Moving a BT number to a care home room

[Cowpat2]

I saw a recent post on this subject, but mine may be different!!

My mother is moving to a care home in the same code area and I have been told that the care home can take her number through its switchboard.

They apparently have an internet based system!!

How do I go about moving the number once she is in the home??

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Cowpat2 

The care home will have its own phone service provider, and her number would have to be ported to them, if that is actually possible.

[Cowpat2]

Thank you for those thoughts Keith, will look into it from the care home end. I assume the care home phone provider needs to talk with BT, my mothers provider??

[Keith_Beddoe]

She need to transfer her number to that provider. If she ceases her BT line first, then her number will be lost.

[conrad]

You can use the broadband checker   https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Use the homes post code and it may show a raft of individual room numbers. A couple of the homes where I live do.

[iniltous]

Being in the same area code isn’t sufficient, the care home has to be connected to the same exchange , for so for example 0164224****,  cannot be moved to 0164245****, even though they are both 01642 , the next 2 digits show they are different exchanges.

If the care home is the same exchange , then it depends on what they will allow, if they only have a switchboard and the phones in each room are simply extensions off the switchboard then unless they will allow a separate line into the residents room , you will not be able to do what you want …if the home has no issue with residents having their own line , and it’s the same exchange , simply arrange a home move, but have in mind the home may not be keen on allowing anyone access , and if they do , they may need them to prove their Covid status, first thing to do is ask if other residents have their own phone lines.

[Keith_Beddoe]

As BT Retail are moving away from physical exchange connections, then in theory, it should be much easier to port a number over.

Switchboards used to use ISDN30 connections from the BT exchange, and some still do. This places restrictions on the number ranges that can be used.

Many have now moved over to IP switchboards, which do not have the same limitations. How this would affect the import of a BT Retail owned number, I do not know. In theory it should be a simple redirection at network level, but I do not know whether a process is in place to do this yet, as BT have their own Digital Voice migrations to deal with.