Firm Order Commitment — FOC
Qué es Firm Order Commitment?
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A Firm Order Commitment (FOC) is a carrier-to-carrier confirmation in the number-porting process: the losing carrier's response that it will release the requested telephone number on a specific, committed future date (the FOC date). Once an FOC is issued, the port moves from 'requested' to 'scheduled' — both carriers provision the cutover for that date, and the business can plan its notification and downtime window around a concrete appointment rather than an open-ended queue.
More detail
The FOC stage sits between the port request and the cutover. The gaining carrier submits the port to the losing carrier's portability desk; if the losing carrier's validation passes (account number, PIN, Letter of Authorization, CSR match, no freezes or pending conflicting orders), it issues an FOC carrying a concrete date. If validation fails, the port bounces back with a rejection reason (a LOA mismatch, an incorrect PIN, an active freeze, a pending conflicting order, or an unauthorized address change) instead of a date.
An FOC date is a commitment, not a guarantee: complex ports, large multi-number blocks, or a cable-and-wire port can stretch the timeline, and either carrier can still reject or reschedule before the cutover. Most simple voice ports land within the same day, while DID or toll-free blocks can take a few business days, and international ports usually run longer. The date itself is a scheduled appointment both carrier operations teams provision toward — and the date the business should plan its notification, bridging, and rollback windows around.
For a CPaaS customer, knowing the FOC concept changes how a port is managed in practice: the customer knows the cutover is a scheduled event with a rollback path, not a floating queue. Devotel Orbit's Numbers and Porting console (the numbers workflow the /features/naas surface describes) carries the losing-carrier FOC reference through the port lifecycle — request, FOC, scheduled cutover — so the tenant sees a real committed date, not an open RFC ticket.
Preguntas frecuentes
- What is a Firm Order Commitment (FOC)?
- A Firm Order Commitment (FOC) is the losing carrier's confirmation in a number port that it will release the number on a specific committed date. Once a port has an FOC, it moves from an open request to a scheduled event cutover both provision toward, and the business knows the rollback and notification windows have a concrete date.
- How does an FOC fit into the number-porting process?
- It is the scheduled stage. The gaining carrier submits the port; the losing carrier validates the account number, PIN, Letter of Authorization, and CSR data; and it then either rejects the port with a reason or issues an FOC with a concrete date. The carriers provision the cutover against that date and the number transfers.
- Does every port request get an FOC?
- No — a port can still be rejected at the validation stage (a LOA mismatch, a wrong PIN, an active freeze, or a pending conflicting order) and never reach an FOC. And complex or large multi-number ports can take longer to reach it. An FOC is the confirmation that the port passed validation and is now scheduled, not a guarantee of a specific timeline.
- Why does the FOC stage matter on a CPaaS platform?
- Because it changes porting from a floating queue into a scheduled event. A CPaaS console that tracks the FOC reference — like Devotel Orbit's Numbers and Porting flow — gives the tenant a real committed date to plan notifications, bridging, and rollback windows around, instead of an open RFC ticket.
See also
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