Lost landline number

[LesCas]

Hello,

I was hoping that someone could help me out with a very upsetting situation- losing a long held telephone number. I see previous users managed to fix similar issues using this forum.

My landline number has been on my family for over 40 years and three generation and is also used for my business. It is of great sentimental and monetary value to me.

I cancelled my sky contract recently and moved to BT. Unfortunately the sky advisor did not inform me this would mean that I would lose my landline number. I have complained and tried every angle with sky but there do not seem to be any solutions.

The BT sales team have told me there virtually no chance I can be allocated my previous number as part of my new contract. However, I have seen similar cases here where helpful BT staff have been a been able to help.

Grateful for any advice or help. It may seem strange but keeping this number means so much to me and my family.

Many thanks in advance for anyone’s time to read this and advise.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Welcome to this user forum @LesCas 

Are you a business user?

Who originally issued your phone number, and are you still living at that same address?

[LesCas]

Thanks for reading Keith! I appreciate you taking the time to consider.

In answer to the questions below:
-My new account is not a business user account
- BT issued the number originally (I checked a data set online that thinks BT still owns)
- I am still at the very same address the number has been at all these years

[Keith_Beddoe]

I assume you are no longer a registered business, as that usage would be against the residential T&Cs?

If you are sure that the number is owned by BT, there is also another issue owing to the age of the number.

Your exchange would have originally been a Strowger (mechanical) exchange 40 years ago, and would at some time have been changed over to digital.

The Strowger infrastructure varied across the county, between director and non-director, and that determined how numbers were distributed. The move to digital in the 70 and 80s would have upset that to some extent.

A few questions I need to ask.

You started with BT Retail, when did you move to Sky, and was that your first move away from BT Retail?

[LesCas]

Hi Keith,

I used to have a business account landline but moved to a mobile account- but some customers still get in contact via the old number.

I moved to talk talk from BT 2 years ago, but only for about a month, before moving to SKY. I cancelled the sky contract earlier month and am moving back to BT.

Thanks again!

[Keith_Beddoe]

I am surprised that you did not lose your number when you moved from TT to Sky, as TT would not have owned your number as you have said it belonged to BT.

In theory, provided your number still physically exists on your local exchange, (each exchange has a fixed dedicated number range determined by the remote concentrator mapping), then it should be possible to get your new number, renumbered back to your original one. This would involve manual intervention and you may have to prove that you are entitled to use that number. The other issue is that if it was originally a BT Business number, then that may complicate things.

The new number that BT have given you, should be in a similar range to your original number, that is something you can check by comparing the first four digits, ignoring national dialling prefix.

I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
They are the only BT employees on this forum, and are based in the UK.

[JohnC2]

Hi @LesCas  Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting. Thanks @Keith_Beddoe for highlighting this thread and as you have said as the number was a business number previously we may not be able to allocate it to a residential line.

@LesCas  is your BT service now up and running on a different number? If it is then we will be happy to explore if it is possible to get your old number back. If you are not active with BT yet please advise when you are due to be activated.

Cheers
John 

[LesCas]

Thanks so much Keith and john for your time-fantastic to have chance to get my old number back.

The BT service is due to be up and running on May 30th. Should I respond again on the 30th to explore this?

Many thanks once again, really appreciate the kind help.

[NeilO]

@LesCas thanks for replying, I've sent you a Private Message with details on how you can get in contact with the mod team. It would be best if we had your details before the 30th. 

[PaddyB]

Hi @LesCas,

Thank you for sending in your details. I gave your mobile number a quick call, I'm sorry I didn't get speaking to you.

I've open a case on your account but I will need to wait for your order to complete before I place the renumber request. I'll follow up with you again on the 31st of May.

Thanks

PaddyB