits their needs.

Previously, only geographic numbers and mobile numbers could be ported away from Telkom. This posed a major challenge for businesses that have non-geographic numbers at the heart of their day-to-day operations, reducing redundancy and putting core business operations at risk of going offline.

Should I port my numbers to Telnyx?

As you think about whether you want to choose Telnyx as your service provider for non-geographic numbers, there are a few things you should consider:

Future-proof your communications on a Global Cloud Communications Platform.

As you look to migrate from PSTN telephony to VoIP communications you might be concerned about if you can maintain feature parity on your telephony services. Telnyx ensures you can leverage the same familiar telephony features and services via [PSTN Replacement] capabilities in over 25 countries, now including South Africa!

PSTN replacement includes the ability to offer inbound and outbound local calling; geographic, toll-free, and national number resources; emergency service-enabled numbers; guaranteed Calling Line Identity (CLI) passthrough; dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling; and number portability- allowing you to make the switch worry free.

Number search and order made easy

As a licensed carrier, Telnyx offers local, toll free and national number ranges, in over 20 countries around the world. This allows our customers to search, provision and configure numbers instantly via the Telnyx Mission Control Portal or via API.

Hassle-free porting

When it comes to actually porting your non-geographic number away from old-school providers, Telnyx offers a seamless experience. Our easy-to-use portal and APIs streamline the process and eliminate downtime by enabling you to port numbers in bulk, track port status, and configure and customize numbers in real time. Additionally, our team of porting experts are available to support you to move your numbers faster, so you can focus on your business.

The Telnyx porting experience includes advanced features including:

• Real-time data validation on your port — either programmatically or through the portal.
• Easy editing of your ports, even after submission.
• Scheduled cutover times and fast number activation in a matter of clicks. Choose to activate ported numbers on-demand or at a specified time.

Take some time to gather and check the documentation requirements for number porting in South Africa so you can be prepared in advance of requesting a port order. You can also read up on the porting process with Telnyx, and some best-practices for a smooth port-in experience.

Choose a provider with built-in resiliency and redundancy

Perhaps most importantly, we purpose-built our network for future-forward communications. The Telnyx multi-cloud, IP network infrastructure has built in redundancies for reliable service, and outage reduction. With multiple points of presence all over the world, our private, global backbone offers a more direct, secure route for your comms.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to a member of our team or get up and running now by setting up an account in the Mission Control Portal.