What's involved in switching long distance plans?
Switching long distance plans is so easy. Don't let any company tell you otherwise. To understand just what is involved in making a carrier switch, we must first explore how a long distance phone call works.
Have you ever wanted to know just what happens to make your voice connect with a friend thousands of miles away? Although a complicated process, it really is quite simple. Whenever you make a long-distance call, there is a lot of computer technology at work trying to make your call happen. Unlike the phone systems used decades ago, physical wires no longer connect one location to another for each phone call. That system got to be too expensive. Instead, today a fiber-optic line carries a digitized version of your voice and thousands of others' voices in a stream of bytes. The cost difference is huge between "a pair of copper wires carrying a single conversation" and "a single fiber carrying thousands and thousands of conversations".
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Another change in the world of long distance technology is that any single phone company is no longer a monopoly. Instead, there are many different long-distance carriers. When you go to make a long-distance call, a switch in the local phone office accesses a database that contains a record for each phone number connected to the switch. The database contains a code that indicates which long-distance carrier you have chosen. This is the code that will change if you decide to switch long-distance carriers.
At this point, the switch looks up the code for your number and then connects to a long-distance switch for your long-distance carrier. Your long-distance carrier's switches route the call to the local carrier for your friend, and the local carrier completes the call to your friend. This complicated process using computers, switches, wire and fiber-optic cable all takes place in seconds.
So, the truth is out. The simple process of switching long distance carriers is only a matter of changing one code. However, dealing with different competing phone companies is a different matter. You may be charged a fee for changing the code or for canceling your existing service. There are several actions you must take to avoid having to pay charges on the side of the company you were previously with. This is usually because that account has not been canceled and you will continue to be billed for a service you no longer need.
Common processes required to switch a long distance carrier are:
Contact your local phone service provider. Your local phone service provider will notify your previous long distance carrier of your decision.
Contact your new long distance carrier and let them know you would like to switch to their service. Your new long distance carrier will notify the local phone service provider of your decision.
There are people out there that do what is known as "slamming. This is an unauthorized switching of your phone service from one long distance carrier to another without your permission. This has been done by either misleading marketing practices and in some cases, outright fraud. Slamming is prohibited by Federal law and the FCC. The FCC requires a long distance company to obtain your authorization before changing your long distance provider.
To avoid being subject to slamming, you can get a "carrier freeze" from your local carrier to prevent changes to your carrier unless you change it directly. If you have placed a "freeze" on your account to prevent unauthorized changes in your long distance service, you will have to ask your local provider to lift this restriction so that your new carrier can process your request to change your long distance service.
