Change provider, keep landline number

sallyTt

I recently spoke with someone from BT who called ask me about my service and if I wanted an upgrade. I told him I felt I was paying too much and was considering switching provider anyway. He told me that if I changed provider I would not be able to keep my landline phone number.  Is this correct, does anyone else have experience of this?

Neil_Jones

Nine times out of ten you can keep the number if you go from one BT line provider to another.  Occasionally you may not be able to.  The other exception to this may be if you move to and from Virgin.

Note that if you move provider you will almost certainly lose the ISP email address unless you cough up £90 a year for it.

sallyTt

Neil_Jones said:

Nine times out of ten you can keep the number if you go from one BT line provider to another.  Occasionally you may not be able to.  The other exception to this may be if you move to and from Virgin.

Note that if you move provider you will almost certainly lose the ISP email address unless you cough up £90 a year for it.

Thank you. I do sometimes get suprise phonecalls from people I havent heard from in years, which was putting me off moving to another provider.  I cant access my ISP email because it stopped working when they moved from using Yahoo i think it was. I spent ages on the phone going around in circles before giving up

Farway

sallyTt said:

Neil_Jones said:

Nine times out of ten you can keep the number if you go from one BT line provider to another.  Occasionally you may not be able to.  The other exception to this may be if you move to and from Virgin.

Note that if you move provider you will almost certainly lose the ISP email address unless you cough up £90 a year for it.

Thank you. I do sometimes get suprise phonecalls from people I havent heard from in years, which was putting me off moving to another provider.  I cant access my ISP email because it stopped working when they moved from using Yahoo i think it was. I spent ages on the phone going around in circles before giving up

If you decide to move the I've found one of the first stages a new provider does is ask you landline number, they than tell you if number can be transferred to them.

As NJ says 9 out of 10 can without any hassle and IME you never even know it happened it was so seamless

Mister_G

sallyTt said:

I recently spoke with someone from BT who called ask me about my service and if I wanted an upgrade. I told him I felt I was paying too much and was considering switching provider anyway. He told me that if I changed provider I would not be able to keep my landline phone number.  Is this correct, does anyone else have experience of this?

I've not been with BT for sometime, but do they really make unsolicited calls like this.  Are you sure it was a genuine call from BT?

sallyTt

Mister_G said:

sallyTt said:

I recently spoke with someone from BT who called ask me about my service and if I wanted an upgrade. I told him I felt I was paying too much and was considering switching provider anyway. He told me that if I changed provider I would not be able to keep my landline phone number.  Is this correct, does anyone else have experience of this?

I've not been with BT for sometime, but do they really make unsolicited calls like this.  Are you sure it was a genuine call from BT?

Yes they phone every so often, they try to get me to pay an extra £3 a month or £1 and start a new 24 month contract. They email a lot too

sallyTt

Dont seem to be able to quote Farway to reply. Thanks for the info, that is good to know and takes the risk of losing my number away

ColinD1

I do not think fear of losing your number should be used as an implied threat to make you remain. However, after my recent experience with a move from TalkTalk to Vodafone I might suggest a pause until the country returns to something closer to normality. It always seems difficult to sort any problem out, at present it appears to be nearly impossible.

JJ_Egan

I've not been with BT for sometime, but do they really make unsolicited calls like this.  Are you sure it was a genuine call from BT?

Yes they phone every so often, they try to get me to pay an extra £3 a month or £1 and start a new 24 month contract. They email a lot too

Never ever had any such calls from BT , likewise no emails ever .

iniltous

If they said you cannot take your number with you if you switch provider that is nonsense , and TBH, I’d be surprised if they said anything as obviously false , it’s true that number ports can go wrong and losing a number can be impossible to get back unless you rejoin the original provider but most ports are done without problems.

ColinD1

Problems with porting is actually the one that Ofcom will actually take some action on. Report it, you have a reference number, they perform some form of investigation and you give the reference to your new provider.

Colin : The problem could be a "split transfer" I believe TalkTalk have released the number. Ofcom Ref xxxxxxxx. Seizing the number again may resolve the problem.

Never would have got there if it hadn't been for the help I received here.