Porting away from BT

[DBPT85]

My in laws have had a BT phone/internet contract for the last 2 years which came with Digital Voice. Now that the contract is up they have gone from paying £25 a month to £50 which is crazy. Other providers all state that they can't take on the landline number if we were to switch to them. I am assuming this is because its no longer analogue and DV is not an Openreach product but a BT one.

Were this me it would be no problem as I don't use the phone line, but my in laws are old and have had the same number for decades and so many people who they do not talk to often but who might need to contact them only have their landline number.

It seems I'm able to port it to a VOIP service for a nominal fee and would then have to get them new phones, again. Is there truly no way a standard provider can port the number too?

[jac_95]

Hi DBPT85,

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.

[DonnyGuy]

Hi there, 

What provider is telling you they can’t port the number? 

It’s worth taking it up with them as they absolutely should.

Things have changed recently, you’ll notice they talk about porting a number that is working or stopped within the last 30 days.

But there should be no issue porting to/from and to voip platforms.

[iniltous]

Just because the phone number is DV doesn’t stop number portability, the Regulator Ofcom woukd be all over that if it were true , but whatever company your relative was enquiring with would be responsible for arranging it ( not BT ) , so it’s either they don’t offer telephony ( not all do ) or they would much prefer to provide a number they issue themselves, so imply that it’s beyond their control, it isn’t , they just don’t want to do it , or are so poorly informed that they don’t know how to do it , so solutions are pick a different provider for the telephony service  ( if keeping the number is important ) or try negotiating a better price with BT .

[DBPT85]

Thanks all, I'll take a further look and see what I can find.

[Edinburgh-wg]

Porting a number will automatically cease the broadband connection with BT. This means that your in-laws will need to sign up for a new broadband connection.

Not all companies offer digital voice. For example, Plusnet doesn't. Also, you can port your number to any VoIP provider, such as Andrews and Arnold.