New flat, pre-existing BT phone line and phone number.... 3 week activation?

voytovdwiof

Hey, so today I moved into my new flat and found it has BT sockets (lots of 'em) and when I call 17070 it tells me my number is 01### ### ### which is a valid number! So I therefore assume this means the line is at least connected to BT, although I don't think there is an active service.

This evening I've gone through the BT website to sign up, but it states that an engineer must be sent out and the earliest is the 23rd of December. Will this really need to happen if the line is already BT and is already connected or has been recently?

I'm phoning tomorrow to ask, but I just want to know in advance if possible. It'll mean delaying actually moving in for weeks I'll be planning in advance next time, I guess

emmakw

Virgin Media offer this were they will activate you remotely.
It isnt always available though so you'd be best to ask if the line is active and if the number you seem to have hasnt been assigned to any other customer is there a reason as to why they wont allow this to happen.
Numbers have to be out of circulation for 3 months in between use from one person to another and so it could possibly be that the number you have hasnt been and so they may need to assign you a new number and therefore this may require works at the cabinet to reflect this.

I'd definitely ring them back though and ask for a specific reason other than 'its just the way it is'
hope this helps!

Owain_Moneysaver

Probably not, but they say that an engineer 'may' be needed and give time for this to happen, just in case and so they don't get complaints from customers on the occasions when an engineer is needed.

spike7451

emmakw wrote: »

Virgin Media offer this were they will activate you remotely.
It isnt always available though so you'd be best to ask if the line is active and if the number you seem to have hasnt been assigned to any other customer is there a reason as to why they wont allow this to happen.
Numbers have to be out of circulation for 3 months in between use from one person to another and so it could possibly be that the number you have hasnt been and so they may need to assign you a new number and therefore this may require works at the cabinet to reflect this.

I'd definitely ring them back though and ask for a specific reason other than 'its just the way it is'
hope this helps!

Not entirely true.An engineer still has to go out to the Mux & jumper up the cross connect & then onto the street cabinet to connect the customer up.
Due to the state of VM's provisioning systems thanks to the messes they inherited from the legacy companies,the's no way around this.

Spike (ex NTL/VM Engineer)