Pre-assigning phone numbers prior to porting

[Cappy]

My company is currently switching from RingCentral to Zoom Phone. I was informed by Zoom that I could pre-assign our RingCentral numbers prior to porting them over to Zoom. I would like to do this so we do not experience any down time. However, Zoom has not been able to tell me how to do this. Do I need to initiate the port of all our numbers and during the process I will be able to pre-assign? Or can I pre-assign prior to initiating the porting process? Any help would be appreciated.

[ArvinG]

Hey there, welcome to the Zoom Community! Here's a Zoom Clip I made to answer your question. Let me know if this helps, thanks!

[Cappy]

Hey thank you so much for replying. That was helpful but we don't have existing numbers with Zoom to replace with the ported number. I only have all of our users added to our account but they have not been assigned a number yet. Is there a way to assign a number to a user when requesting a port instead of replacing an existing number?

[ArvinG · Accepted solution]

You can only assign an existing phone number to a user. If it sits well with you I think this work around might help > Zoom Clip 2.

[Cappy]

This is perfect thank you!

[BigMac]

Variation of question - I do not want to "port" until I am sure that the system/ program is going to work as hoped.  Can I call forward an existing number to a temporary Zoom number to test this program for desirability?

[BigMac]

Eliot - Wow; it will take me a bit to unpack all of info. you sent.  Follow on question is the number of contacts which can be used in Zoom phone system?  I thought I read a limit of 1,000 which is not adequate.  What to do?

[Eliot]

hi bigmac,

you can forward an existing number to a temporary number for testing purposes.

Whatever your contract with Zoom provides in terms of number of phone numbers, you can request and use as temporary numbers that will be replaced with ported numbers.  This allows you to test incoming and outgoing calls with temporary numbers.  In my experience, this works extremely well.

(Optional) Enter an existing phone number that will be replaced with the ported number when the porting process is complete. This allows you to use a temporary phone number during the porting process.

Note: Specifying an existing phone number will not use additional licenses.

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0062348

here are screen shots:

Request temporary phone numbers for your zoom phone system (referred to as existing phone numbers).  The quantity of toll and toll free numbers available should correspond to your zoom phone contract less any temporary you already have.  (Screen shot shows that I have used all my available numbers.)

check portability of numbers used by the system being replaced by zoom phone.

Verify that the number, can be ported.

Request that existing temporary numbers be replaced by ported numbers on the FOC date.

On FOC date, calls to your old system telephone numbers will routed to your new Zoom system.  Temporary numbers will be deleted and replaced with your ported numbers, if so marked.

Did my response answer your question? If so, please don't forget to mark the reply as an accepted solution.

thanks,  eliot