This is not a universal experience. I had to go through this recently with a large technology company, and it took multiple weeks of back and forth between the company and a major US carrier to confirm that the company wanted to release the number. If I had lost access to the internal ticketing system in the meantime, I am not sure what I would have done short of asking a coworker to take on the cause.

Most importantly, I had no idea a priori how long and involved the process would be.