Number porting

[CJKel]

My mum who is in her mid seventies was with Now Broadband in her previous property and when it came time for her to move I contacted them to make arrangements. We were told that they could not allow her to keep the number she has had for over 40 years and that it would be released, so I called BT.

BT assured me that so long as she was moving within the local area and hence on the same exchange it would be possible to port the number when it became available (so long as it wasn't requested by someone else.)

We agreed that it was worth the much greater expense to go with BT and keep the number.

Over the period of over a month and many phone calls I was told several times that the number is indeed owned by BT and that they would be able to port it to her new address. Several attempts were made to re-assign the number to the new address failing every time. Eventually I was informed that the number could not be ported because it was assigned to the old address and postcode.

She has chosen to leave BT and return to Now as the only reason for moving was to keep her number. She's lost the deal that she previously had with them too.

I still don't understand why the number couldn't be moved when BT advised that it's their number and would like to know why we were told so many times that it can be done when in fact it can't.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

Number portability isn’t the ability to keep a number when moving house , even within the same exchange area,
If your mother was with Now , and moved within the same exchange area , then there was no reason why Now couldn’t supply the new address , but if they chose not to , that’s upto them.
Once she moved number port is no longer an option, and if she used BT on the understanding that BT ‘could’ get the number back , then it was never guaranteed ( or shouldn’t have been ) but best efforts made to get the number back….in the first place taking any old BT number at the new address and then renumbering it to the required number once Now relinquish it back to BT ( assuming it was a BT number initially ).

This normally has a very good success rate , but with the introduction of DV is less likely to work , as if the number isn’t returned quickly, DV apparently won’t be renumbered after a certain number of days ( AFAIK 30 days )
If your mothers BT phone service was BT Digital Voice , it was always unlikely to be successful, but examples of this procedure that are instigated from posts on here , the Mods are at pains to state it’s not guaranteed success

[Keith_Beddoe]

@CJKel 

Both old and new addresses would have to be connected to the same exchange building, not just the same exchange area.

All new phone provisions are carried over BT Digital Voice. A new phone number would have been issued by BT but there would only have been  a 30-day window from when a PSTN number has been stopped in which BT can request a renumber onto a digital voice line. In this case, the delay was too long, so the number was lost.

Moving back to Now, is not going to get her number back.

[CJKel]

Now, and their parent company Sky do not allow for numbers to be ported during a move which is very disappointing.

There was never a guarantee from BT, but it was stated that it would be possible so long as the number wasn't taken by anyone else. BT agreed to waive any cancellation fees which indicates they know they were at fault providing such information on this occasion.

Of course the move to DV complicates things, but it was never explained that there is a 30 day cut off. The original port was due a week and a half after the old line had been ceased.

Thanks for your response, it does help with my understanding of why it didn't work.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@CJKel 

This is a post from a moderator regarding the 30 day limit.

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Recover-previous-number/m-p/2268146#M87405