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Porting my 46 year old landline number

Gloria-b
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Having joined vodafone i now have new number when I asked if I could keep my old number i was told it would take 5 days and I could keep it but it did not happen when I asked again I was told my previous provider talktalk would not release it and I would have to contact them about it. But they tell me its been disconnected and not their fault and don't know where its gone .You keep being told different reasons and all the time wasting time,  nobody tells you what's happening Years ago I changed to talktalk from bt with no problem I've only had this number for 46 years at the same address must be cheaper to give new number now this seems to be a regular problem 

10 REPLIES 10

WelshPaul
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

To port a number, there must be a porting agreement in place. So, if the gaining/losing provider don't have an agreement in place then the number cannot be ported across.

If you have had the phone number for that many years then it must have been issued by BT originally? If the TalkTalk account has been closed down and the line terminated then the number will have been returned back to the company it was originally assigned to (BT in this instance). If that has happened, it's gone and neither TalkTalk or Vodafone will be in a position to retrieve it. 😕

 

It's ridiculous how difficult porting of landline numbers has become compared to mobile numbers. 

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@WelshPaul wrote:

To port a number, there must be a porting agreement in place.


I'm not sure if this is true, however if it is, I cant believe all the major ISP's do not have one in place.(Why wouldn't they). There is not that many of them.

I transferred from Sky no problem, but others trying to do the same on here have. 

 


@WelshPaul wrote:

It's ridiculous how difficult porting of landline numbers has become compared to mobile numbers. 


I agree, which says something must have changed.

WelshPaul
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

It's not just "ISP's" that require porting agreements but all telecoms providers that offer landline numbers which now include VoIP providers too. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of them.

An example - Lets say you port a number from Phone Provider 1 > Phone Provider 2 and at some point decide to port from Phone Provider 2 > Phone Provider 3, a porting agreement needs to be in place with all three phone providers for the port to go ahead. Of course a porting agreement isn't always the reason a port cannot go ahead, technical reasons do still exist but I won't go into those here as the OP just wants their phone number back.

 

You might find this post interesting though: https://www.ukvoipforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1331

fudgeeeey
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

They have just list my home phone  number , I've had fir 36 years . Disgusting service. 

They are totally out of order . Nothing I can do apparently,  and I've now got to change everything,  including my website . All our business info . 

They obviously haven't learned anything,  as this is still happening. 

I'm devastated 

Chaotic_Awesome
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Vodafone have just destroyed my number of 22 years also and it only accepts calls from other Vodafone numbers. So it half works but I am guessing they've lost the number same as you. Absolute worthless ##~##. 

THG3000-IPv6
4: Newbie

Its a shambles from VF.UK :Sad_face:

Have you considered contacting Ofcom
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complaints


Looks like they will stop at nothing getting the customers to switch to them and then leaving them pick up the pieces when they have lost the number they paid for so many years!!!

I'm definitely going to do that unless they fix the problem. They offered me a payoff and early termination because I'm guessing its going to cost them a lot to fix it but I insisted that they try again. I'll ring them back tomorrow probably and see where it's at. It's a really weird one because it accepts calls from other landlines, and my Vodafone mobile but it won't take calls from any other mobile operator. Guessing it only accepts openreach landlines too. I don't know anyone with virgin to ask if they can test it for me. 

THG3000-IPv6
4: Newbie

For those that do not want to risk loosing their landline number try someone independent

 [Removed]
£1.20 to transfer the number to them
and
£1.44 per month plus calls ....with all the advanced bells and whistles included ....

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