Hi people,

First post to digital spy - hope you can help...

This may be an FAQ (although I haven't spotted it), but as telecoms are moving so quickly there may be a few newer solutions.

I am moving house shortly - only a ten minute walk up the road - and want to take my BT number with me. The area code is still the same, but BT say they cannot do it because the two houses are on different local exchanges.

I also have an NTL line at the current address and could swap the BT number to them; they say they could then port it anywhere within the city. Unfortunately the new house does not have a cable running past, otherwise this would be the easiest solution.

Any ideas as to how I might be able to circumvent what appears to be an artificial BT restriction (surely routing tables don't work to the level of local exchanges in these digital days?), and retain the number I have had for the last 20 years?

Thanks in advance.

Stuart.

Hi, and welcome to Digital Spy!

To the best of my knowledge, BT are not spinning you a yarn; you are unable to keep your number if you move to a location served by a different exchange.

In most instances this makes sense; it would be daft to port a number from the London area to Manchester, say.

I'm not sure whether this is a routing problem or a BT proceedural problem, but to be honest, there is probably no way around this.

This is an annoying "feature" of BT that has no cheap solution. It does seem amazing that BT cannot port one of their own numbers between their own exchanges yet appear to be able to do the same thing when porting to another operator!

The only solution that I've seen to this is to set up a totally new number on your new exchange and have BT put call forwarding on your old number. This they can do fairly easily (though I've only ever seen it done on business lines so can't say if they would do the same for residential).

I can't remember at the mo. exactly what service BT call it but it is a form of call forwarding where they permanently re-route calls between exchanges. So calls to your old number come into one exchange and then get instantly forwarded on to the exchange where your actual line resides. But this costs (surprise surprise) so isn't exactly a user friendly option!

Thanks for the replies so far. Just to clarify, I live in Cardiff (STD 029) and will still be within the 029 code area - it's the fact that the two houses are on different local (district)exchanges that seems to be the problem. Cheers, Stuart.

I had the same problem in Manchester

Manchester's STD = 0161, the area I lived in had a local area code of 439 and the area I wanted to move to had a local area code of 491; referring I presume to two different local exchanges. In that instance, they will not port the numbers.

You will probably find that the next four digits after the STD in the area you want to move to are different from your current phone number.

I can see why BT do it; I usually know where businesses / people are by checking their local area code; if you could port numbers between local exchanges that would no longer be possible. Maybe this will become less of an issue in future.

When I last moved, BT had a scheme where they put a recorded message on your old phone number saying "This number has now changed, please phone xxxxxx...". I was reasonably cheap for 6 months or 1 year, and has the advantage of alerting callers to your new number, and at the same time preventing re-use of your old number for the year.

Nothing to do with tables as NTL and BT both dont use DMS. It seem that NTL are spinning you a yarn. If BT cant move you then NTL wont be able to service you with that TN.

Area codes dont really matter. Its more about the distance from that numbers home serving exchange.

The rule is, if BT cant service you in a certain location then no other provider will be able to service you with that TN. Certain numbers (no matter what area code) will only work on certain exchanges.

It is unfortunate.

I may be missing something here, but NTL don't use BT's exchanges in cabled areas?

ok speaking as someone who works for BT and actually orders phone lines you've been fed a lie there you can keep your number, whoever you spoke to is talkin cobblers.

In Birmingham an 0121 area, we also have exchange areas (BT) so if we moved just a short distance away we could find we can no longer keep the BT number as the exchange has changed. When we had Telewest we were able to keep our number even though we moved from North Birmingham into South Birmingham, then to East Birmingham and back to South Birmingham.

Your solution would be to have the NTL number ported to BT, but as you have found because NTL isn't available at your address it is not possible to port the number to BT, this is because you wouldn't then be able to port it back to NTL if you so wished. Crazy it is, but unfortunately nothing can be done.

At the moment I haven't heard anyone being able to port their VoIP number to a landline provider. I no longer use a traditional landline service and just use VoIP and have no interest in having a standard landline at the moment, but would be interested to find when it would be possible to port from landline to VoIP and vice versa. I have several VoIP numbers in including 0121 314 nnnn and 0121 660 nnnn which aren't BT exchange areas and being VoIP is available throughout the country and the world, so they can't say it is not possible to port back to them as they don't cover your area.

Part 15. Geographic Number Portability Import: http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/c...s.boo/1232.htm

This might not be the case.

This has nothing to do with the area code. It is down to a failed move validation.

I would say, make sure you speak to BT's export desk. They will give you the definite answer.

If the number belongs to BT then calls will go through BT exchanges till the call gets to the local NTL switch, even in cabled areas.

That makes sense.

Happy New Year folks!


Thanks for the tip twtco - how do I speak to them? (BT's website returns a blank when searching on 'export').


My cable phone line connects directly to a an NTL green box (not BT) right on the footway in front of my garden wall, so would this still be the case if I transferred the BT number to my NTL line (and potentially removed the BT line connection)?

Thanks,

Stuart.

& B.T. continue to take a portion of the call charges for your incoming calls

Ah, right - via BT for incoming calls. I understand.

Stuart.

Cable companies operate differently. One small city or a town is one big exchange.

You could use BT Caller Re-direction. The service can re-direct callers to your new number by playing an automated message 'The number called has been changed to telephone number: ect....''

This is billed monthly to your new BT account.

You can't, the number portability team are 'non customer facing' and only liase with other BT departments and OLO's.

You would need to speak to 150 or customer options who would speak to them for you. Personally I would call customer options on 0800800880 as they deal with imports/exports wheras 150 don't. Plus their call queuing time is a lot less than 150.

Thanks timboy, I'll give that a try.

If you transfer your NTL telephone number to BT then all calls in to you will route through NTL exchanges (where they have the chance as your number is recognised as an NTL number) then calls will pick up the prefix at NTLs host exchange for that number and throw it out to the local BT exchange.

Hope that helps.

Thats not 100% true. Bt simply have more customers so more exchanges.

oh yeah, forgot that customers cant call exports....they are the people who know their stuff though.

i work for bt in the homemovers department and the definitive answer is you can not take your number with you from one exchange to another, THE END.

I work as a switch data engineer and specifically handle manual number ports/data. Thats very simply put and correct but customers will not know what switch they are on and BT customer services normally advice incorrectly.

couldnt you switch to ntl in your current home...........then when move get NTL to port the number to your new address using the bt new line.......i know you can still get ntl via a bt line