Unable to order new Broadband and Phone retaining my phone number.

[Richard_Derby]

Sorry, I'm sure this has been asked many times, but I would like to switch from Virgin Media to BT and retain my landline phone number. During the ordering process I get a message that says it's not possible: 

"Existing phone lines at this address

The phone line will give you the voice part of your service, we will need to connect your broadband service separately which we will come to later.

We cannot retain your current telephone number so we'd like to reserve you a new one. Please tell us what you want to do"

I got my Virgin phone number from Nynex back in 1996 and along with my account has transferred to Cable and Wireless, NTL and Virgin Media as the cable company has changed hands over the years. Is this the reason why it can't be transferred?

Our house also has a BT socket from the 90s and early 2000s when we needed two phone lines: one for voice and one for dial-up internet. I think this is the line the message above references. This line was disconnected many many years ago - perhaps more than 15. Is this the reason why?

I'm not worried about having overlapping services for a short period of time until all is working. I just want to know I can keep my number before I place an order. I've had my number 28 years and don't want to change it now.

[Colin_London]

There always used to be a restriction on number portability that meant you could only port numbers between lines on the BT Wholesale phone network. This meant that you were unable to move your number from a BT based phone line to a Cable phone line or vice-versa.

I don't know what the rules about portability are now in the wild west of Voice over IP, but I suspect the old arrangements might still be behind the restriction you are experiencing.

[iniltous]

You could , and still can usually port numbers to and from cable , indeed 30 odd years ago , when the cable industry first started offering  telephony a major requirement mandated by the regulator was that BT ( no such thing as Openreach back then ) had to offer to port numbers to cable , as not to do so was considered anti competitive, and the regulator ( and by default the Government ) aim was to reduce BT market share , so number port was a legal requirement, BT had to have the systems in place to export numbers to cable on request , to be seen to be ‘ fair’ and probably head off any legal challenges , it was to be a reciprocal arrangement , so cable numbers had to be portable to BT .

[Richard_Derby]

Thanks to those who replied.
I called BT today and was told I should be able to transfer the number once the new line is installed.