I can't transfer my landline number to a new supplier

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Paule12345 

Its quite possible that Shell or Vodaphone have no means of transferring their phone service over to a secure VOIP (Voice Over IP) system, as there are no more analogue phone connections allowed. Your number would be owned by BT Retail so I could see complications arising.

They would be affected by the PSTN shutdown, just like all other providers, so they may not have a solution in place yet. Some may ever stop providing a phone service, as its going to involve them with lots of extra expense changing all their customers` routers to include a suitable phone socket to terminate the VOIP connection.

[ac5]

The fact that you cannot transfer your number to a VOIP provider after using BT digital is disgusting.

My I  renewed with loyalty upgrade for my broadband I told them not to enrol us into digital voice because I wanted time to look into it.

Plus my mothers memory isn't very good so wanted to keep the number we have had for over 45 years as she can remember it.

They moved us anyway to digital, when I complained and asked the number to be moved back to the land line they refused saying it's impossible.

They gave me a free phone adapter for old phones so I wouldn’t take it further. But things like  burglar alarm stopped working and I would have to pay for upgrades for those.

The last straw, later I found out there is no way to take your domestic line number with you to another ISP/VOIP provider and there doesn’t even  seem to be a solution just to have BT VOIP but use a different broadband provider. Surely this is an anti-trust issue?

My road now has real fibre by a third party thanks to a government scheme. But BT only still provides hybrid so I am now stuck because of this. Even if BT did offer full fibre that’s not the point. 

I am now thinking of writing to my MP and Ofcom over the issue of transferring numbers between VOIP providers.

BT and the government really haven't thought out this transfer to digital properly.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@ac5 

Other providers like Sky, have their own implementation of VOIP using their own number ranges. The same issue is likely to occur with them.

Historically Ofcom allocated number ranges to each provider, this information is publicly available.

Number portability between providers has always presented issues, owing to restrictions on the way their exchange equipment was configured. This was more of an issue with BT Retail, owing to the way System X was configured.

In theory, the move to VOIP should make porting numbers easier, as its just a software routing change. However this is not likely to happen until all voice traffic is VOIP, and providers are willing to relinquish their number range allocations. This is much the same as with mobile phone providers, that process is well established.

At present, porting a BT Retail number out to VOIP, results in the cease of your contract, as the number is part of the contract.

As for  burglar alarms, suppliers have know about the closure of the PSTN for a long time, and should have solutions in place.