Nowtv lost my number when changing provider

Matherratic

After being with talk talk for several years on normal phone line slow broadband, I decided to change provider, upgrade to fibre and save money. Changeover went OK on 13th July but did not notice that our home phone number was not ported over until I missed an important medical call on 15th July. After various calls to Talk talk, NowTV, BT and SKY, I have established that talk talk transferred the number to sky, a sister company to NowTV, B T says NowTV can request a renumber to get my original number back via BT, and NowTV says they are unable to reinstate number, but if I cancel NowTV and go back to talk talk I can get my number back. Tried this but can't. Is there any way I can get my number back as it is the main point of contact for several medical contacts and affiliated support for my daughter's health along with all our friends and family? Help please!

iniltous

Depends on who originally issued the number,  or put another way, who ‘owns’ the number range that the required number is from ?
Your post mentions BT, but it seems you moved from TT to NowTV , so BT have no ‘involvement’, and will continue to have no involvement unless BT are the number range holder and you are prepared to use BT for service....assuming that’s the case, you would have to order ( or migrate ) to BT , accepting a random BT number...once the ‘BT’ service is up and running, you would request a ‘renumber’ from the random number to the number you want.
If BT are not the number range holder , you would have to approach who ever the number range holder is

J_B

Seems common!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6178477/plusnet-lost-phone-number

ColinD1

iniltous said:

Depends on who originally issued the number,  or put another way, who ‘owns’ the number range that the required number is from ?
Your post mentions BT, but it seems you moved from TT to NowTV , so BT have no ‘involvement’, and will continue to have no involvement unless BT are the number range holder and you are prepared to use BT for service....assuming that’s the case, you would have to order ( or migrate ) to BT , accepting a random BT number...once the ‘BT’ service is up and running, you would request a ‘renumber’ from the random number to the number you want.
If BT are not the number range holder , you would have to approach who ever the number range holder is

If BT is the number range holder (which will be true for many people who have had their numbers pre privatisation) then if something has gone wrong the only way it can be corrected is by going to a BT service?
Is this a correct reading of your comment this would give BT an incentive to obstruct the transfer of numbers from one non BT service provider using Openreach to another non BT service provider using Openreach.
I have assumed that the number range holder is not Openreach, but a retail branch of BT.

Matherratic

When I approached BT concerning my number, they said the provider can request a renumber from them. The number was originally from BT. When I called NOW TV informing them that they could do this they said "It is not what we do" and point blank refused to try. As consumers we deserve better, but we are being fobbed off and pushed from pillar to post trying to sort it out ourselves. In any other industry this would be unacceptable. They offered 3 months free broadband as compensation. I refused as all I want is my number back.

iniltous

Openreach are not a number range holder , they have no numbers allocated to them by Ofcom, they are not a ‘consumer’ facing organisation, they facilitate any physical ‘rewiring’ between the providers ‘equipment’.

If the required number was originally ‘BT’ and was ported to someone else, you then want to migrate to another provider ( but not BT ) then it’s impossible for ‘BT’ to obstruct that migration, they (BT) have no involvement in it so how can the obstruct it, if someone is the victim of other company’s messing up a port , and the only way to retrieve the number is re using BT, then that’s hardly BT’s fault...and if someone is so opposed to reusing BT , then unfortunately as it stands , they will have to accept a new number.
Number ports can and do go wrong between LLU providers , and between VM and non OR based providers, it’s not just ports that were at some time ‘BT numbers’.

If a migration is simply between providers , the location not changing, then portability between providers is possible ( Ofcom mandate it ) , if it fails then it’s a consequence of either the ‘customer’ not providing their new provider with the correct instruction, or the new provider not processing the request correctly and simply providing their ‘new’ customer with a number from their own number range, (effectively ignoring their new customer’s porting request)  or the losing provider not  processing  the correctly raised request from the gaining provider ..it also gives the less ‘professional’ company’s the perfect excuse , ‘it wasn’t us, it was the other company’.

In the OP case (TT to NowTV) it’s a move between two full LLU/MPF providers ( NowTV being a subsidiary of Sky ) , plenty of scope for error , add into the mix ( if appropriate) the number originally range holder being ‘BT’ then  a third provider in the mix, but , if BT are the range holder have an interest in messing ports up, why didn’t they do that with the previous move from BT to TT ?,
There is a suggestion BT would co-operate ( something I thought impossible as they have no contractual relationship with the customer) but it’s NowTV refusing to do anything.

FWIW, Ofcom ( years ago ) stated they were looking at the entire landline porting process , more because if a number range holder went bust, currently their numbers couldn’t be moved to someone else , so those customers would have no choice but to accept a new number from whatever provider they then joined from that failed provider.

Number port is something of a ‘black art‘, quite a few ‘new’ entrants into this sector USP is being cheap , but being cheap sometimes comes with limitations, if a number was really important, then I would research providers before switching, in the OP case the provider is mentioned quite often when ports go wrong.

Takmon

Matherratic said:

When I approached BT concerning my number, they said the provider can request a renumber from them. The number was originally from BT. When I called NOW TV informing them that they could do this they said "It is not what we do" and point blank refused to try. As consumers we deserve better, but we are being fobbed off and pushed from pillar to post trying to sort it out ourselves. In any other industry this would be unacceptable. They offered 3 months free broadband as compensation. I refused as all I want is my number back.

Just accept the 3 months free broadband (or push for more if you feel you can) then spend your time and effort by updating all your contacts with your new number.

JJ_Egan

(I refused as all I want is my number back.)

Thats the problem you don't own the number  .

Matherratic

I appreciate I don't own the number, however it was assigned to me for my use, and at no time during the switching process was I informed that there was a risk of losing the number, or in fact informed that I had been issued a new number after the change. Even now I have zero correspondence or emails informing me of my new number. This is a problem that will affect new customers continually unless new regulations are in place. Had I known there was a risk of losing the number I would have stayed with talk talk and negotiated a better deal. I don't think everyone appreciates the enormity of the problems this has caused trying to contact all the critical health contacts with the new number. Mobile is not an option as coverage is poor.

Takmon

Matherratic said:

I appreciate I don't own the number, however it was assigned to me for my use, and at no time during the switching process was I informed that there was a risk of losing the number, or in fact informed that I had been issued a new number after the change. Even now I have zero correspondence or emails informing me of my new number. This is a problem that will affect new customers continually unless new regulations are in place. Had I known there was a risk of losing the number I would have stayed with talk talk and negotiated a better deal. I don't think everyone appreciates the enormity of the problems this has caused trying to contact all the critical health contacts with the new number. Mobile is not an option as coverage is poor.

 A mobile phone that supports Wi-Fi calling would mean that you always get signal at home and also have the benefit of being contactable while you are out, if you don't have signal sometimes when you out then they can just leave a message (which would be the same as now if you were not at home to answer the landline). Plus mobile phone number transfers work far better and have far fewer issues so it seems a mobile phone is the best all round solution for you if you need to be contactable as much as possible.