Wrong Exchange! Can I do anything?

DanielUK

Hello and thanks to anyone who takes the time read or even respond.

My issues is that I have recently moved in to a property and was told by BT I would have to change my number and Fibre Optic was not available, that was all fine.

I have now found out that the phone number is a different geographical number meaning are number makes us look like we are in a different region not the area we live in.

This is what is annoying me not only do are friends and family have to use a code to ring us when we live five minutes down the road but if BT/Open Reach were going to move us off are local exchange you would expect them to move us on to a equal exchange.

My old property was 72MB per second and new property is 500KB per second.

What is my right to get myself moved on to the local exchange as neighbours said BT would charge £2000 to do this, I believe we should be on the exchange to the area we live in and BT should do this for free.

I have written to BT 3 times now and they will not even respond giving me an explanation or dates on when the lines will be updated it feels like they are not getting read.

Thanks.

jbuchanangb

Hello

First I don't understand your usage of the word "are". I think maybe you mean "our". Your message makes a lot more sense if I read it that way.

Telephone exchange boundaries are defined by BT, they don't relate to anything else.

Some parts of Gidea Park are on the Romford Exchange and others are on the Hornchurch exchange. When I lived there these had different dialling codes. They are all 01708 now.

The 01277 area code covers an enormous area and I live at one end of it, so a lot of my friends are a couple of miles away in the 01268 code area, whereas you can go 15 miles in the other direction and still be in 01277.

BT told you before you moved that you were going to a non-fibre area and that your phone number would change. You said that was "all fine". You could have checked with them then about expected broadband speeds at your new address. I noticed recently that estate agents web sites even have a wizard on them to tell people what broadband to expect.

I don't think you have any "right" to expect BT to connect you to an out of area exchange, but at least they have offered you a price for it.

Browntoa

Don't think they even offer out of area exchange lines now even if you could afford to pay for one

tomtontom

From what you have said you are on the correct exchange (as determined by BT), but you would rather be on a different exchange?

cajef

DanielUK wrote: »

What is my right to get myself moved on to the local exchange as neighbours said BT would charge £2000 to do this, I believe we should be on the exchange to the area we live in and BT should do this for free.

You have no right to get yourself moved, how do you think BT can just re-route your line to a different exchange.

DanielUK

Cheers guys, I get the message I ain't got a leg to stand on then, 500KB per second I might just pull it out its terrible with modern websites and 4G is better a mobile connection has taken over a landline connection, BT need to pull there fingers out.

Thanks again through.

DanielUK

jbuchanangb wrote: »

Hello

First I don't understand your usage of the word "are". I think maybe you mean "our". Your message makes a lot more sense if I read it that way.

Telephone exchange boundaries are defined by BT, they don't relate to anything else.

Some parts of Gidea Park are on the Romford Exchange and others are on the Hornchurch exchange. When I lived there these had different dialling codes. They are all 01708 now.

The 01277 area code covers an enormous area and I live at one end of it, so a lot of my friends are a couple of miles away in the 01268 code area, whereas you can go 15 miles in the other direction and still be in 01277.

BT told you before you moved that you were going to a non-fibre area and that your phone number would change. You said that was "all fine". You could have checked with them then about expected broadband speeds at your new address. I noticed recently that estate agents web sites even have a wizard on them to tell people what broadband to expect.

I don't think you have any "right" to expect BT to connect you to an out of area exchange, but at least they have offered you a price for it.

The Estate agents website does not offer that facility and we asked and they said internet speed has nothing to do with them.

We asked a friend who is an estate agent and he told us, why would we put something bad on our website which could lose us a sale.

So if an estate agent does that fair play to them for being honest and upfront but I have yet to see it.

I agree but I still disagree that BT can put houses in areas on numbers not in the same area.

I live in a town and have a city number, I am also a local business catering to my town I am also not happy I have to give my customers an out of town number when I still live in the town.

Yes they told me about speeds etc but missed an important fact I no longer have my local number or will be given a replacement local number and 3MB per second is what I was told not 500KB per second.

Just because the area you live in is all over the place with wrong codes for wrong area's does not make it correct. Houses in x town should be on x area code.

iniltous

Did you move far ?, you accepted that you would get a new number at your new address, this means your new address is located within a new exchange area, obviously there will be occasions where not only do you move from one exchange area to another, you may also move into another STD code area, and you don't have to move huge distances for this to happen,so near me for example you could move a short distance,a couple of miles, but move from 01642 ****** to 01325 ******
What you have to appreciate is that the phone cables that pass near your new home ultimately work their way back to your local exchange and you get a telephone number from that exchange that's how the phone number architecture works.
TBH I don't see how your phone number makes it look like you don't live where you actually do live, as everyone of your neighbours will have similar telephone to yours
There are things you can do if you are prepared to pay for them, like having your old number on divert to your new number, but you would pay for both numbers and the diverted portion of any calls made to your old number or you could get changed number interception where calls to your old number are given a recorded message detailing your new number
Many businesses use what's called a phantom office where they have a number they use in adverts etc say a Leeds number, but they don't have an office in Leeds, the calls divert automatically to say a Manchester number, so a person rings what they think is a local Leeds company, little do they know the company they speaking to are actually in Manchester

poppasmurf_bewdley

Anomalies with telephone boundaries have always existed. A few years ago, a friend who lived in Newton Heath, Manchester, had a telephone number that was a different exchange to his next door neighbour. Not only did they have different exchanges, they were in different telephone directories!

david39

I can't help with the broadband problem but, if it is any comfort, our local (Bradford) exchange has just changed the dialling system so that even local calls now have to key in the full 01274 prefix in front of the digits we used to dial.


I'm not sure whether this is just a selected number of exchanges or if it applies nationally but, if it also applies in your old area, your local friends would now have to dial eleven digits to reach you even if you hadn't moved.

Owain_Moneysaver

If you'd done this before you moved, you could have ported your old number to Voice over IP and brought it with you that way (although 500k isn't really sufficient for running VoIP you could at least have kept the number).

A business-oriented ISP such as Gradwell or one of the Entanet resellers might have more luck with getting more performance out of your existing line, if 3 MB is theoretically possible but you're only gettibng 500k.

If the local ADSL service isn't acceptable then the alternative is to get a leased line to an ISP's point of presence. BT leased lines start at about £350 per month. Entanet resellers or Gradwell would be able to advise.

You could ask the local library or chamber of commerce if there are any internet access schemes such as wireless in the area.