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Troubleshooting Text Enablement
Troubleshooting Text Enablement

Why you may not be able to text with your existing phone number.

Andy Ruff avatar
Written by Andy Ruff
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

Most landline and VoIP phone numbers can be made text-enabled with Numa. However, sometimes during the text enablement process Numa gets an error when trying to text-enable a phone number. This is typically because a voice provider or another provider has reserved SMS routing capabilities on your number.

Note: Mobile (wireless) numbers cannot be text enabled by Numa. When this is the case, Numa uses the "Numa Number" that is issued to your business to send and received text messages. Customers still will call your main business number and will seamlessly get a text message back from your Numa number when they start a text conversation.

How to transfer SMS routing capabilities from your provider

If you do encounter an error while trying to text-enable your Numa number you can try to reach out to your current phone provider and request that they release SMS routing capabilities. This will allow you to move those capabilities to Numa. Below are some steps you can take to do that:

  1. Contact the current carrier for your phone number and speak with the department responsible for routing SMS traffic.

  2. Express your desire to transfer your SMS traffic to Numa. File a request to delete the existing SMS Routing Profile on the number, also known as a “SPID.” This can be done through the provider that currently holds the route. Please note that your current provider has no obligation to fulfill this request, as they have rightful ownership of the number’s SMS traffic while they are the voice provider. Some will oblige, others will not.

  3. Please send a message to the Numa team and confirm that the SPID has been removed from the current carrier.

Once these steps have been completed, Numa can claim full ownership on the number’s SMS route. If your carrier is unwilling to remove the current SMS route, we will be unable to proceed with your request. Please let us know if we can help to further clarify any additional questions you may have.

SMS transfer capabilities for specific carriers

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