Want to Change Provider - Who's Responsible for Porting Number?

thistledome

Hello
Hoping someone can help with this. Bit confused here...

We have our residential landline and broadband with the same company and want to switch both to plusnet. The trouble is that we don't want to change our landline number as my partner works from home and wants to keep the number.

Is it our current provider who is responsible for making sure we keep the same number or is it plusnet or even both?

Plusnet have said that our address is marked as "silver key" on their database which means they might have to put in a new landline with a new number. They won't know until we actually put in an order, then we can cancel the order if we have to get a new number.

Our current provider say in their T&C that they "can" let us keep our current number, but they don't actually guarantee it.

To further confuse us, samknows says this (and I've quoted directly as I don't understand what they mean):

"However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection. The following services are available in your location:

• BT Wholesale ADSL
• BT Wholesale ADSL Max"

I'm assuming that the info on samknows is the reason why plusnet have said they might have to put in a new landline with a new number. ?

We haven't actually contacted our current provider yet as we're reluctant to let them know we want to leave. I don't trust them to be fair with us for reasons I don't want to go into in detail, but they've been economical with the truth before - when they originally got us to sign up with them.

Sorry if this is a bit confusing, but I'm confused myself....:(

money_saving_matt

I'm assuming that your current landline is LLU (i.e. Sky or TalkTalk)?

Address keys fall into one of three categories:

Gold: an address that has a working WLR or LLU line (or has had one in the past)
Silver: an address that exists in the Royal Mail database but has never had a WLR or LLU line installed
Bronze: an address that has never had a line installed in the past and does not exist in the RM database

If your current landline is LLU then by definition your address should be gold, not silver.

Either Plusnet can see more than one match for your address and are picking the wrong one, or Openreach's records are wrong. Plusnet should be able to sort either of these out for you, the latter via Openreach's Network Address Team.

thistledome

Thank you for your reply.

Sorry, I don't know what LLU means, or WLR. We're currently with EE (formerly orange/wanadoo/freeserve) and have always had them as our ISP.

Our phone used to be with BT, but we changed it to EE at the end of 2012.

All our neighbours are on the plusnet database* and even the septic tank at the bottom of our street is listed on there, for some reason. Just not us

*I'm calling it a database, I don't know what it's real name is. It's when you go on plusnet's web site and put your postcode and phone number in and it tells you what service you can get.

money_saving_matt

If you dial 17070 from your landline, what do you hear? The message greeting should be enough to help me determine whether you're on LLU or WLR.

thistledome

"This circuit is defined as 01*** ******" (our phone number).

Then a list of options of BT line test facilities.

ringback
quiet line
fast test
something cleanse (might have been fast cleanse)
clear down

I think that's all of them.

money_saving_matt

That message implies your line is WLR, not LLU. Given that Plusnet are a WLR-only provider it means that all they need to do is to raise a transfer order.

Number porting is the name for a process where a number is moving from one network to another (e.g. Virgin -> BT). In a WLR->WLR scenario number porting is not required, your telephone number should be retained by default.

The lack of an address match might prevent you from signing up online, but over the phone they might be able to help you as all that is required to fulfil a transfer order is telephone number + post code.

money_saving_matt

Alternatively, you can ask them to send your telephone number to the Openreach ORDI robot, as this sometimes fixes issues with the Openreach address database. It won't have any effect on your line.

thistledome

Thank you so much, that's very helpful information indeed