What Is a Letter of Authorization (LOA) In Telecom?
Scott Swearingen / Telecom / July 5, 2022
You can’t run a successful business without a telecommunications provider. It’s an inevitable cost, and there’s no way around it. But that doesn’t mean that you’re stuck paying what your telecom provider has been charging you.
In fact, these invoices often have unnecessary charges that are uselessly raising your expenses each month. Plus, your business might not have the most effective contract in place.
Auditing these invoices for errors requires extensive knowledge about telephone tariffs and service codes, which most employees don’t have. Therefore, the most cost-effective way of getting your telecom expenses down is working with a third party with experience in telecom audits and contract negotiation.
However, for a third party to work with these telecommunications companies on your behalf, you must complete a Letter of Authorization, also known as an LOA.
In telecom, a Letter of Authorization (LOA), sometimes called a Letter of Agency, is an official document from a service provider or customer that authorizes a third party the right to gain access to that customer’s information from a telecom provider.
The LOA document gives the new telecom provider the authority to act on the customer’s behalf and allows for the transfer of information between the two service providers. This form includes the necessary details for the third party to carry out any services requiring a company’s private information.
Letters of Authorization are used in many industries and sometimes in our personal lives as well. You’ll often see them in the medical, real estate, or energy sectors.
An LOA form permits another person or entity to act on your behalf within agreed-upon limits. For example, when working with a third party like P3 Cost Analysts for a telecom expense audit, there are three main reasons we’ll need a Letter of Authorization.
The first step of any telecom expense audit is combing through a company’s invoices for all services such as local and long-distance phone lines, internet, and wireless. These customer service records are incredibly complicated to read and understand. Still, they are vital for us to determine precisely what you’re being billed for, where the lines are located, and what the contact conditions are. An LOA document is required to obtain these records on our client’s behalf.
Another critical component of our process is negotiating with the telecom companies. On top of your vendor and customer service records, we need access to contracts and the ability to communicate with carriers on your behalf. An LOA form grants us permission to access this info and inform carriers of the decisions made. This way, we can make changes like removing unused services, discuss pricing moving forward, pushing for special offers, and driving savings.
After reviewing our recommendations during the audit you may decide that changing service providers is the best move for your company. The good news is that you can have your current number transferred to a new service provider. This process is known as porting and can save business owners the hassle of starting over with a new phone number. LOAs give us the authority to manage the complicated process of porting numbers and ensure that the telecom companies get it right.
There are many laws in place that prevent businesses from sharing their client’s sensitive information, and this is a good thing. However, there are certain times when trusting a third party with this information is necessary, such as during a telecom expense audit.
A Letter of Authorization is a legal document that allows access to this information to a trusted third party. Without an LOA form, there would have to be endless back and forth between you, P3, and your service provider. Considering the goal of having us run the audit for you is to save you time and headache, not having access would defeat the purpose.
The Federal Communications Commission also requires these legal documents to ensure that carriers are not taking over phone numbers without the user’s permission. However, when a user or business wants to transfer their number to a new telecom provider, the new provider must work with the old provider to transfer the service without interruptions.
The LOA document helps to make this process go as smoothly as possible. It provides proof that a customer has authorized the new telecom provider to take over both services and the phone number. Once this form has been signed, the new provider can begin the process of porting.
Even if you think you’re getting the best telecom rates possible, schedule a telecom audit with one of the experts at P3 Cost Analysts. On average, our clients save between 15 and 30 percent on telecom overcharges. Plus, there are no upfront costs for you, so you have nothing to lose.
Our team can show you all the unnecessary charges currently showing up on your invoice and get you refunds for errors that happened in the past. In addition, we can help guide you through the process of cleaning up your current invoices or negotiating contracts with new telecom providers. Contact one of our telecom experts today!
If you haven’t done a telecommunications audit recently, it’s time. You could run the audit yourself, but you’ll likely miss out on significant savings due to the complicated nature of telecom invoicing and contracts. Working with a third party like P3 will save you and your employees time and money.
In order to work with P3, the first step is completing a Letter of Authorization. This will give us access to your customer service records, permission to negotiate on your behalf, and the authority to oversee the complicated number porting process. This legal document is required by law for your telecom providers to work directly with us.
The Letter of Authorization gives P3 the power to save you money. Reach out today for a risk-free expense audit!
