Digital Voice landline number

[KRW1]

Hi,

I recently moved house. At my old address my broadband and landline phone were supplied through copper cable using  Plusnet. My new home was already connect to Full Fibre and I wanted to use this connection for broadband and Digital Voice phone. I also wanted to keep my existing phone number which I have had for more that 40 years and is known to probably hundreds of individual people and organisations.

Before I moved, I contacted PlusNet and found they could not supply a broadband and Digital Voice service at my new address and so they helped me set up a new contract with BT to provide broadband and Digital Voice at my new address. I asked about transferring my existing number to my new address and was told that this would probably be possible after my new service was up and running with BT, since my old and new addresses were both serviced by the same exchange.

On the day my service with BT went live at my new address I contacted BT and asked them to transfer my old number to my Digital Voice phone. I was told that the number was available and an order was raised on my BT account to port the number. The following day, I received a message form BT saying there was a problem with the order and asking me to contact them. When I rang BT, I was told that the port was not possible because the old number was still associated with my old address and BT's systems would not allow a number to be ported with different addresses for the current and new locations. Computer says no!

I've submitted a written complaint to BT about this but I wondered whether anyone else in the BT community has had this problem and if anyone has managed to find a solution.

Any suggestions about solving this problem would be very welcome.

[jac_95]

Hi KRW1,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@KRW1 

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

If you have moved out of the same exchange area, then its not normally possible to keep your phone number as Digital Voice does not come from an exchange building.

How long has your original phone number been inactive?

Was your number originally issued to you by BT Retail, and how far away from your original address are you?

Please do not post any personal details.

[KRW1]

Hi Keith

Thanks for the reply.

We moved out from our old address on the 28th of April and our service with BT went live on the 6th of May, so its been inactive for around 10 days.

Our new and old addresses are 0.3 miles apart as the crow flies and are both connected to the same exchange.

We have had our old number for over 40 years and since there was only BT (previously the  GPO) operating then, it must have been issued by them.

Hope this helps

[Keith_Beddoe]

@KRW1 

I will see if a moderator can help.

[KRW1]

Hi Keith

That's great, thanks for your help.

[iniltous]

Although I hope to be proved wrong , it may prove impossible to do what you want , to maximise the chances of what you wanted to do , you should have moved from PN to BT at your old address and then used the ‘home mover’ process to move your services to the new address .

Before DV , doing it the way you have , although there would have been some delay , it was generally possible to wait until PN returned the number to the range holder ( BT in your case ) and then BT to renumber the number you were allocated at your new address to the number you had with PN ( and presumably BT originally ) but with DV things have changed , the ‘old’ number doesn’t simply return to BT to be reallocated in the future ( and the system manipulated so that it’s you that gets the wanted number reallocated to yourself ) , if seems if the number isn’t immediately used with DV  ( or within 20 odd days ) then it cannot be reallocated to a DV service at all.

Anyway , if it can be done the Mods on here may be able to intervene, but it’s far from a guarantee of success.

[DanielS]

Hi @KRW1,

I am so sorry to see that we haven't been able to get the number ported across for you.

I'm going to send you a private message so that my team can pick this up for you over the next few working days.

I can't promise that we can get the number but we will do everything we can to help you.

Thanks
DanielS