What is an Equipment Record?

An Equipment Record (ER) is similar to a Customer Service Record (CSR) that's available in domestic porting. It’s a document that holds all the information needed to get a port submitted and confirmed cleanly. It can also help overcome a porting rejection by confirming that the information in the port request is correct, or can be utilized to dispute the rejection.

What are the benefits of Equipment Records?

Equipment Records provide all the information needed to port cleanly, including:

• Upfront visibility into the end user’s account information
• Insight into numbers being ported vs. numbers being left behind
• List of numbers from which to choose a new pilot line (when necessary)
• Insight into any features that need to be addressed
• Documentation to aid in disputing rejections (when necessary)

How do I get an Equipment Record?

One of the tricky parts of Equipment Records is that they can only be requested by the end user or an authorized user on the account. With that being the case, Bandwidth is unable to intervene and reach out for Equipment Records. An end user can reach out to their Carrier Account Manager and ask for “a complete Equipment Record of the services on their account, including name, service address, account numbers, and BTNs, as a requirement for auditing their current services for internal review.”

Which carriers provide Equipment Records?

This is another tricky part of Equipment Records: they can typically only be provided by Bell or Telus. In the event that the end user is paying an invoice to either of these companies, there’s a good chance an Equipment Record is available – although not guaranteed. If they’re paying any other company for their service, there likely won’t be an Equipment Record available.

What if I'm unable to get an Equipment Record?

In the event that Bell or Telus can’t provide an Equipment Record, or the end user is paying another company, there are still options:

Pre-rejection

An end user can provide their latest invoice (no more than 30 days old). This will give insight into the account make up, features on the account, and any additional lines that need to be addressed. Keep in mind that the name and address on an invoice may be the “billing” name and/or address and not the “service” name and/or address. 

Post-rejection

If an invoice hasn’t already been provided prior to rejection, the end user can provide one that we’ll give to our Canadian partner. They'll try to use the invoice as best as they can and may attempt to dispute the rejection.

In some cases, the end user will need to contact the carrier to get corrected information. The carrier is obligated to provide that. The end user can call their carrier and say: “I'm moving my service to another carrier and I need to know the (account name, service address, etc).” If they're an authorized user on the account, the carrier must provide that information to them.