Want to get O2 Home Phone

Half_Price_Sky

Our current retention deal with Virgin has ran out (and they’re not offering us another one) so we’re thinking of moving to O2 Home Phone and Broadband.

We already have a BT line installed at our house which used to work fine but is currently inactive after we cancelled BT two years ago when we moved to Virgin and the line hasn’t been used since then. It appears BT have reallocated what used to be our old phone number to somebody else nowadays as I tried ringing it this afternoon and it rang out.

I entered our postcode and our former telephone number into the O2 online checker and it said we can get upto 11Mb broadband but can not get O2 Home Phone.

Am I right in thinking this apparent unavailability of O2 Home Phone could be caused by not having an active BT line? Presuming this is the case then how would I go about getting O2 Home Phone? Can I sign up directly with O2 Home Phone (considering our property already has an inactive BT line in place) and they’ll reactivate the line and give us a new telephone number or would I need to go back to BT first then transfer across to O2?

Mark_In_Hampshire

Using the old number isn't going to give a meaningful result. For instance if I put our old line number into the speed checker, it reports 6.5Mbps is available (practically next to the phone exchange) however the result for our post code - which is correct at a distance of 2.5km - is 1.7Mbps. The number may be reallocated to someone living nearer or further from the exchange than you do. Test the speed by post code only.

It may also explain the line availability result as it might be a Talk Talk LLU line which cannot migrate to O2.

I don't think O2 do line activations (though if you find our differently please report back) so you need to have the line activated by IDNET or The Post Office on a one month contract (circa £120) and then migrate it to O2.

Half_Price_Sky

Just rang O2 and they told me they don't reactivate landlines and advised me to go via the Post Office for 30 days like you said.

He also confirmed that our exchange was unbundled for O2 Home Phone and that there was spare capacity on the O2 BB network so things are looking good!

clairet707

Be wary of going via the post office...

When i rang to do as you are doing now (we were already on O2 BB though but were moving house) I was told as you were to go via PO to get landline and then switch over after 1 month to O2 home phone...

When our PO line was active in teh new house I phoned O2 to get our BB restarted and was told that because I didnt have a BT line I had a PO line I would be unable to get O2 BB... They have a deal with BT to take over their lines..

I argued with the guy (successfully) that his colleague had told me to do it that way and that was what he had done himself (the colleague that is) so I should be able to do it as well - I was told that his colleague shouldnt have told me that but on this occasion they would allow it...

Im not sure what planet they are on over there at O2 HQ but they dont all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet!!