topic Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not? in Home Phone

Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 15:13:36 GMT

When I call my old number from my mobile, I get "the person you are calling is unavailable, please leave a message after the tone"

When I call me mobile from my landline an strange number is displayed in my missed calls. Why has my old number not been transferred on 06/12/2021?

And, when I call the strange number on my mobile, I get "this number is not it service".

Wires have been crossed somewhere, please help!

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Baldrick1 — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:03:59 GMT

@22martin

The why not is because, as you suggest, Openreach have screwed up.

I assume that you asked for your old number to be transferred when you switched to Plusnet? It is not retained by default.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:13:52 GMT

Yes, I asked for my old number to be transferred, it's highlighted as such in my welcome contract letter.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:18:28 GMT

Plusnet support have arranged an engineer to call on the 20th of this month, I don't see the point, the issue is clearly not within my 4 walls.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Anoush — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 17:09:05 GMT

Hi there,

The issue may or may not be within the boundaries of your property but arranging a visit is generally a way we begin an engineering investigation into an problem, so they can test from your master socket and work their way back from there to try to get to the bottom of the issue.

I’m surprised you’ve got an engineer visit booked 10 days away as we’d normally be able to arrange within 48 hours, unless of course you’re not available sooner.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 17:25:29 GMT

Hi Anoush, thank you for explaining the work-back procedure. Yes, you are correct, a visit could not be arranged for tomorrow (13th) and my next availability is the 20th. I hope my old number does not expire, this would throw up many security issues with banks and the like. Thanks again.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Anoush — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 18:46:18 GMT

Was your line provisioned with your number? You’ll be able to get an idea if so by checking the Phone tab of your account to see if your number shows up there.

If that’s the case, we’ve ported your number across so it wouldn’t ‘expire’. Fingers crossed the engineer can get to the bottom of the issue for you on the 20th.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 19:34:58 GMT

In my phone control panel, my number is there, yes...Product: Line Only.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Gandalf — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 09:29:29 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @22martin

I've double checked this with our suppliers number porting team and I'm advised that your landline number wasn't automatically released from your previous provider's network as it should've been, so they've emailed them to release it to us. This should mean that you'll be able to receive calls as normal within the next 2 hours.

Can you let me know how it goes?

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 09:55:01 GMT

Thank you G,

Yes, I'll let you know how this progresses. Thanks again for your informed contribution.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Gandalf — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 12:47:15 GMT

No problem @22martin

Could you check if you're able to receive calls now?

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 14:00:11 GMT

Hi G,

No, I can't make calls to my landline number and when I make a call from my landline to my mobile it still registers the alien number.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

TheMightyAJ — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 17:44:56 GMT

Hi @22martin,

I'm sorry to hear that's the case. Perhaps this has been affected by the fault case we're investigating. To that end, it may be worth checking back on this once an update has come through on the fault, but if you have any additional queries or issues in the meantime then please don't hesitate to get back in touch and we'll be happy to help wherever we can.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

shermans — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 19:42:34 GMT

@Gandalf

Having done a splendid job for @22martin, please could I ask you to help me also ? I have spent hours trying to get through to Plusnet on the phone but cannot get through, so I apologise for exploiting @22martin's case, but mine is similar though in reverse.

I have been with Plusnet since the days of Force9, so over 20 years but thanks to Openreach, I have no choice but to part company. I live in a very rural area at the end of the line, and the best broadband I can get with Plusnet is a quasi fibre service which is not to the door but to the cabinet a mile away, and the last mile is copper. My contract is 20 Mb/s but I seldom get more than 14 Mb/s, and it has got to the point where I cannot go on like this any longer. I need a faster, reliable broadband which does not keep dropping out because the broadband is the only possible source of television - again we have a very poor transmitter signal due to our location, so an aerial does not work. Freesat is also a non-starter because the dish installers cannot connect to the satellite due to tall trees. Therefore, broadband is the only solution.

I am moving to Vodafone because they have a 5G mast just a mile away from my house, and they can provide speeds of from 300 Mbps to 1Gbps ! Openreach cannot begin to compete with that.

I have tried to sign up with Vodafone, which was fine until they went to take over the telephone number, when it all ground to a halt. You will appreciate that, having lived in this house for 46 years with the same telephone number , we must keep our existing number because all our friends and acquaintances from the last 46 years know the number, as do many business contacts - it would be unthinkable to lose it. (Actually it had a lot fewer digits when we arrived, and was the only house in the village which did not have a party line, because the previous owner was the doctor !)

But Vodafone advised me that they cannot take over the landline number because Plusnet have locked it and will not release it. I cannot understand why not. I am out of contract and paying month by month. There is no reason why Plusnet should retain the number if I leave. I have escalated this even directly to the Connections Team at Vodafone, who have confirmed that they are powerless to do anything. They said that they are partners with BT and therefore would have no problem taking over the line with BT, but they have no partnership with Plusnet and cannot do anything about it without Plusnet's agreement.

