This topic

Recover previous number

RichardB4 — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 11:01:12 GMT

Hi, I'm trying to recover our old landline phone number. Spoke to someone at BT who said it was not possible - unless you requested this within two weeks of changing the number originally, the number was lost for ever. However this does not agree with other posts on the BT Community forum.

My wife and I own my late parents' house. After they died, a few years ago, my brother switched the phone line from BT to Vodafone, who issued a new number. We recently bought out my brother's share of the house and have switched back to BT. I called them asking to change back to the old number, which is not in use - just get a beeping if you call it. But I was told that this was not possible - even though the number is owned by BT, is not in use and is for the same house.

Other posts on here suggest this is incorrect. Can anyone help pursue this further?

Re: Recover previous number

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 11:04:11 GMT

@RichardB4

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

In that case, I will ask a moderator to see if they can arrange a manual re-number back to your original number. Its not guaranteed.

Re: Recover previous number

RobbieMac — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 11:23:21 GMT

Hi @RichardB4

Welcome and thanks for your post.

We can double check from here to see if it's possible to get the original number back. As @Keith_Beddoe has said above; there is never any guarantee you'll get it back however, there is no harm in having a look 😊

I have sent you a private message with instructions on how you can send us over your details and we'll look into this for you. See: Private messages

Thanks,

Robbie

Re: Recover previous number

NeilO — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 16:04:35 GMT

@RichardB4 Thanks for speaking with me this afternoon, I'm sorry I wasn't able to get your previous number back.

To let the wider community know @RichardB4 has a digital voice line. There is a 30-day window from when a PSTN number has been stopped in which we can request a renumber onto a digital voice line, I'm afraid in this instance the number had been out of service too long so it isn't possible to get the number back.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Recover previous number

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 16:15:14 GMT

@NeilO

That is useful information. In future if a similar question is raised, I will make a point of asking whether the customer is on Digital Voice, before raising it with one of the moderators.

This has to be related to the PSTN offload, where the network to physical exchange routing is broken down 30 days after a number becomes spare.

Re: Recover previous number

Thomato — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 08:39:41 GMT

Is there any way the old number could re reattached to the old exchange briefly and later be diverted to digital? There must be some way the numbers can be reused - it seems crazy they would simply be lost forever.

Re: Recover previous number

imjolly — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 09:53:12 GMT

there is no way to retrieve an old number @NeilO covered this over 2 years ago and nothing has changed