With the objective of taking advantage of the best offers of telephone plans, many consumers have asked to make the carrier portability🇧🇷 Thus, the customer has the convenience of keeping his old number, keeping his contacts, but with the advantage of enjoying the benefits offered by the operators with regard to TV, internet and telephony packages.
Keep reading to find out more.
What this article covers:
What is carrier portability
Keep in mind that portability is a quick way to join a new phone plan, without having to change your number. Know what to do before requesting portability:
- First, the consumer should do a price survey to find out which are the best offers for cell phone plans in Brazil: the details of the plans, those that have the best package with internet included, the values and loyalty of each one.
- After searching, you can request the portability of your number, be it mobile or landline.
Remembering that portability is a procedure through which you change the operator of your telephone plan, without having to change your cell phone number or your fixed device. But it is only possible to carry out the portability if it is within the same service already contracted.
That is, you can only request portability of your cell phone if you want to join a new cell phone plan. It is not possible, for example, to transfer a number from a landline to a mobile phone and vice versa.
In short, portability can only be done within the same service: from mobile telephony to mobile telephony and from fixed telephony to fixed telephony.
However, you can transfer your mobile number from a prepaid plan with one operator to a postpaid plan with another operator, as long as the portability is carried out in the same service area, that is, with the same area code. The same thing happens if you want to change your fixed prepaid number to another operator with a fixed postpaid plan.
To request portability, you need to make a request to the service channels of the operator you want to become a customer.
How to do number portability?
To request the portability of your number, just contact the operator you want to hire. This can be done through the company’s website, a phone call or in person, in physical stores.
If you choose to make the portability through the website, the new operator will send an online form for you to fill in with your data and send it back.
Who can apply for portability?
It is worth mentioning that there are some prerequisites for portability to be carried out. They are: the CPF or CNPJ must be in the name of the holder of the line to be ported and the number to be ported must be active at the operator of origin.
Before requesting portability, it is necessary to check if you are still fulfilling the loyalty contract with the old company. This is important because portability does not have the power to change the contractual provisions that were signed with the operator from which you want to withdraw.
When you port from one operator to another, you are terminating your contract with the first company. That is, if there is a forecast of a fine for breach of contract, you will have to pay this fine.
Check all information about portability for TIM, Vivo and Claro.
Portability to TIM
If you choose to port your number to TIM, be aware that this service is free. If your plan is Post-paid or Control, you can hire online through the virtual service of company website or you can choose to go to a TIM store with the following documents in hand:
- Identity
- CPF
- Proof of address
- Invoice from your current carrier
Still in the TIM store, a line will be activated for you with your new contracted plan. The attendant will schedule a date when your number will leave the old operator and become a TIM number.
If the plan you want to hire is Prepaid, you can request TIM portability either at one of TIM’s stores or you can make the transition directly from your cell phone. Just buy a TIM chip and follow the commands that will appear on your smartphone screen.
Portability to Vivo
Keep in mind that the portability to Vivo is also free for mobile phones. In the case of fixed telephony portability, the customer only pays the installation fee.
Another important point is that the deadline for Vivo portability to be carried out is three business days. For portability to be carried out, the customer needs to have a Vivo chip with a new number that will be replaced by the number of the other operator.
Then, depending on the type of plan you want to join, you can hire online by accessing the Vivo Online Storein the option “bring your number to Vivo” or you can choose to carry out the portability in one of the physical stores of the operator.
To perform the Vivo portability:
- Vivo Prepaid Plan: if the portability is for a Vivo Prepaid Plan, the customer will have to go to a physical Vivo store and request the procedure. It will be necessary to have a Vivo chip, which can be purchased both in physical stores and in the operator’s Online Store.
- Postpaid or Control Plan: if you wish to subscribe to one of these plans, you can make the contract through the Online Store or at any of Vivo’s physical stores. If you choose to hire your plan at the physical store, you will have to bring the following documents: RG, CPF and proof of residence.
- Fixed Portability: in the case of landline portability, it is necessary to go to a Vivo physical store with ID, CPF and proof of residence. All documents must be in the name of the previous carrier’s account holder.
Portability to Claro
Finally, portability to Claro can be done through the Claro Portabilidade telephone service, on the number 1052. It can also be done through the Telesales service, on 0800 742 0310, in the cases of the Claro Post or Claro Pré plans.
First of all, you will have to purchase a SIM card from Claro and activate it in a Claro cellular plan.
Check out the step-by-step guide to make the Claro portability on your own mobile device:
- After activating your new Claro chip, you will have to send an SMS from your Claro chip to 1970 with the area code and the number of your old cell phone, which you wish to change to Claro
- Wait for a new SMS to arrive and reply with the line holder’s CPF
- An SMS security code will be sent to your old SIM card
- Send an SMS with this code to 1970 using your Claro chip
- Wait for authorization to perform Claro portability and answer “YES”
How much does number portability cost?
As we have already mentioned, many telephone operators are already offering portability for free for mobile phone number portability cases. When the portability is for fixed telephony, the customer pays for the installation of the service.
According to the regulation provided by Anatel, operators have the right to charge the customer some amount for the portability request, although most of them are not charging for this service.
How long does portability take?
Many customers have doubts about the portability completion deadline. It is possible that the portability is scheduled in advance, so the deadline will be according to the schedule. But, apart from that possibility, operators have done the procedure in up to three business days.
