This topic

Retrieve inactive phonenumber

Pedra — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:24:36 GMT

Re: Old landline number retrieval

Pedra — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:45:29 GMT

I have had a similar problem, I changed provider, they changed broadband but sent my phone number to a different provider, they said they no longer do phones, I cancelled the order but they did not retrieve my number, when I went back to my original provider, they gave me a start date for the service, phone and broadband, it did not happen the order had been cancelled. I placed another order that did not happen. The number porting needs to know the last owner or provider of the phone number. If it exceeds 28 days the number becomes inactive. That is where I am now trying to retrieve an inactive number. There are two other time frames 60 days and 90 days after which it could go into a pool and be available for anyone.

Re: Old landline number retrieval

WSH — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:04:41 GMT

You are posting on a three year old thread.

If you have a question, starting a new thread would help as people are not likely to wade through a three year old thread to find out what is going on.

Re: Old landline number retrieval

imjolly — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:33:21 GMT

are you a BT customer? broadband and phone?

Activate a land line number

Pedra — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 10:56:16 GMT

How do I activate a number that has become inactive.

Re: Activate a land line number

imjolly — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 11:05:54 GMT

@Pedra

please stop posting same question over and over it just leads to confusion and won't help get answer faster

Re: Activate a land line number

gg30340 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 11:40:12 GMT

@Pedrawrote:
How do I activate a number that has become inactive.

You can't. You would need to contact BT 0330.1234.150, if it is a BT number, and ask if it is available and if you can change your present BT Landline number to that number.

Re: Activate a land line number

Pedra — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 15:44:15 GMT

I have found out my old number has been moved from inactive to pool and should be available to port to an existing line, fingers crossed, find out after bank holiday

Re: Activate a land line number

Pedra — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:43:52 GMT

I have tried contacting BT they say that it is up to my present supplier to follow BT procedure to recover my old number that is in the phone book. It is now two months since Openreach disconnected my phone without any orders in the system, I was not notified where it had been assigned. BT do not specify the procedure.

Re: Activate a land line number

Pedra — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:46:46 GMT

They say it is in the POOL and is available, is there a procedure to acquire my number by a provider other than BT

Re: Activate a land line number

Kimberlin — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:09:59 GMT

@Pedra You don’t appear to be listening to any of the advice being given to you. As you are not a BT customer, this isn’t a BT problem so direct your questions to your own supplier.

Re: Activate a land line number

iniltous — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:27:27 GMT

You were asked directly if BT are your provider, the fact you chose to ignore that strongly suggests that BT are not your provider , in which case your questions and observations are of no relevance to BT or this BT community forum , even if the number were originally issued by BT , it’s your provider you need to speak to , but if this number has been dormant (quarantined) for a while and is now available to be issued , and it is a BT number , unless your service is with BT you have virtually no chance of your provider taking control of that number , even if your provider is BT , it’s very unlikely to be made available to you , using your terminology, if it’s a ‘pool number ’ it’s in a pool of numbers available for BT to allocate to new BT customers (or possibly BT customers who want a renumber) it’s not a pool number for the entire industry to select from , that’s not how it works , and even if it were , it’s your existing provider not BT that would facilitate that.

Its pretty simple really , BT have no reason to interact with you if you are not a customer , making your posts here completely pointless.

Re: Activate a land line number

Pedra — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:43:19 GMT

When I spoke to BT they told me that it was up to my present provider and they should follow the procedure, but do not say what the procedure is.

Re: Activate a land line number

Kimberlin — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:10:34 GMT

@Pedra That’s because BT won’t talk to you because you’re not a BT customer so they have zero obligation to provide you with any assistance.

Theres only so many times it can be said to you that this isn’t a BT problem and you are asking your questions in the wrong place. Talk to your supplier whoever that may be because as yet not once have you stated who they are.

To reiterate, again, you are not speaking to anyone at BT here, it isn’t a direct platform for you to contact BT with questions you should be directing to your own supplier.

Re: Activate a land line number

iniltous — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:05:29 GMT

That’s true upto a point , if you had recently left BT , and your new provider ( not you ) was trying to retrieve the number within 30 days of leaving BT , then your new provider can get that number if they follow the appropriate protocol , in your case you were not a BT customer and it’s more than 30 days , I suspect whoever you spoke to within BT had assumed you had only recently left BT , and the important part of that statement from BT is that it’s your new provider that does the ‘leg work’ to retrieve the number if the conditions are met, not BT .

As stated , you will achieve nothing posting here , it’s simply not BT’s concern that you don’t have the telephone number you would like , even if it’s a BT number .