[VoiceOps] Wireless Canada Porting, the CRTC, and the Stupid Process

[Peter Beckman]

I'm finding that Canada Ports, due to the CRTC actions, are increasingly
costly.

In November 2021, without much notice to the industry AFAICT, the CRTC
changed the process for Wireless Canada Ports:

     - Upon receiving a Port Out Request, the Losing Carrier sends an SMS to
       the End User
     - The End User has 90 minutes to reply affirmatively to the SMS
     - If they fail to do so, the Port Request is automatically canceled

For most Canada carriers I can find, they seem to charge you both to submit
the Port Request, and then to Cancel the Port Request.

Add to this what happens when the End User is NOT PHYSICALLY in Canada.

     - MAYBE the Canada Carrier is able to indicate when they send the Port
       Request to the Losing Carrier
     - Customer must be notified to start calling the Losing Carrier, but we
       all might not know when the 90 minute clock starts/started
     - Customer MUST call LSP to approve Port
     - Sometimes they are on hold longer than the 90 minute window
     - The SMS is sent from a Canada-only Short Code, so even if they can
       receive it while roaming, the roaming carrier does not know how to
       route the SMS destination back to the LSP for approval

Overall I give the CRTC an F for this process.


What are others here doing for Canada Ports? Are the costs similar to what
I'm finding, USD$3-6 per TN, USD$3-6 to cancel the order, then another
USD$3-6 to resubmit?

Is there a carrier that does this extremely well? Must be automated too.

Is it just exponentially more expensive when the End User cannot gain
approval on the first Request?


I'm also finding that getting a webhook or notification when the request is
actually sent to the LSP is also difficult, and so notifying the End User
of when to call is also difficult/impossible.

Beckman
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                https://www.angryox.com/
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