Frequently there is a lot of anxiety about changing voice providers. This is understandable and ARG project managers and engineers do everything possible to minimize customer risk. We are aware that any interruption of service is disruptive and can be perceived as a stressful by someone who is responsible for their company’s phone service. A large part of our process is education; to better explain what will happen when ARG is there to turn up voice service and port numbers. Ideally, when our clients are better informed, they are less anxious. With that in mind, here are the steps we go through to ensure a smooth transition:
- Prior to a voice cut, an ARG Implementation Engineer makes sure the circuits are in place and doing what they are supposed to do.
- We make a few outbound calls and inbound calls on the new circuit with a meter attached to make sure the circuit is working as ordered.
- After proving the circuit is working as ordered with a meter, the PBX patch cable is moved from the losing carriers hand off to the winning carriers hand off. The time it takes to move the patch cable is moved is the only complete outage in the process.
- Immediately after moving the patch cable ARG engineers plug a meter into the losing carriers hand off to verify the new circuit is configured the way the old one was.
- ARG IE’s make several test calls with your phone system through the new circuit to verify that the new circuit is working properly. The PBX vendor programs in the new inbound number that was used to test the circuit to ensure that inbound calls are configured properly. You have outbound service on your new carrier at this time.
- After several successful test calls both in and out through the PBX we request the winning carrier port the numbers.
- The porting of numbers usually takes a few minutes, sometimes longer depending on the quantity of numbers. Until the numbers port you will not have inbound service.
- Once all of the numbers port your service will be fully functional on the new carriers network and ARG will continue to test for another ten minutes or so. You are fully functional at this point.
Total Outage time will be less than five minutes while your patch cables are re-arranged – you will be completely out of service at this time.
You will have outbound dial tone from the winning carrier immediately while we are testing the new circuit.
Inbound calls will be missed for a few minutes while testing prior to and during the porting of numbers from the losing carrier to the winning carrier.
Top three things that can go wrong? (and how ARG prevents them)
#1 Circuit Extension – we can fix it, test it, place it and rearrange it.
#2 Misconfiguration – we can test it and show what it is and explain what it is supposed to be.
#3 No support – ARG works with the carriers and vendors frequently enough that we have contact information for multiple levels of support. They know us and we know them.