Help with retrieving old phone number

[dforster]

Hi,

Hoping someone can help. We moved sometime ago to a new provider (as part of purchasing a new phone system), taking over the lines was part of the deal (wish I hadn't said yes).

To cut a long story short the new telco went to the wall leaving Siemens being owned money for the equipment and Gamma Communication (who the bust telco used as their provider) being owned money for the line rental.

I contacted Gamma directly who did their best to help (in the constraints of GDPR and data protection), however they said as the number had been ceased it had been returned to range holder (which would be BT/Openreach). I've spoken to someone who says they have checked the WLR portal and the number still hasn't been returned to there, it was disconnected mid April last year. They say the number may still be in Quarantine but they can't be sure. As BT is the range holder are you able to provide any additional information, i.e. is it indeed in quarantine or maybe it's still with Gamma and they have got it wrong.

Any help you can provide would be most helpful, I can then chase the right company, it's so difficult to work out who has the disconnected number 😞

Happy to provide all the details you might need on a private message etc.

Thanks in advance, Dave. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@dforster 

Welcome to this user forum.

To get your BT issued number back, you would need to move your service back to BT. You would be given a new number to start with, and then you would need to request a renumber back to your original number.

BT Openreach do not exist.

I assume you are a business user, so it BT Business you would need to contact to initiate this change.

This is the BT Retail customer forum.

[dforster]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the quick reply. sorry maybe I didn't make it clear in my post, but the service is disconnected, so I'm advised I'm unable to move/port it back, I'd gladly do so if I could.

Yes appreciate this is a retail forum, but having done hours/days/months I'm trying anything and during a search of the internet found this forum and the mods seemed to really be able to help people as opposed to the usual brick walls you come up against, so it was a bit of a long shot on my part. Appreciate they might not be able to action anything, but if they can point me in right direction having checked a few things on their system so at least I can chase the right company/department I might be in with a chance.

Regards, David.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@dforster 

The moderators  here cannot help with business connections, however you may like to try the moderators on the BT Business Forum.

https://business.forums.bt.com/

You will probably need to start a new BT Business contract.

https://business.bt.com/

[dforster]

Thanks.

Since there isn't a connection as such anymore is was more really just a question/help about a number so surely anyone can 'advise' on the current status of a number, regardless of business or retail?

Maybe I'm missing something. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

surely anyone can 'advise' on the current status of a number, regardless of business or retail?

You can look the number owner up on the Ofcom database.

If you have a quick look at the OFCOM website :-

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/numbering/numbering-d...

and download the spreadsheet that contains your number range (note the numbers exclude the leading zero). The line in the spreadsheet will show to whom the range is allocated.

[dforster]

Thanks, yes I'd already done that.

What I'm struggling to find out is if the number has been returned to the range holder or not.

[Keith_Beddoe]

It would have been returned to the range holder. What do you get if you call the number?

[dforster]

BT is the range holder (hence me making contact on here) so they could confirm they have it back or it’s still flagged as pointing to another provider.

It may also have gone into quarantine and if that was they case they could advise how it may be resolved.

I’ve already spoken to someone who checked the WLR3 portal and advised the number definitely isn’t back in circulation.

Calling the number just fails / unavailable 

[Keith_Beddoe]

I cannot see how this forum can help, as we are all just customers.

My initial suggestion would be to contact BT Business with a view to getting a working service back.  Then see if its possible for them to allocate your old number to your service.

BT Business have a number of different voice services, bearing in mind that the analogue  PSTN network is closing down, so it would be a VOIP type service, similar to BT Digital Voice, which is now the normal for new customers.