I'd like to thank everyone for their help. I understand there are no guarantees, but it looks like BT are the only hope for getting the number back, so we will place an order and cross our fingers that it does work out. The only think we're missing out on is potentially better deals from other operators, but that is what caused the problems in the first place....
I'm sorry I can only nominate 1 post as the solution, as I gathered useful information from others, but I have selected Keith's. I see from the footer of one of the posts that it is possible to "thumbs up" the other posts, but I can't see how to do it.
But thanks everybody, and hopefully I'll be back in a few weeks with a request for guidance on how to request a "renumber".
regards
William
