Requesting a Manual Renumber to Dormant Number - Stanford-Le-Hope (EASTF) Exchange

[Slc2026]

Hi

I am trying to recover my old landline number from 20 years ago. I have called the number from my mobile and it gives an "unrecognised number" tone, hopefully meaning it is currently sitting dormant in the pool and has not been reallocated to anyone else.

I have run a broadband availability check and confirmed that both my previous address and my new address are served by the exact same Stanford-le-hope (EASTF) exchange. My new property is an Openreach FTTP (Full Fibre) line, so I know it will need to be on Digital Voice.

Because of the length of time since the line was active, the standard customer service agents won't be able to see it on their front-end systems. Could a Community Manager / BT UK Care Team member please look into the exchange pool for me to see if this specific number can be manually retrieved and assigned to my new order?

Thank you! 😊 

[garybs29]

Nobody here is going to answer that. You'll have to order with a new number (provided at random) then ask for a renumber afterwards which would be chargeable. Ultimately though there's no guarantee but if it's so important why did you let it go in the first place?

[Slc2026]

Hi Garybs29

Thank you for replying.

I will try as you advised.

Btw it wasn't my choice at the time.

[iniltous]

Although you can ask , I doubt you will be successful, and after 20 years it seems somewhat pointless,  after-all will anyone  still have that number , after 20 years won’t be expecting to get you on it , that’s if they have tried in the last 20 years , and why would anyone who has than number but not called you on it in the last 20 years , feel inclined to try it now ? presumably everyone likely to call you are now familiar with it no longer being ‘your number’ ….

existing PSTN numbers are often lost when it’s a working  number being moved from PSTN to DV indicating it’s probably not a simple task ,let alone a number that’s long since been unallocated in the PSTN number range and  frankly it won’t be a priority it’s a task with no benefit for the provider , numbers are required to be available and retrievable for 30 days after the customer has ceased service , not 20 years .

[Slc2026]

The reason isn't pointless to me.

Thank You

[iniltous]

I’m not suggesting it’s pointless to you , many people see value in things that to many don’t seem valuable at all , in this case it’s not if it’s of value to you , it’s if it’s worthwhile  for BT to go to the trouble , I suspect it won’t be , and to the value of this retrieval, that  can be debated, after-all it seems unlikely that there is someone out there who has  never contacted you in the last 20 years but will  still have this number recorded as a contact for you , and unlike the previous 20 years they will find they need to contact you on that number in the future ,and without that number to contact you on an important contact  will be never be made , that’s not to say I don’t wish you well  in this endeavour, I’m just pointing out the chance of it happening are slim, and any appeal that it’s essential to get this number back , clearly has little merit.