Vodafone have recommended that I should escalate this to Ofcom because it appears to be against competition laws. I do not want to have to do that, but it appears that if I want to keep my telephone number which has been mine for nearly 50 years, I am locked in to Plusnet, of which I was not aware when I joined back in the late 1990's.

I am therefore hoping that you may be able to help me resolve this. I appreciate that my leaving Plusnet after all these years is not what you want to hear, but if Plusnet could match Vodaphone service offering, I would happily stay. The culprit is of course Openreach whose infrastructure is diabolical. Since the storms two weeks ago, the copper cable has been lying on the verge in our lane after it was blown down from the pole. Several neighbours have reported it but nothing has been done, and it is bound to be impacting our broadband service even further - it was bad enough before but now it is hopeless.

Please can you help me in any way to resolve this rather than having to open a case with Ofcom ?

Many thanks.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Gandalf — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 09:08:37 GMT

Thanks for your time on the phone @shermans it was good to speak with you!

I'm really sorry to see Vodafone are having issues importing your landline number.

As discussed I'm glad I was able to get to the bottom of the problem for you and if you ask them to try placing the order again tomorrow, their number port should hopefully go through fine then.

I've also raised a damage report to Openreach for an engineer to investigate the broken cable from the pole. I'd expect an engineer to be assigned within 24 hours and I'll update you Here when I know more.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

shermans — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 18:50:54 GMT

Thanks very much for your help with this. I am very grateful and impressed with how quickly you resolved this for me. As for the Openreach cable, another section has fallen off the pole in the meantime ! There must be about 150 meters now lying on the ground, but I am surprised that the broadband service is not worse.

I do not like having to raise issues in public; it was so much better honestly in the old ticket days !

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

Gandalf — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:55:28 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @shermans

No problem at all, happy to help in any way I can.

Ah that's not good. From what I can see an engineer went out on the 14th December, advising that they've done a temporary repair and raised a task to properly sort things out, as it'd need a hoist and traffic management to close a road off.

It can generally take around 5 working days to arrange this and/or for the work to be completed. I'll check back on the 21st December to follow things up with you and we'll see where we are then.

Feel free to private message me or any of the Help Team listed Here who monitor our community forums to take something privately. Our private messages are drawn into an internal queuing system, a little like a ticket system.

Alternatively, if you have Facebook or Twitter, you can private message us on there.

I've raised a support ticket on your account though, so feel free to reply Here the good ol' fashioned way.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

22martin — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 09:01:27 GMT

Yesterday, engineer support progressed and remedied my landline number issue. I now have full function of landline and broadband services, thanks to all involved.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

adam945 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 11:57:10 GMT

Thanks for letting us know @22martin and I'm really glad to see that this issue has finally been resolved.

Please give us a shout if you need any further assistance with your service.

Re: Old phone number not transferred, why not?

shermans — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 18:40:05 GMT

It is all change again ! I subscribed to the Vodafone Giga-Cube on a 14 day trial, took it home, connected it up which was easy and tried it. Did a number of speed tests over the next two days but was disappointed with the results. Even though we are about 1.5 miles from the mast, and I was supposed to be able to get 40 mbps download as opposed to the 20 mbps max which I get now with Plusnet / Openreach, the performance on the speed test was only 25-30 mbps, presumably due to the terrain between our house and the mast. However, the extra cost was £40 more per month ! In the end, I just could not justify the extra cost, because it is not worth it for such a small improvement in performance and have cancelled under the terms of the trial.

I am out of contract with Plusnet and now have to decide what to do. I am in a rural area where there is fibre to the cabinet a mile away, and from there in copper. The speed is very variable, often 14 mbps but it can be as high as 22 mbps. I do not therefore want to lock myself into a long contract in case Openreach decide to replace the old copper in the lane for the last mile, or, which is more likely, do a deal with Wessex Internet who laid fibre in a field all along the lane about two years ago, but have just announced that they are not going to activate it because there are not enough takers ! The obvious thing is for Openreach to step in, perhaps.

Plusnet have a current offer of £21.99 per month for unlimited broadband with an average download speed of 10 mb. on a 12 month contract. I assume that they would be using the same connection as I currently have, namely the fibre to the cabinet and from there in copper which delivers between 14 mbps and 20 mbps +. It is very variable all the time.

Now the alternative Plusnet package is £24.99 per month, for which I cannot see any reason to pay extra if the service is going to be the same as the £21.99 per month ! I do not mind paying extra if I am going to get extra, but not if the service is going to be exactly the same on the same fibre + copper !

So my question is whether Plusnet deliberately slows down the service for the cheaper price, or actually disconnects the existing fibre to the cabinet, and runs the service all the way from the exchange in the village (another half mile away) to my house only in copper all the way, which I find doubtful ? I appreciate that it is not Plusnet who provides the infrastructure but Openreach.

My preference is to remain with Plusnet because eventually Openreach will install fibre all the way. My alternative is to transfer to Vodafone using the same Openreach infrastructure as I currently have for £19 per month with a guaranteed minimum 19.3 mbps.

What to do ?