Number porting
Your numbers come with you
Porting is a statutory right, not a favour from your current provider. What § 59 TKG guarantees you, how the process runs, and what actually holds it up.
What the law gives you
Section 59 of the German Telecommunications Act governs number portability when switching provider. The points below are not XETEL promises; they are your rights against any provider.
A right to keep the number
On switching provider you are entitled to keep your numbers — for geographic numbers, within the same local network.
At most one working day
Service interruption during porting may not exceed one working day.
Up to a month afterwards
You can still request porting up to one month after the contract ends. A contract already terminated does not rule porting out.
Compensation for delay
If porting is delayed or an agreed appointment fails, the law provides for compensation.
Sources
Every market figure on this page comes from the publications below. XETEL's own platform figures are labelled as such.
- § 59 TKG (German Telecommunications Act 2021)
The process
You give the order to the gaining provider — us. We handle the exchange with the losing provider; you do not terminate there yourself.
Take stock
We record the numbers to be ported, the current provider and the line type. Number blocks and individual numbers are handled differently.
Order and authorisation
You issue the porting order and a letter of authority. Both must name the line holder — mismatched company names are the most common cause of rejection.
Coordinate with the losing provider
We file the porting request and agree the date. The losing provider checks the details against its records.
Port
The number is switched on the agreed date. The interruption stays inside the statutory one working day.
Verify
We test inbound and outbound delivery for every number and check the transmitted caller ID.
What we need from you
Most delays come from these four points — not from the technology.
Exact line-holder details
Company name and address must match the losing provider's records, down to the legal form. \u201cGmbH\u201d against \u201cGmbH & Co. KG\u201d is enough for a rejection.
A complete list of numbers
Block boundaries for blocks, every number for individual numbers. Additions afterwards mean a new order.
Your customer reference
The contract or customer number with the losing provider speeds up matching considerably.
A target date with slack
Do not schedule the switch for the day of a campaign. One working day of interruption is permitted and does happen.
What holds it up in practice
The most common reason for rejection is formal rather than technical: the details on the porting order differ from those the losing provider holds. An outdated address, or a company name changed since the contract was signed, is enough.
The second common case is number blocks that can only be ported whole. If you want to take only part of a block, the split has to be settled beforehand — after the switch it is considerably more work.
Do not terminate the old contract before porting. A number already released can fall back into the number pool, and as a rule it cannot be recovered.
Questions about porting
Do we have to terminate with our old provider?
No — and you should not do so in advance. The porting order to us triggers the switch. Terminating early can cause the number to lapse.
How long are we unreachable?
Interruption may not exceed one working day. In practice it is usually a short window on the switching day.
Can we move geographic numbers to a different local network?
No. Geographic numbers stay tied to their local network. A new site needs a number from that local network.
What does porting cost?
We do not charge separately for porting to XETEL. What your current provider charges follows your contract with them.
Can we port only some of our numbers?
For individual numbers, yes. For number blocks it depends on whether the block can be split — we settle that before the order.