Transferring landline number to the new address in the same small town

grumpy_codger

OK, this disaster has lasted for more than a month 😰. Several orders placed online and over a phone and cancelled because Sky failed to transfer the number. And now they are telling me that it's impossible and no provider can do this.

Is this really the case?!

The same town, 1.5 miles away, the same area code - 01509. What they say is that this area code is followed by some other digits designating some smaller 'sub-area'.

If this makes any difference it is 'Digital Voice' (?) and FTTC in the old house and Full Fibre in the new one. And we still own the old house and wasting money on Vodafone BB with phone line (out of minimum term). Both use OpenReach.

ETA: just received an email from Sky after the phone conversation. Now it's "it is … not possible to transfer your landline number from a different provider (such as Vodafone) to Sky".

To clarify, when moving home, it is unfortunately not possible to transfer your landline number from a different provider (such as Vodafone) to Sky. This is due to technical and regulatory limitations, and applies even if both properties are in the same town. Similarly, if you have a phone number with Sky, we are unable to let you keep it when moving home.

I realise this is not the outcome you were hoping for, and I apologise for any confusion caused by the conflicting information and the lack of follow-up from our team. Your feedback regarding communication and escalation will be shared with the relevant departments to help us improve our service.

For more information, you can refer to our home move guidance here:  https://www.sky.com/help/articles/home-move

Well, that's not what Offcom say:

How to switch your landline

Give your new provider a few details, including the services you want to switch, whether you want to keep your phone number, your address and the name of your current provider. They will arrange the switch for you.

flaneurs_lobster

That OFCOM advice is about keeping your number at the same address if you change telecom provider. Even then, some providers simply do not support landlines eg Plusnet.

You can usually keep your number WITH THE SAME PROVIDER if you move within the area served by the same local exchange. Sounds like you've lucked out on both fronts.

For interest, here's some pictures of past and present telephone exchanges in Loughborough

https://telephone-exchanges.org.uk/exchanges/loughborough-exchanges/

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6678082/transferring-landline-number-to-the-new-address-in-the-same-small-town

The STD code only signifies a general area (City or Town etc ) and generally the next 2 or 3 numbers that signify the suburb or area the local exchange services , so Sky are correct , it’s the first two numbers in the actual 6 or 7 digit telephone number that signify the local exchange , the STD code 01509 in this case just signifies the general area , so just because the STD code is the same doesn’t mean anything , you can’t take a Loughborough number into Mountsorrel , if they have separate exchanges , even if they have a common boundary.

Your source for number portability info is wrong if it suggests you can take numbers anywhere you like , number portability is the ability to change providers at the current address , so if someone was with Vodafone and Sky offered a better deal , Vodafone can’t refuse to port the number to Sky as that’s a barrier to switching providers …..moving home is not number portability, home movers need two things , the old and new address to be close enough to each other to be served from the same local exchange, not just the same STD code , and the existing provider offers a home movers scheme , there is no obligation for any provider to offer a home mover scheme , even if someone were moving next door they can refuse , many do offer home mover schemes provided they are both connected to the same local exchange, but that’s their commercial decision and nothing to do with Ofcom .

Technically with modern technology, there is no technical issue having a Manchester number in Newcastle for example , but historically we had a linked number scheme, the number indicated the area , the STD code and next one or two numbers gave the approximate location of the caller , this is still valued by the police , ambulance and fire services for example , so the physical and technical limitations of the old telephone network around moving numbers between exchanges may no longer exist , but it’s still wanted to link the number to the area so this is carried over into IP telephony …even if the areas are relatively close to each other , so for example if you called 999 but didn’t speak they know the rough area the call was made from , or if you were looking for a plumber but wanted someone local , you can tell from the number they are not travelling from miles away , not so important if it’s 01509 but someone knowledgeable may know the difference between various 01509 numbers .

grumpy_codger

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82086088#Comment_82086088

You can usually keep your number WITH THE SAME PROVIDER if you move within the area served by the same local exchange. Sounds like you've lucked out on both fronts.

