After upgrading to Fibre Essential High-speed fibre broadband, my landline phone number has changed

[dbrownsteelfab]

Hi everyone,

This is my 1st post here so apologies if this has been answered somewhere else.

I upgraded to Fibre Essential High-speed fibre broadband from standard unlimited broadband last week. Was emailed that my change over day was 29/04 and that broadband may be down during the process

On the 29th my homehub4 had the solid orange light on and flashing red broadband light. Assuming it was all part of the change over I left it alone to do its thing, later that evening still no change, no internet obviously, I decided to do online fault checking with broadband and phone line using my mobile/ Ipad. I then noticed when doing these checks that when testing my home phone that the landline number had changed. Phone line was clear, no interference etc just the phone number had changed and could make and receive calls and my existing number when rung from my mobile still appeared operational just didn’t ring the phone.

Called customer services the next morning (30/04), was told that broadband was a problem with my router and they sent at new one out in the post to me. The landline however was a mystery seeing I hadn’t switched provider/moved home etc and it must be a problem at the exchange and they would send an engineer out to check it out. (I was advised all the usual that I would be charged etc if it wasn’t their fault etc but "this would be high unlikely"). The new router arrived the next morning, plugged it in and internet worked straight away and noticeably faster etc, however even as I write this my landline still has this different number.

After reading through different forums and this community it seems the landline number gets changed when you switch provider, move house etc but I haven’t switched providers, I’m still with BT and have been since I moved in 13yrs ago with the same phone number that was allocated to me then, I have only upgraded my broadband with BT.

In the grand scheme of things, the landline phone number doesn’t really matter, we don’t use it just have it because you need it to get broadband, in fact I only realised the number had changed when doing these online checks a couple of days ago

Even on my BT, on the landline section that states my number is my orginal number

So can someone explain why this would have happened?

Have I lost my original number for good because I have upgraded to fibre? ( If I have, I wasn't advised about this when I upgraded)

Or could something have happened with the wiring in my house (although this would be unlikely?)

I have an engineer booked to come Monday, but after reading up I don’t want the engineer to say there is no problem their end, then BT want to bill me £85

Thanks in advance

Derek

[iniltous]

If your number has ‘changed’ when you were not expecting it to, it does matter, if your line has by mistake been swapped with someone else ( the true ‘owner’ of that number ) and they have your number, any calls they make will appear on your bill....chances are that when the engineer was connecting you to ‘fibre’ they made a mistake and have left you with the wrong number , and that’s the reason why your broadband won’t work.
How did you discover the wrong number, by calling your mobile from the line or dialling 17070 ?

If you know the incorrect number on your line , it’s more than likely they too will have a fault that they may or may not have noticed.

You need to report your line faulty ASAP ( that way should you need to challenge any charges for calls made on your line while it was ‘crossed’ you can refer to the fault report ) ...when you report the fault you could tell them the number your line is crossed with, chances are it will be someone local to you ( served from the same cabinet ) , the call centre rep, will probably say the line tests OK, well it will, it’s just going to the wrong location, and the tester cannot detect that

[imjolly]

if you only have a hh4 then that will not work with a fibre connection without a separate modem  you need a HH5 or smart hub 1 or 2  surprised you did not get a new hub suplied

[dbrownsteelfab]

Hi iniltous,

Thanks for your quick reply, yes the number was changed without me knowing, although as I said in my original post this problem could have happend long before now as the landline is not used, I haven’t dialled 17070, what does that do?

I only found out after the troubleshooting said about testing the phone line, I dialled out from my landline to my mobile, ( that is when I noticed the number had changed), I can also call the 'wrong number' back and my house phone rings, the line is crystal clear. When ringing 'my correct landline number' from my mobile it just rings and rings but the house phone does nothing. I have actually rung the 'wrong number' and 'correct number' at the same time from separate mobiles and the it’s the wrong number that gets received.

When I rung customer services about my broadband fault the operator knew that my number was wrong because it come up on their caller ID

[dbrownsteelfab]

When I upgraded last week, the operator said all I had to pay was the £9.99 delivery for a new router ( which never came), when I spoke to customer services about the problem on 30/04 she said the problem was with the router and they would send a new one out, which they did ( smart hub 2) and she said BT have wiped the delivery fee off my bill because of my faults.

Broadband is now fine, its just this issue with the phone line, I’m also wondering if someone has my number and I have someone else’s, although I have left the phone plugged in and haven’t received any calls apart from myself testing the line

[Keith_Beddoe]

More likely a crossed line on the exchange side of the cabinet, so not your fault so there would be no charge.

The Openreach Field Technician should be able to easily sort this our on Monday.

[dbrownsteelfab]

Thanks, lets hope so. I have just tried ringing 17070 and the voice says " this circuit is designed to (the wrong number) "

Could there be anything that could have happened inside my house for that to happen?

[Keith_Beddoe]

---

@dbrownsteelfab wrote:
Thanks, lets hope so. I have just tried ringing 17070 and the voice says " this circuit is designed to (the wrong number) "

Could there be anything that could have happened inside my house for that to happen?

---

No, it has to be either on the external network, or in the exchange.

What happens if you ring the phone number that is on your bill?

It needs to be sorted otherwise you could get charged for another person`s phone calls, which could get very expensive.

[dbrownsteelfab]

---

@Keith_Beddoewrote:

---

@dbrownsteelfabwrote:
Thanks, lets hope so. I have just tried ringing 17070 and the voice says " this circuit is designed to (the wrong number) "

Could there be anything that could have happened inside my house for that to happen?

---

No, it has to be either on the external network, or in the exchange.

What happens if you ring the phone number that is on your bill?

It needs to be sorted otherwise you could get charged for another person`s phone calls, which could get very expensive.

---

Apologies to all the previous posters I have just learned how to quote you in reply’s

If I ring the number on my bill, it appears the person I am ringing is ignoring the phone, my landline phone does nothing, I can call out to another number whilst im still ringing it from my mobile. It is like BT have changed my number and given my billed number to someone else who is ignoring the phone if that makes sense?

[pippincp]

As @Keith_Beddoe its more likely to be a crossed line and should be a simple fix for the engineer. There will be no charge.