Number porting
Porting is your right to switch mobile carriers without changing your number. The new carrier handles the process; the old one has to let you go.
- What it is
- Switching carriers without changing your number
- Since
- 2000 (Spain)
- Verdict
- A little
What it is
Porting your number simply means signing up with a new carrier and asking them to bring your number over from the old one. It's usually completed in a day. There's also a fraudulent variant, similar in goal to SIM swapping: someone tries to port your number to a line they control, posing as you to the new carrier.
It's a different path from a SIM duplicate: with a duplicate, you stay with the same carrier but a new card ends up in someone else's hands; with fraudulent porting, your entire number moves to another company.
Since when
In Spain, what was then the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT, now part of the CNMC) published the first technical specification for number portability on mobile networks in June 2000. The service has been running since then, with several later revisions by the CNMC, the latest in May 2017.
Why it's used
Porting exists so carriers can't "hold you hostage": you can switch companies without losing the number you've already given to your bank, your family and your accounts. It's a piece of competition policy, not security, but it touches your recovery directly because that number is the same one used for your verification texts.
The flip side is the fraudulent variant: someone requests to port your number to a line they control, instead of simply duplicating your SIM at your own carrier. It's less common because it requires opening a new line at another company and clearing their own identity checks, an extra step a SIM duplicate doesn't need.
Does it affect you?
Fraudulent porting exists, but it's much rarer than a SIM duplicate. Still, watch out for the confirmation texts your carrier sends you.
Check this
- Would you recognize the text your carrier sends when someone requests to port your number?
- Would you look closely at a "porting confirmation" text you didn't request?
Official sources: Number portability (CNMC)