Not both as I still can cancel Sky and keep Voda, but not the same local exchange seems to be really the case. Hard to belive that this system is still in place now when everything gets switched to Digital Voce.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82086115#Comment_82086115

As @iniltous says, there's no real technical reason why any landline number can't be allocated to any physical landline anywhere in the country, but there are many links in many systems that rely on at least some geographic information being given by a phone number. Some of these will be decades old so a business decision has been taken to preserve the geographic link where possible.

Have you looked at moving your landline number to a VOIP provider separate from your broadband supplier? Would make the physical location of no relevance.

Does mean dealing with Vodafone's CS so good luck with that.

EDIT : here's a popular supplier, not a recommendation since I no longer have a landline.

https://www.phonely.co.uk/blogs/guides/switch-landline-to-voip-actually-save-money

elsien

I was going to suggest moving to a third-party VoIP provider as well. Just done that with my landline and kept the number.

Then you can keep your broadband provider with whoever you want without affecting your landline number at all.

Bigphil1474

Why don't you move house with the same supplier, then change suppliers after you moved? We moved house with VM a couple of years ago , and kept the same landline (digital) number. We moved about 4 miles. Most of the local numbers around here are (area code) 26xxxxx, and we are the same area code 28xxxxx. VM didn't have any problem with it.

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82090211#Comment_82090211

If the number was always a Virgin number (so not originally a BT number ported to Virgin) then VM can do whatever they like , as stated if their technology allows them to do it , if the number were a BT number ported to Virgin , then Virgin allowed you to take that number (really a BT number ) out of its normal exchange area into a different exchange area , if you consider changing provider away from Virgin at that new property in the future , it may cause issues if you want that new provider to supply the same phone number as basically the actual area you live in and that ‘alien’ phone number will cause a mismatch in the porting system.

Bigphil1474

It' a BT number we've had since 1994.

iniltous

Then Virgin have done something they shouldn’t do , if the number you have is originally a BT ‘East’ exchange number , that you ported to Virgin when you lived at an address located within the ‘East’ exchange area , and you then moved to an address located within the BT ‘West’ exchange area even if it were Virgin you continued to use , Virgin should have refused your request to take that ‘East’ number to the ‘West’ address , they ignored the rules and did this and clearly you were happy they did , should you change provider again at this address in the ‘West’ and try to port the number to the new provider, then when they look up your number ‘ and compare it to your address this conflict between where the number is from and where your address is may cause the ‘port’ to fail .

As stated , technically it’s not difficult to implement , someone could have a Portsmouth number in Aberdeen , it’s just not considered desirable to allow it to happen, however with the myriad of VoIP providers etc , that have never bothered with geolocation and Ofcom apparently no longer caring if your next provider (assuming it’s a provider with a proprietary telephone system and not a regular third party VoIP provider ) may say you can retain the number , its if the automated porting system will process the request with this anomaly.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6678082/transferring-landline-number-to-the-new-address-in-the-same-small-town

You certainly can port the telephone number to a VOIP provider, maybe not everyone wants to offer the service but its technically possible to do it. We moved our home number to VOIPfone when we left the town we were living in to go to London having an elderly relative that couldnt remember new numbers etc.

There is however no legal obligation for vendors to offer the service and certainly having spoken to technical teams before its easier for numbers to be ported between certain companies because of them both being pre-signed up to agreements/services but sometimes it requires more work if both firms arent but its still doable if the receiving company is willing to do the work.

In the old days of physical lines then the number had to stay with the same exchange, this is why whilst a city may have a dialing code like 0121 for Birmingham areas within Birmingham would have the same next couple of numbers because there were 47 exchanges in Birmingham and so if you lived just south of the centre the next three numbers would be 622, 666 or 692 because those were the ones handled by the Smallbrook Exchange

01509 is covered by 9 exchanges so your move could easily move you from one exchange to another meaning that with a traditional line you couldnt have kept your number