Recover landline number

[sanpat1]

Hi all,

I moved to my house about 10years ago and signed up with Sky for landline/broadband. They gave me a new landline connection and landline number at that time. About 19 months ago I moved landline/broadband from Sky to TalkTalk and TalkTalk was able to take my landline number across as I had requested. Last month I then decided to move my landline/broadband from TalkTalk to Vodafone. I requested that Vodafone port my landline across as part of this move, but this did not happen and they gave me a new landline number. My elderly parents (both in their 80's) live with me and they rely on this landline to receive calls from their Doctor, the hospital and family/friends. Losing the number has really had an adverse effect on them and I don't want it to stress them out further - it's the last thing they need at their age.

I have demanded that Vodafone retrieve my old landline number but they have not been able to do it.

Their explanation is roughly this:

Vodafone requested an active line takeover from TalkTalk and also the old telephone number. However, TalkTalk had already cancelled the line before Vodafone took it over. So Vodafone could not port over my old landline number. 

TalkTalk and Vodafone are telling me that my old landline number has reverted back to its original issuer (Sky in this case).

So I went to Sky and asked them to recover than number for me (I even said I would sign up for a new landline/broadband contract with them). However, they have said they have no way to recover the number, even though they are the owner of that number (i.e. that landline number is in the Sky number range).  They said BT might be the only ones that can get it back.

I have confirmed  the number is in a number range owned by Sky by downloading a number range spreadsheet direct from Ofcom here:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/numbering/numbering-d...

My number is: 01895 312 XXX

So my question to the BT community is this:

Can BT recover that landline number for me?

I know the number is not in the BT number range, but I wonder if BT are still able to recover it (or maybe request it from Sky perhaps).

Any insight/help that can be provided would be much appreciated.

[Keith_Beddoe · Accepted solution]

@sanpat1 

BT cannot help with this, as they do not own the number.

BT do not control the allocation of numbers, that is down to Ofcom, and each provider has their own number ranges.

This is a BT Retail Customer Forum, all I can suggest you move back to Sky, and see if they can give you your number back. In theory they should be able to do that.

Why not ask on the Sky forum?

Sky Help Forum - Help & Support from the Official Sky Forum

[sanpat1]

I have tried Sky's community forum and await some responses. I did however call BT retail to see if they can recover my landline number if I sign up for a new landline/broadband contract. The advisor on the phone told me they could 100% get the number back. I was a bit dubious so didn't sign up then and there.

Also, when I try and signup for landline/broadband on BT's retail site and input the landline number as the number I want to retain, it says this will be possible to get that number. It's doing some kind of check when inputting the landline number but I don't know how accurate it is.

Does anyone know if this is just a standard response of "yes of course we can do it" but when it comes down to the crunch it's only a possibility and not a certainty of them being able to retain/recover the landline number?

[Keith_Beddoe]

If the number is owned by Sky, and is now dormant, then in my opinion, I cannot see how BT could request it.

1895 31 2

Allocated

Sky UK Limited

4+6

03/12/2013

[JohnC2]

Hi @sanpat1, I agree with @Keith_Beddoe that if the number is allocated to Sky we would not be able to get the number and certainly could not 100% guarantee that we could secure the number for you.

Cheers
John