Help to get old phone number back

[Sianos]

Hi all!

I’ve looked through some old posts about old landline numbers being lost and I’m really hoping someone here can help me possibly get my parents number back.

Long story short - they were Vodafone broadband customers and changed from super fast to fibre, even though it was just a upgrade Vodafone managed to lose the number and were never able to provide a landline service with their digital voice. I’ve swapped my parents over to BT by taking out a new line with a new landline number (Vodafone is disconnected) and checked with BT about porting the number over, I’ve had mixed responses saying yes and no. They took out the new number service as orders placed with the old number were failing. BT have told me it all looks ok on there systems for a renumber, they haven’t moved house (had the number for 40 years) and the number is a BT number but I’m still not having much luck, the old number has been disconnected for around 4 weeks (officially) but the saga with Vodafone started in October. The BT service is back to the copper line not digital voice, in are area is FTC which Vodafone failed to realise digital voice would never have worked!

really hope someone can help and many thanks for your time reading this

[jac_95]

Hi Sianos,

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]

@Sianos 

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

The fact that your old number has been inactive for a month, makes it very unlikely that it can be retrieved.

I am surprised that your new BT phone service service is still using using the old analogue phone network, as virtually all new broadband connections, even FTTC, require you to use BT Digital Voice. Are you sure that they are not on BT Digital Voice, with their phone plugged into the Smart Hub 2?

Digital Voice works over FTTC and FTTP and should also work over the old ADSL service, as it requires very little bandwidth. 

All I can do is to ask a moderator to see if they can help.

[Sianos]

@Keith_Beddoe 

many thanks for your reply. Yes I’m 100% sure they are not using digital voice as I set it up.
Open reach upgraded the phone socket which the phone is plugged into, not the router.

thanks

[PaddyB]

Hi @Sianos,

Thank you for posting. I'm sorry if your parents have lost their number. If it was lost more than 30 days ago it's unlikely that we will be able to get that back.

If you send me the details, I'll take a look to see if there is anything we can do. I have sent you a private message with instructions on how to contact the team.  You can access your messages via the envelope icon at the top right of the screen, or click on this link, Private messages

Thanks,

Paddy

[Sianos]

Many thanks @PaddyB 

message sent 🤞🏼

[JohnC2]

Hi Sianos, thanks for your PM. 

The number is still with Cable so although it will let you input on the order journey the request would fail and a new number allocated. 
The only way to get the number back would be to reconnect with cable and ask them to allocate the number,

Cheers

John

[Sianos]

Hi John!

Many thanks for taking the time to get back to me (superstar)

oh **bleep** I thought I might have found a way round getting the number back 

I doubt Vodafone will be able to allocate the number as they were unable to for months when the service was changed 

again I appreciate your efforts on this

sian 🙂

[Sianos]

Hi John,

I do very much appreciate all your wise words and wisdom, I’ve spoken to Vodafone and they are now telling me the number is void? 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I can’t help but think if this is due to being disconnected on activation day when my original Vodafone upgrade (the mid sold business product to residential address) happened. I may never know!

would this number ever become available again?

I am also wondering if your able to help with a renumber on the BT account so that it is very similar please?

again many thanks for your time 

Sian