Landline number porting prolems

[Hedgetop]

Thanks Keith,

Yes I was considering taking out a new BT landline but BT tell me the number is with Openreach now and I probably wouldn't get it back anyway

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Hedgetop wrote:

I'm just trying everything to keep my number.

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You do not have to take your phone service from VM, they offer that as an extra. You still have your physical copper landline, so provided you are prepared to pay the BT Retail line rental, you should be able to get your number back quite quickly. 

You could then cancel the phone part of your VM contract, which may help to offset the cost.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Hedgetop wrote:

Thanks Keith,

Yes I was considering taking out a new BT landline but BT tell me the number is with Openreach now and I probably wouldn't get it back anyway

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That is not true. If the number was originally issued by BT Retail, then it returns to them, it has nothing to do with Openreach who only provide the external network.

If you ring the number, it will tell you that its unobtainable.

All that has happened is that it has been made unavailable to be issued to a new customer, unless BT Retail run out of numbers, which is not likely to happen.

If you order a phone line from BT Retail, you will be given a new number. Once that is active, you can request your old number back. As a past customer, this should be easy for BT to confirm this.

If you have problems getting the renumber, once you have a working BT Retail phone line, then help can be arranged via this forum.

If you need to confirm the ownership of your number, that can be checked via the Ofcom website.

[Hedgetop]

Thanks Keith,

That's great to know,

I just don't think I can afford to pay for the two services concurrently

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Hedgetop 

Its quite possible that your old phone number is now just a "stopped" line, and if you plug a phone into the Openreach phone socket, you may still have dial tone.

If you have still got dial tone, then dial 17070 and see what number is announced, it may be the number you want.

Quite often when service is ceased, the routing is left through, and the number "stopped". This enables service to be re-instated should a customer change their mind.

As for the cost, you would have to pay the line rental cost, and if you intend to make any calls, then they would cost 20p a minute, unless you add a calls package.