Landline phone number porting

ba_baracuss

I've recently left Sky phone line and BB and had FTTP installed, and so want to port the old landline number across to VOIP.

As the sky contract expired, the number is now inactive, and cannot be ported until reactivated.

Does anyone know if there is any way of doing this without being charged? I've found a rolling monthly line rental provider, but they want £45 to reactivate the line.

iniltous

Chances are if you have left Sky , and you no longer are a customer of theirs, the number they allocated to you is now back as a ‘spare’ , and not likely to be ported , even if you re joined Sky just to get the number back, they probably won’t guarantee that you can be reallocated the number.
Is the number a Sky number or was is originally allocated by someone else before being ported to Sky on your behalf ?, if that the case , the number is returned to the original number range holder.
If it was always your intention to port the number to a VOIP provider, you should have done it while you still had some association with the number , once you give it up, it’s no longer ‘yours’ .

ba_baracuss

It was originally a BT number AFAIK, then ported to sky.

Yes, I now know how it works, but didn't at the time know that they would claim it back or whatever nonsense.

I've found another provider that can reactivate a number for a fee and they have 1 month rolling contracts so hopefully that will do it. Just wondered if there was a way of avoiding the fee, but it seems not.

Analogue phone lines are being phased out by 2025 anyway so I'm not sure why this is such a big deal (well I am - it's to squeeze money out of you I suppose, as usual)

iniltous

Why do you want a landline with a ‘new’ number providing anyway, if you have accepted that the previous number is now practically irretrievable , and you were going down the VOIP route , why not just get a VOIP account with a number they allocate , if you think you can get a the copper pair line reactivated with a number provided by the new provider , then get that provider to try and get your ‘old’ number back , that won’t work…if the number were originally a BT number the only way with a chance of getting the nunber back is by joining BT , accepting any old number initially, then asking for a renumber…but even that may not work if BT have stopped selling copper pair service in your area.

ba_baracuss

The previous number is not irretrievable; it can be retrieved for a fee and by signing up for a rolling month to month contract which can then be ported to VOIP.

Obviously I'd rather not pay a fee for somebody to make a couple of clicks at a telecoms company - hence my post, but it seems like there is no other option.

Thanks for your replies nonetheless.

iniltous

Have you found a provider ( other than BT ) that has indicated they can get this spare BT number from BT into their network and supply it to you.
When you allowed your Sky phone contract to expire  a consequence is the number , ( that is part of BT’s number range ) is no longer ported  , it’s returned to ( in this case ) BT.
Providers are under no obligation to port non working numbers ( after all porting is nothing more than a mechanism to remove a barrier restricting switching provider ,once the number is relinquished the range holder is under no obligation anymore )
If you do find a provider that can port a ‘spare’ number that is part of another company’s range ) , and deliver it to you, then update this post ,( being aware they may well provide a number but will it be the one you want )  but until then , the weight of evidence , based on many similar attempts , suggests you will not be able to do this ( with the obvious exception of using the number range holder ) 

ba_baracuss

iniltous said:

Have you found a provider ( other than BT ) that has indicated they can get this spare BT number from BT into their network and supply it to you.
When you allowed your Sky phone contract to expire  a consequence is the number , ( that is part of BT’s number range ) is no longer ported  , it’s returned to ( in this case ) BT.
Providers are under no obligation to port non working numbers ( after all porting is nothing more than a mechanism to remove a barrier restricting switching provider ,once the number is relinquished the range holder is under no obligation anymore )
If you do find a provider that can port a ‘spare’ number that is part of another company’s range ) , and deliver it to you, then update this post ,( being aware they may well provide a number but will it be the one you want )  but until then , the weight of evidence , based on many similar attempts , suggests you will not be able to do this ( with the obvious exception of using the number range holder ) 

     Yes.

iniltous

ba_baracuss said:

iniltous said:

Have you found a provider ( other than BT ) that has indicated they can get this spare BT number from BT into their network and supply it to you.
When you allowed your Sky phone contract to expire  a consequence is the number , ( that is part of BT’s number range ) is no longer ported  , it’s returned to ( in this case ) BT.
Providers are under no obligation to port non working numbers ( after all porting is nothing more than a mechanism to remove a barrier restricting switching provider ,once the number is relinquished the range holder is under no obligation anymore )
If you do find a provider that can port a ‘spare’ number that is part of another company’s range ) , and deliver it to you, then update this post ,( being aware they may well provide a number but will it be the one you want )  but until then , the weight of evidence , based on many similar attempts , suggests you will not be able to do this ( with the obvious exception of using the number range holder ) 

     Yes.

Many providers promise many things and then fail to deliver , number port quite often fails even when the correct procedure is used ( customer moving provider, not moving address, and the old provider keeps the number ‘alive’ until the changeover date, your situation doesn’t fit the criteria as the number was ceased before you indicated you wanted it porting.
As I indicated, if and when you are successful, and have this number provided and working correctly for incoming and outgoing calls via your new provider ( outgoing is the easy part, incoming is another matter ) then obviously I will eat my words , but until that time I don’t share your optimism that whatever provider you have picked ( presumably not BT ) will be successful.